There’s no shame in going the extra mile to save money. Or is there? Perhaps couponing and showing up bright and early for deals is one thing, but some people take penny-pinching way too far. Here, people reveal some of the most ridiculous cheapskates they’ve ever seen in public.
All content has been edited for clarity.
The Boastful Cheapskate
“When I was in college, I had a buddy who was very cheap.
He used to save up all his money but went to great lengths to never spend it.
I, on the other hand, was a broke student who would spend his entire paycheck every month. I had no budgeting skills whatsoever.
Parking at the time was a little over two dollars. I would always put it on my Visa and go to class.
My cheap friend, however, always managed to come from the parking lot at the same time as me, and say, ‘Oh I left my wallet at home!’
‘No problem,’ I always said, ‘I’ll pay for your parking.’
My friend would routinely say he forgot his wallet to get me to pay for his parking.
He always said, ‘Oh I’ll get you back!’
Because it was roughly two bucks, I never really call him on it. However, I realized over time how much it added up.
It took me so long to realize he was doing it on purpose.
One time I was getting money out of the ATM and he was with me. I happened to look over and saw him digging through the trash bin next to the ATM.
When I realized what he was doing, I could never look at him the same way again.
My friend was going through the discarded receipts and saying comments like, ‘Oh! I have wayyyy more money than this guy!’
He would pick up each receipt out of the trash and laugh at how poor other people were.
He also bragged about how much money he had in the bank but he never did pay me back for all those parking fares.”
Hold The Phone
“One day our phone went out. It was a landline and this was before cell phones were as ordinary as they are today. We were among the many who didn’t own a cell phone yet. I do not recall the reason our phone was off. It may have been shut off due to a missed payment or it needed repairs.
My mother needed to make an important phone call and wanted me to drive her to a pay phone. The catch was my mother wanted to use a payphone that charged only twenty-five cents for a call. This was also around the time many payphones had increased their prices from twenty-five cents to fifty cents.
I warned my mother that while I knew the locations of many payphones in town, I didn’t know which phones charged fifty cents nor did I know which ones still charged twenty-five cents.
My words, however, were far from discouraging.
Nonetheless, my mother had me drive her all over town looking for an elusive pay phone that charged only twenty-five cents for a call. I took her to several gas stations, the mall, the library, the train station, and a couple of mini-malls, all to no avail.
Each and every time I took her to a phone, my mother would get out of the car, go to the phone, see that it charged fifty cents, and come back to the car full of rage that she would take out on me. Each time she yelled at me, I would remind her that I already told her I didn’t know which pay phones in town still charged only twenty-five cents.
I just wanted to go home!
At one point I couldn’t take it and offered my mother the additional quarter out of my own pocket so she could make her call. Heck, I even offered to give her the full fifty cents. This only made things worse. Instead, my mother barked at me, ‘I’M NOT PAYING FIFTY CENTS FOR A PHONE CALL!!!’
We were still driving around when my mother spotted a pay phone in the parking lot of a fast food joint. She pointed to it and told me to pull in so she could see what the pay phone charged. It charged only twenty-five cents for a call.
Hallelujah, our search was over. I couldn’t contain my excitement.
My mother made her call and returned to the car triumphantly telling me, ‘See? I told you there was a phone that charged only twenty-five cents!’
I didn’t tell her this, but in her quest to find a twenty-five cents pay phone, we burned up several dollars worth of gas. The drive back home from the fast food place was going to cost about an additional fifty cents worth of gas, easy.
All to save a lousy twenty-five cents on a pay phone.”
An Eighth Of A Decent Person
I had a friend who was notorious for being cheap.
At parties or potlucks, she would monitor how much people took of what she brought and scolded them for taking too much. Ironically, she would also bring Tupperware and bring home all the leftovers. She never even considered giving people a chance to take their own food home. To make matters worse, she would start piling the food in her Tupperware halfway through the party. We finally called her out on it and stopped inviting her to such events.
One night, a big group of us went to a Brazilian steak house in celebration of one of our friends. We all agreed to pay for ourselves and split our friend’s tab because that’s what normal nice people do.
My friend and I had actually won gift cards to the restaurant at an event we went to, so we were actually going to pay for everyone as a surprise.
As soon as we got there, my cheap friend made a big deal about separating tabs and making sure the server knew she was only paying for her and her husband and 1/8th of our friend.
The way she was acting was totally ridiculous.
My other friend and I said nothing about the gift cards. At this point, all of us except my cheapo friend and her husband were ordering drinks and an appetizer. We were trying to simply enjoy the meal, but it was hard with her losing her mind about the 1/8th she had to pay for our friend. She made it seem like such a burden and didn’t have any shame in hiding it.
