Stingiest things thread(op for R&R access)

Paddy Cow

roofer1988 wrote: »

Guy i know brings a thermos flask to work, and sells the hot water out reckons he making a fortune.He on about buying a second flask

If he buys a kettle he'll make an absolute fortune.

mailliw_11

Sir Arthur Daley wrote: »

People think they can live forever, my opinion is you can't take it with you so you may as well enjoy it while you can.

no shops in heaven biy!

BeerSteakBirds

mailliw_11 wrote: »

no shops in heaven biy!

traditionally heaven was just a myth to keep the poor people passive and waiting for their pay day not in this life while the stingy people enjoyed life right now while ripping them off

ToddyDoody

Remember getting a drink from a friend years ago. He was quite particular about the glass i took as mine had water, his had 7up.

kylith

Doge wrote: »

I never mentioned this before to anyone but some of the people in the following forum sicken me!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1530

And i dont mean people who use coupons, im talking some of the hardcore frugallers reusing and washing cloth nappies and things to save a few quid.

All the more power to them if they can do it i suppose, better for the environment and all that!

Nothing wrong with cloth nappies, other than the ick factor. They're a lot more eco friendly than the disposable ones.

John_D80

Not sure if this is an example of stinginess or just a case of someone being a complete prick.

Grocery shopping the the other day, just arrived back to my car in an underground car park to unload my shopping. There was an elderly lady a few spaces down from me just finishing putting her shopping away. We exchanged pleasantries as I passed her. She wasn't totally ancient(70's I'd guess) but you could tell by her movements that she wasn't overly mobile. Maybe arthritis or back pain or something like that.

Anywho, as I was unloading my shopping, I heard a man offer to return her trolley to the bay for her. Nice guy I thought to myself. We nodded a hello at each as he passed me pushing her trolley. Just happened to be watching in his direction as pushed the trolley back into the row and pocketed her Euro coin and started to walk away!!! I turned around to the old lady and I knew by the look on her face that she wasn't expecting him to do that so I called out to him to come back. I walked to meet him and challenged him over it.

He basically tried to make a case to me that he returned her trolley for her so he got to keep the euro as if it was a socially accepted norm. He was actually quite shocked that I had never heard of this before. It's not really a thing is it??

With the help of a few F-words I told him to hand over the euro, which he did and I gave it back to the lady who in fairness was very appreciative, more of the fact that someone stood up for her than the saving of a euro I got the impression. For my part I was well shocked as he looked like a decent guy, a working man in overalls, mechanic maybe judging by the stains, about my own age (mid-thirties). Basically not the 'sort' you would expect to try a stunt like that.

They come in all shapes and sizes I guess.

JillyQ

John_D80 wrote: »

Not sure if this is an example of stinginess or just a case of someone being a complete prick.

Grocery shopping the the other day, just arrived back to my car in an underground car park to unload my shopping. There was an elderly lady a few spaces down from me just finishing putting her shopping away. We exchanged pleasantries as I passed her. She wasn't totally ancient(70's I'd guess) but you could tell by her movements that she wasn't overly mobile. Maybe arthritis or back pain or something like that.

Anywho, as I was unloading my shopping, I heard a man offer to return her trolley to the bay for her. Nice guy I thought to myself. We nodded a hello at each as he passed me pushing her trolley. Just happened to be watching in his direction as pushed the trolley back into the row and pocketed her Euro coin and started to walk away!!! I turned around to the old lady and I knew by the look on her face that she wasn't expecting him to do that so I called out to him to come back. I walked to meet him and challenged him over it.

He basically tried to make a case to me that he returned her trolley for her so he got to keep the euro as if it was a socially accepted norm. He was actually quite shocked that I had never heard of this before. It's not really a thing is it??

With the help of a few F-words I told him to hand over the euro, which he did and I gave it back to the lady who in fairness was very appreciative, more of the fact that someone stood up for her than the saving of a euro I got the impression. For my part I was well shocked as he looked like a decent guy, a working man in overalls, mechanic maybe judging by the stains, about my own age (mid-thirties). Basically not the 'sort' you would expect to try a stunt like that.

They come in all shapes and sizes I guess.

thats not stingy thats theft plain & simple

MsBubbles

ah here that's low taking money from an OAP, My MIL is 79 and I would hate to think someone would be be so mean.