Before the bill came, the waiter asked how we planned on splitting the bill.
My cheapo friend was livid that our friend had two drinks and a dessert that she had to pay an 8th of. None of us cared because we were there to have fun and celebrate.
Finally, I tell my cheapo friend ‘I’ll pay her 8th.’
Almost immediately she looked visibly relieved and said she was ‘just being fair.’
That’s when I revealed my intended method of payment. When she found out how I was paying, she became even more enraged. I was paying for everyone except the cheapo and her husband and handed over the gift cards. The look on that cheapskate’s face was priceless. The cards were even enough to cover tips because we didn’t have to pay for my cheap friend and her husband’s dinners.
They couldn’t believe we wouldn’t pay for theirs. Suddenly, they began to argue how ‘unfair it was.’
We never went out to dinner with them again.”
Meal On Wheels
“When I was a kid, my parents took me along to have a sit-down dinner one night. I can’t remember why they brought me instead of hiring a babysitter. However, it was made very clear that I had to behave myself or else.
As it turned out, they were having dinner with a neighbor who was a sports announcer on a small local TV station. I later learned that he was recently divorced.
Thanks to some Hot Wheels smuggled in my pockets, I made it through the night without spilling anything or succumbing to boredom.
My parents paid for dinner and the sportscaster made a big showing about paying the tip with cash. This is when I learned about how the tip helps waiters and waitresses. After the bill was settled, my parents and the neighbor sat and talked while I tried not to fidget.
When it was time to leave, my parents got up and the sportscaster went to use the men’s room. Before we were out the door I realized I left a couple of nice Hot Wheels on the table and told my dad I had to go back and get them.
Once I made it back into the dining room, I saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks.
I saw the sportscaster scooping up the tip money before stuffing it in his pockets with a scowl on his ugly mug. He was totally oblivious to me watching from the doorway.
I quickly retreated to where my parents were waiting and didn’t say a word.
Silently, I hoped the pretty waitress had a kid that would like my toy car.”
Same Stuff, Different Day
“I used to work in a cafe, and to say we got the strangest customers is an understatement.
There was an older lady who would come in nearly every day, but she would only approach the register when there was someone new on the till.
The woman would ask to ‘try our coffee of the day’ in a small cup but never paid for it. Instead, once she had an ounce of coffee, she would add her own water to it.
So, free coffee? CHECK.
Then the woman would order a cookie. She would sit, eat some of the cookie, and wait until someone new was on till. Once she had her next victim in her sights, she would go by and say, ‘The cookie was incredibly dry, I’d like my money back please.’
Because we were always busy, whoever was on till would happily oblige without a second thought. The woman would then sit back down, and finish both cookies.
The messed up part was how she did it so infrequently that it was really hard to pinpoint her, and we weren’t always on the lookout. The woman always would get a free watered-down coffee and a damn cookie for free. It ticked me off WAY too much because no one else seemed to remember it was the same lady every time.”
That’s Not Enough!
“A guy who dined at a restaurant chain I worked for called the corporate office because the check was split half and half but the suggested gratuity didn’t adjust for the split check. Our till never has and probably never will adjust the amount, at least not within our control.
The customer didn’t bother to actually do any mental math, nor did the other party, and apparently, both of them ended up tipping the suggested amount instead of using their brains.
Corporate offered a refund of his entire tip, but that just wasn’t good enough for the guy, apparently.
While on the phone, the customer went on to complain that he wanted the other party’s card refunded for the meal. His argument? Well, the guy started complaining about a number of other ‘unsatisfactory’ incidents that allegedly happened during their time in the restaurant. Due to that, he then stated that he and the other party should be refunded entirely, for a dinner that was close to two-hundred bucks after all was said and done.
First off, it was painfully obvious the guy was building a bogus story just to say he should get comped one hundred percent of the bill. The customer spent a crazy amount of time on the phone blabbering to my colleague.
Secondly, asking for a refund for someone else’s credit card is not how it works.
I didn’t hear the final outcome, but last I knew, there were no plans to refund this fool for anything more than the tip.”
“Boy Was He Ever Cheap”
“Back when I was in university, a couple of friends and I would often hang out at a certain bar. One guy, Chris, never had cash and always wanted to pay on his credit card. This was back when people actually carried cash and used to get one bill for a table that you had to split up yourselves.
So anyway, my other friend and I would just give Chris cash and he would go and settle the bill.
Here’s where the cheapskate part comes in:
Say the bill was sixty bucks split three ways: My friend and I would each put in at most twenty-four dollars which was our share, plus a reasonable tip and Chris would then take that cash up to the till to pay the entire bill on his credit card leaving like a five percent tip.
Chris was taking our tips and using them to pay part of his bill, meaning he was only playing fifteen bucks give or take while the rest of us were paying over twenty dollars.
We eventually figured out what was happening and my friend, who used to work as a server got really upset with Chris.
After that, we started insisting on separate bills whenever Chris was around.
He was a good guy and we liked hanging out with him, but man was he ever super cheap.
Fun fact: When he got engaged his fiancee was mortified and started making him tip like a normal person so he’s much better now.”
“Poor Customer Service”
“This story comes secondhand from my parents who would not exaggerate or lie:
My parents are good friends with another couple. The wife is extremely cheap.
They made plans to go to a Mexican restaurant with my parents a week in advance.
The cheap lady called on Cinco de Mayo to make reservations for them. Unsurprisingly, a Mexican restaurant was too busy to answer the phone on Cinco de Mayo, so it went to an answering machine. When the cheap lady arrived, she yelled at the hostess that not answering a phone is no way to run a business and demanded a free appetizer for the inconvenience.
The restaurant gave in, and she then demanded another free appetizer because there were two couples, hence, two appetizers were needed. The restaurant reluctantly provided them with the appetizers.
The cheap lady ordered a margarita. The menu clearly stated certain flavors were a dollar extra. When the bill arrived, she raised a big stink over the extra one-dollar charge and demanded they remove it, but if I recall the story correctly, they did not give in to that request.
After they ate, the cheap lady told the waitress it was my mother’s birthday and hers so they should get a free dessert.
It wasn’t even close to their birthdays.
My parents are also pretty sure she didn’t tip or didn’t tip enough. Therefore, they always overtip when going out with the cheap lady.”
The Boastful Cheapskate
“When I was in college, I had a buddy who was very cheap.
He used to save up all his money but went to great lengths to never spend it.
I, on the other hand, was a broke student who would spend his entire paycheck every month. I had no budgeting skills whatsoever.
Parking at the time was a little over two dollars. I would always put it on my Visa and go to class.
My cheap friend, however, always managed to come from the parking lot at the same time as me, and say, ‘Oh I left my wallet at home!’
‘No problem,’ I always said, ‘I’ll pay for your parking.’
My friend would routinely say he forgot his wallet to get me to pay for his parking.
He always said, ‘Oh I’ll get you back!’
Because it was roughly two bucks, I never really call him on it. However, I realized over time how much it added up.
It took me so long to realize he was doing it on purpose.
One time I was getting money out of the ATM and he was with me. I happened to look over and saw him digging through the trash bin next to the ATM.
When I realized what he was doing, I could never look at him the same way again.
My friend was going through the discarded receipts and saying comments like, ‘Oh! I have wayyyy more money than this guy!’
He would pick up each receipt out of the trash and laugh at how poor other people were.
He also bragged about how much money he had in the bank but he never did pay me back for all those parking fares.”
Not So Special Delivery
“I took a double one night during a rush at the pizza place I worked for. On the first stop, the customer paid with a fifty-dollar bill and wanted fifteen bucks back in change. This left me with five dollars out of the twenty dollars in change I was allowed to carry.
At the next stop, the customer met me in front of his house for an order that was ten bucks and some change. I cringed when he handed me a twenty. I briefly explained the situation involving the previous order taking most of my change. After I told the customer that all I had was five dollars, he said, ‘Oh. Well, don’t worry about it, then.’ So I thanked him and drove back to the store.
I arrived back at the restaurant a little less than five minutes later and was told I had to go back and give him the rest of his change because he called in and complained.
I had to get some change first, of course. Then the manager realized what the problem was.
The customer hadn’t mentioned I gave him all I had and made it sound like I had stolen his money. The guy who took the call relayed to me that he said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, I’m sure he just thought it was a tip.’
To my surprise, the customer replied, ‘Hmm, I never even thought of that.’
I believe he never even thought of tipping.
I brought him back his four dollars and change before my next delivery. I had to go through a gate and knock on the front door of his residence. I heard a number of large barking dogs and a voice shouted, ‘Hold on, I need to go around.’
So I still had to wait several minutes for someone to go out the back door and around to the front for reasons I don’t even want to know.
‘Here’s the rest of your change.’ I gave him the money and quickly started walking back to my car. That’s when the customer tried to apologize before offering me the coins from the cash I had to bring back.
I had to force myself not to chew his head off before I declined. I wouldn’t have taken any tip from him at that point, let alone an insulting one.”
Waste Not Want Not
“My great-grandmother was probably the cheapest person I ever knew.