LynnGrace

It would make you wonder does he do that on a regular basis, mean yoke pulling a stunt on an elderly person, under the guise of being helpful.

John_D80

LynnGrace wrote: »

It would make you wonder does he do that on a regular basis, mean yoke pulling a stunt on an elderly person, under the guise of being helpful.

Speaking to him, I genuinely got the impression that he felt somehow entitled to the Euro and he certainly didn't see it as being a case of him basically stealing from the lady. That's why it qualified to me as semi-stinginess considering that he was bring so petty over a Euro.

Also he only very grudgingly handed it over to me, and probably wouldn't have at all only for that he realised I was very very ticked off over it.

jack of all

John_D80 wrote: »

Speaking to him, I genuinely got the impression that he felt somehow entitled to the Euro and he certainly didn't see it as being a case of him basically stealing from the lady. That's why it qualified to me as semi-stinginess considering that he was bring so petty over a Euro.

Also he only very grudgingly handed it over to me, and probably wouldn't have at all only for that he realised I was very very ticked off over it.

Makes you wonder what other kinds of liberties a chap like that might take from day to day.

LynnGrace

Gillo wrote: »

Quite the opposite but a guy I used to work with brought a 2 litre bottle to work every day and filled it from the Ballygown machine in work so he'd have "posh" water at home.

I've heard of this though haven't personally witnessed it.

STG.Otaku

This afternoon I was at the local Topaz. Saw two lads washing a van with the free water tap at the tyre pump machine.

The time and effort it was taking them to wash it down you'd have thought they'd just pay the few bob for a jet wash.

Some people...

ProudDUB

kylith wrote: »

Nothing wrong with cloth nappies, other than the ick factor. They're a lot more eco friendly than the disposable ones.

Yep. Disposable nappies are only around since the 60's. Anyone here over the age of 40, probably had their bums swaddled in cloth nappies, that their saint of a mother washed by hand, in the days before washing machines. They work out A LOT cheaper than disposables too. It's just that most people these days can't be bothered dealing with the mess & the washing.

qdawg86

kylith wrote: »

Nothing wrong with cloth nappies, other than the ick factor. They're a lot more eco friendly than the disposable ones.

Totally agree. Disposable nappies are gross- piles of them filing up land fills. Where do people think these bags of **** go ???

Cloth nappies all the way

Intensive Care Bear

My friend started a new job during the week, the lady she is working for asked her to make sure she charges her phone before she comes to the house because she doesn't want her wasting her electricity, she also wouldn't give her the wifi code for fear of that running up the electricity bill.

colossus-x

I house shared in Dublin some 2 years ago. One of the flatmates , a girl in her early twenties told us in conversation that she spent 15 euros on food a week. We were flabbergasted how she managed this. I subsequently observed she had panda chocolate on toast for breakfast and for dinner had oven chips every day. So that's how you do it. She was horribly obese. She had a good job in AIB. Later on she bought a new bicycle for commuting to work. Motivated to save on public transport costs no doubt. Cost her 300 or so. The lock she bought for it I noticed was extremely thin with a tiny key and resembled one I saw in a 2euro shop once. The bike didn't' last a week before it was stolen.

In the same house we had a gas system for heating and hot water. With the non-stingy flat mates ( 4 of us ) the summer gas bill was a fiver a month each. That gave us hot water for the kitchen and bathroom sink. When the stingy flat mates moved in there was no way the gas was to be turned on at all for any reason during the summer. Madness in their view. Dishes would be washed in cold water, they wouldn't' dry naturally because of that but never mind a fiver a month was saved for the 3 months of summer. It wasn't just that it was their whole attitude was "we're only here to save save save that's what this flat sharing thing is all about". They just made me sick really - horrible people.

Finally I have a mate thats hard of hearing. He needed a remote control to turn the subtitles on on his TV and needed a new one. I said I know where to get one so we hopped into his car and drove 10 miles to the town and went to the knick-knack electronics store. They had 2 of these all-in-one universal remotes. One was 1.50e and the other was 2.75. There was more buttons on the 2.75 one so I advised to get that one as the cheaper one probably wouldn't work. He shouted back at me a bit abruptly "F**K THAT" and I was taken aback by his sudden change of demeanor - I was only trying to help. We got home and we couldn't get the 1.50 remote to work as I had earlier warned. He jumped back in his car to make the 10 mile journey I guess primarily to get his 1.50 back asap. In general he talks about money in this way. 10e = 50euro. 50 euro = 150euro. 200 euro = 700 euro and so on. Very tedious. I'd hate to be like that myself and even worse for people to think I was that way. Every so often to wind him up I say "buy cheep buy twice" when something of his breaks like the zip on his pennies hoody - I just sit back and watch him turn blue.