One time we took her to a huge family reunion picnic. Instead of cooking on the terrible public BBQ grills in the park that were always covered in bird feces, we brought in several huge buckets of KFC, coleslaw, and other sides.
Later, after everyone was done eating we all sat around chit-chatting and visiting with family members we hadn’t seen in a while. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my great-grandmother sit down in front of the table where all the food was.
She started rummaging through her purse. Before I could stop her, my great-grandmother pulled off her cheapest stunt yet.
She pulled several Ziploc bags out of her handbag and started filling them up with the leftover KFC chicken. My grandmother then put the bagged food right in her purse, looking quite pleased with herself.
She saw me looking at her and shrugged, ‘There’s enough in here that I won’t need to cook anything for a week! Nothing wrong with that!’
What could I say? So long as she refrigerated it properly, it would probably be fine to eat.
When my great-grandmother passed, we found three giant totes of all the clothes we’d ever bought her for Christmas and birthdays with the tags still on. She refused to wear new clothes when her old ones hadn’t quite been worn out enough to be discarded.
I also remember how she complained about her purse smelling like chicken for weeks after the reunion. Boy was my great-grandmother cheap, but we all had a good laugh.”
Extra Butter
“I was working at a pizza place in my twenties. We had a regular customer who absolutely sucked. She would consistently order just barely enough to require us to deliver and have us bring her food to her in her cubicle instead of meeting us at the front doors of the building. The customer would complain nonstop, and to top it all off, she was an excessively poor tipper.
This cheapskate customer eventually ended up complaining during my shift one day. I busted my tail there for low wages while most of the teenage staff slacked off for most of the shifts, so to have her complain about me was infuriating.
At some point, she learned the name of the district manager who was quite frankly a waste of oxygen. The cheapskate and the manager of the store came over to me after a complaint from the customer one day about there was not enough butter on her recently delivered sandwich she didn’t tip for.
It was I that delivered the sandwich. I figured I was to redeliver the food and move on.
Ultimately, the issue was that I was accused of making her food wrong, but I wasn’t the original cook. The cheapskate customer insisted it should be remade with extra butter. I started explaining I didn’t cook her sub but the district manager wasn’t having it.
The district manager then started berating me in front of the employee who actually messed it up and my manager who didn’t have a backbone watched in silence as I had to remake ‘my’ mess-up to be sure that it was done properly.
I was nearly finished remaking the cheap customer’s sub before suddenly the district manager and my manager were called to deal with something else.
When I saw they weren’t looking, I went absolutely nuts on the butter on top of the sub. I even lifted the top half of the sandwich and slathered it with thousands of calories worth of butter before wrapping it up.
I didn’t even bother hiding my evil grin after handing off the sandwich to be delivered.
Afterward, the cheapskate customer called the restaurant and told the district manager that the sandwich I had to remake was the best one she ever had.
Then she never ordered food for us again.”
The Longest Car Ride
“A long time ago when I was about twelve or thirteen, my aunt and her family were coming to see us. She was known to be a bit on the cheap side, but from everyone’s knowledge at the time, nothing too crazy.
The trip, which should’ve taken eight hours, took about twelve.
Why?
My aunt was driving super slow because she thought that would save on gas. When they finally arrived it was mid-afternoon on a hot summer day.
I realized something was amiss when my aunt pulled in and all three of my cousins got out of the car drenched in sweat. She had driven twelve hours without air conditioning and the windows were barely cracked because she thought it would save fuel too.
I rushed my cousins into our house and got them each a bottle of water which they consumed instantly.
My dad yelled at her for being an idiot and endangering her kids. While it wasn’t as hot that day, the next day hit a high for that summer: one hundred and seven degrees.”
The Hungry Gambler
“I was a dealer for a while at a casino.
A regular I used to see always played in the high-stakes game room. In these rooms, people bought in from a minimum of two thousand to play games.
When you played poker, the room would give you two bucks an hour that you could use to buy food. This guy played every day for hours and hours. He probably had over a thousand bucks on his player’s card that he could have used for food.
There was a spot by the room where people would go and put their food away when they were finished eating.
When there were a few plates piled up, the guy would go over to that section of the room and grab a plate of leftover food before he went through all of the other plates to collect leftovers. He would pile tons of half-eaten food on the plate he was using. It was one of the strangest most disgusting behaviors in a casino I had ever seen and I’ve seen some crazy stuff in a casino.
It completely baffled me that he would rather eat other people’s leftover food rather than spend his reward points and get something fresh.
Here’s the kicker: He drove a Jaguar and lived in a gated community on a golf course.”