Markcheese

ProudDUB wrote: »

Yep. Disposable nappies are only around since the 60's. Anyone here over the age of 40, probably had their bums swaddled in cloth nappies, that their saint of a mother washed by hand, in the days before washing machines. They work out A LOT cheaper than disposables too. It's just that most people these days can't be bothered dealing with the mess & the washing.

We got reusable nappies for our smallies , and especially in winter when your tumble drying them ,add in the boil wash and the cost of buying the stupid things I reckon disposible are probably cheaper... And leak less... So stingey people take note..

ProudDUB

1210m5g wrote: »

My friend started a new job during the week, the lady she is working for asked her to make sure she charges her phone before she comes to the house because she doesn't want her wasting her electricity, she also wouldn't give her the wifi code for fear of that running up the electricity bill.

That is bloody stupid doing that for just one phone. But a lot of coffee shops & such are starting to get conscious of customers running up their electric bills, so they are removing electric sockets from their customer seating areas now. They don't mind giving you free wifi, as it get you in the door. But they ain't gonna pay for you to charge your laptop AND your iPad AND your phone while you were there. I was in a coffee shop a few days ago, and there was a lad with his own 3 plug adaptor, plugged into the one socket in the wall. He was running at least 3 devices off it. If I was the owner of that shop & I was responsible for paying the leccy bill, I would have told him to fcuk right off.

Markcheese wrote: »

We got reusable nappies for our smallies , and especially in winter when your tumble drying them ,add in the boil wash and the cost of buying the stupid things I reckon disposible are probably cheaper... And leak less... So stingey people take note..

Diaper delivery services are quite popular in the US. It is quite the trendy thing to do, if you are being eco friendly. They pick up your dirty cloth nappies, launder them for you and drop them back to you, all nice and shiny. A friend of mine uses one of the services and she says it still works out at about half of what she would spend on disposables. She then doesn't have to deal with any of the messy laundry. The only down side is the stockpile of smelly nappies stinking out the garage for a couple of days, waiting to get picked up.

Capt'n Midnight

ProudDUB wrote: »

I was in a coffee shop a few days ago, and there was a lad with his own 3 plug adaptor, plugged into the one socket in the wall. He was running at least 3 devices off it. If I was the owner of that shop & I was responsible for paying the leccy bill, I would have told him to fcuk right off

A 50 Watt laptop charger would use 1c of electricity an hour. Mobile phone / USB chargers would use a tenth of that.

ProudDUB

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

A 50 Watt laptop charger would use 1c of electricity an hour. Mobile phone / USB chargers would use a tenth of that.

Maybe so, but multiply that by several customers, using several devices, on several sockets, 12-16 hrs a day, 7 days a week & it all starts to add up, for the person paying the electric bill. It is becoming a trend for some coffee shops to stop letting customers charge their devices when they are in their premises.

Frynge

ProudDUB wrote: »

Maybe so, but multiply that by several customers, using several devices, on several sockets, 12-16 hrs a day, 7 days a week & it all starts to add up, for the person paying the electric bill. It is becoming a trend for some coffee shops to stop letting customers charge their devices when they are in their premises.

If that is the case, then it is only becoming a trend for clueless coffee shop owners. If they changed a few bulbs to LED they would completely cover the cost.

krudler

ProudDUB wrote: »

Maybe so, but multiply that by several customers, using several devices, on several sockets, 12-16 hrs a day, 7 days a week & it all starts to add up, for the person paying the electric bill. It is becoming a trend for some coffee shops to stop letting customers charge their devices when they are in their premises.

Even at all that rate it'd probably amount to less than the cost of one coffee in some places :pac:

Vivara

ProudDUB wrote: »

Maybe so, but multiply that by several customers, using several devices, on several sockets, 12-16 hrs a day, 7 days a week & it all starts to add up, for the person paying the electric bill. It is becoming a trend for some coffee shops to stop letting customers charge their devices when they are in their premises.

Maybe it's not the guy with the three-plug adaptor who's the stingy one?

Capt'n Midnight

ProudDUB wrote: »

Maybe so, but multiply that by several customers, using several devices, on several sockets, 12-16 hrs a day, 7 days a week & it all starts to add up, for the person paying the electric bill. It is becoming a trend for some coffee shops to stop letting customers charge their devices when they are in their premises.

By the time you add in the employers contributions it's about one thousandth the hourly of the cost of hiring a minimum wage employee.

Less if you more staff or pay them a decent wage.

And again USB/mobile phone chargers would use less than a tenth of this amount.

It's back to the old days of expecting people to pay through the nose for Wifi when cleaning the toilets cost far more.


As long as the customers keep buying stuff and aren't hogging the spaces they should be allowed.


And by the way the trend in Airports is to offer free charging points so travellers won't like coffee shops that buck this trend.

foxy farmer

I knew an oul fella who was fierce tight. Would go to local pub at weekend when there was music and dance. He'd wait till it was well underway before going in as he'd get in for half price. Was noted for never buying a drink. He'd give it socks for a bit and then say he was going out for a breath of fresh air. He'd actually head into the jax and proceed to drink the water out of the cold tap in the sink. When he died he left close to €1m in cash after him.

Locomotion

When back in college, I went to a charity drinks thing in town. (all admission fees and 10% of the bar tab would be donated to charity). Admission was €5 if you were in before 11pm and €7 if you were in after that. Few cans in the house beforehand and this mate of mine was practically pushing people out the door to make sure we got there before 11pm. We arrived around 10:55 but there was a queue to get in. By the time we got to the top of the queue, it was after 11 and we were told it would be €7 each.

My mate then berated the poor girl at the door who was collecting cash giving out that he had arrived on time, flyer said before 11pm, terms and conditions blah blah blah. We all paid our €7 and headed in while he argued with this girl and the bouncers. He eventually texted us saying he was 'grabbing a bus home cos that was ridiculous!'.

Suffice to say, we didn't stay close after college

Fishyfreak

On holidays, 2 couples. We went for a meal in this really nice restaurant. The country was relatively poor, so the meal was dirt cheap.

End of the meal, 3 of us put our money in, the cost of the meal plus a generous tip for the staff. The 4th person tried to only put in the difference to make our payment equal the exact bill. Basically, our tips were subsidising his meal!!

His partner made an absolute show of him for it, awkward at the team but hilarious when i think back now. Stingy sh*te!

civis_liberalis

Fishyfreak wrote: »

His partner made an absolute show of him for it, awkward at the team but hilarious when i think back now. Stingy sh*te!

Awkward? I'd be bloody delighted. We're too soft on people like that. Fairplay to her.

colossus-x

Fishyfreak wrote: »

On holidays, 2 couples. We went for a meal in this really nice restaurant. The country was relatively poor, so the meal was dirt cheap.

End of the meal, 3 of us put our money in, the cost of the meal plus a generous tip for the staff. The 4th person tried to only put in the difference to make our payment equal the exact bill. Basically, our tips were subsidizing his meal!!

His partner made an absolute show of him for it, awkward at the team but hilarious when i think back now. Stingy sh*te!

I did a few years working tables in restaurants and this type of thing would happens from time to time. It happened to be on my very first table on my very first night of work on a busy Saturday night. On a table of about maybe 20 or so everyone paid an even 25 quid on the credit card mostly , some cash, as decided by someone in the group. When all was paid some bird cheerps up asking me to give them there change. I was completely mithered after my quite hard nights work having to learn a million and one new things in one evening. Anyway I said I didn't know what she was talking about. She got a bit stroppy ( was a bit tipsy ) but I insisted I didn't' have any change. She reluctantly gave up - even the manager had to get involved.

Anyway when I counted up my cash at the end of the night I had a surplus of about 30 quid. I was wrong - she was right I did have change. So whomever divided the bill to 25 quid rounded it up of course. Point is she either wanted it for herself or would rather see everyone get like 2 quid back than let me have it. I was being paid 2 quid per hour gross. My tips were my income, not treats.