'The company I work for won't buy us pens': 20+ Cheapskates who couldn't resist saving every penny

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 13, 2023 5:00 PM EDT

There's being frugal, and then there are these people, who have let their penny-pinching get a bit out of hand. In a thread started by u/curcigm, more than 17k people shared their funniest stories of "levels of cheapness" that astonished them. The OP started it off with their own eyebrow-raising story — their GF's mom revealed that her birthday dinner was going to be year-old leftovers from a rehearsal dinner. It's one thing to eat very old food, but it's a whole other thing to brag about it and tell your guests just what they're snacking on. 

For people who grew up during or just after Depression times, saving every penny was very important. But it can lead to some quirky habits that can quickly spiral out of control. I've had my own experiences eating very out of date lunchmeat and cheese (as a kid I didn't notice or care…but I do now!). Some people really do go by the edict of, "If it's not moldy, it's okay to eat," which is safer for some foods than others. 

Check out these people's most eye-opening stories of frugality that pushed the limit. Up next, this person revealed the one thing you should never say while talking to customer service representatives. 

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  • 01
    Organism - ChrissyKat My mom had a boyfriend that would pull the stems off of cherries before purchasing them from the grocery store because he felt they'd weigh less without the stems and he'd get more for the money. Bin hardtoremember A lady I used to know was thrown out of a buffet for filling her purse with food. She was actually offended and called the manager!
    via Dan Dennis on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - What levels of cheapness have astonished you? My girlfriend invited me to her mothers birthday dinner and tonight she revealed to me we would be dining on left overs from her brothers rehearsal dinner a year ago. Maybe saving left overs for work the next day, but a year later wtf.
    via u/curciogm
  • 03
    Font - + [deleted] At my friends house in the second grade I was only allowed to charge my gameboy for 30 seconds because electricity was too expensive.
    via u/deleted
  • 04
    Font - ▸ [deleted] My 10th birthday present from my grandmother was a single expired McDonald's coupon.
    via u/deleted
  • 05
    Font - Acetylene When I was a little kid I used to spend summers at my grandparents' house, and one of my chores was to set the table before dinner every night. Whenever we were having company over for dinner, I was instructed to use "the good napkins." That meant the napkins that didn't have restaurant logos printed on them. We only went to restaurants when my grandmother felt she could come out ahead on the deal, and there were many ways to accomplish this. She clipped coupons, of course, but
    via u/Acetylene
  • 06
    Font - did anything for someone, she'd get them to take her to dinner to "return the favor." She had an enormous purse, which generally came back stuffed with napkins and food from the buffet. She didn't see much point in going to any restaurant that didn't at least have a salad bar. One year, when my mother and I offered to take her to dinner for her birthday, we ended up having to drive over an hour to get to a Sizzler she hadn't been banned from.
    via u/Acetylene
  • 07
    Font - GhostonaRune My 13 year old daughter was invited to a small birthday party at a mediocre chain restaurant (Ruby Tuesdays) for her best friend. The girlfriend is over here quite often, and regularly eats dinner, breakfast, lunch etc. if she is here, and sleeps over about twice a week during the summertime. She's been included to trips to the amusement park and water park nearby (We have season tickets, but there is always something to eat, funnel cakes, etc.), movies, and the occasional tr
    via u/GhostonaRune
  • 08
    Font - way. We treat her as one of our own. Imagine my disgust when my daughter calls me from the restaurant bathroom, nearly in tears, telling me that they just told her she will have to pick up her own check- after dinner and desert have been served. (Check was like, $13.00) The guy actually said separate checks to the waitress, but my daughter didn't know what that meant. She had a few bucks on her but she was short about five bucks. The other girl's father told my daughter that she would "ha
    via u/GhostonaRune
  • 09
    Font - them or something. I have the parent's cell phone numbers, called him and asked him real nice like if he could spot her ten bucks until he brought her home, and I would pay him back. He refused, and made it like somehow my daughter and I were scamming him. He suggested that I call the front desk and square it away, because they were leaving, and were going to leave my daughter there if she couldn't pay so he wouldn't "Have the cops chasing him down on his daughter's birthday." I did call
    via u/GhostonaRune
  • 10
    Font - anywhere. When I got there, a clown was trying to get my daughter to leave with his family, now that the bill was paid. His daughter was in tears. Needless to say, it got ugly.
    via u/GhostonaRune
  • 11
    Font - whatev3691 At my local Dunkin' Donuts you have to ask the workers specifically if you want a packet of sugar/Sweet 'n' Low or one of those little half and half containers because the senior citizens in the area used to come in and take them all so they wouldn't have to buy them in the store and the workers had to take them all away.
    via u/whatev3691
  • 12
    Font - Thespud1979 My aunt and uncle were visiting with their two kids. My uncle asked me if I wanted go to Freindly's for ice cream. He bought himself and his two kids ice cream then asked if I had money for myself. I was 9 so I did not have any money. He said "too bad" and started back towards his car. I realized, he just needed me for direction.
    via u/Thespud1979
  • 13
    Font - ChrissyKat My mom had a boyfriend that would pull the stems off of cherries before purchasing them from the grocery store because he felt they'd weigh less without the stems and he'd get more for the money.
    via u/ChrissyKat
  • 14
    Font - Ref101010 A friend (who used to work at a supermarket) once told me about a customer who used to peel bananas before he bought them, for the same reason...
    via u/Ref101010
  • 15
    Font - DrDebG A group of folks went out for dinner at a convention, and several people had leftovers. When we returned, one of the people who had not been able to get out to dinner was bummed, so one of the diners said, "Well, I have some leftovers, if you'd like them." "Sure!" "Okay, my meal was $10, and there's about half of it left, so you owe me..." No, I am not kidding. No, it was not me.
    via u/DrDebG
  • 16
    Font - katzilla9 In my department where I work, I always have a small basket of candy (jolly ranchers, tootsie rolls, life savers) out for my customers. Most are most appreciative and ask "are these free?" and take one, maybe two and thank me for the candy. Then there are some customers..who just walk up and take HANDFULLS of the candy. Once I had an older man dump the entire thing into his man purse, look straight at me and walk out.
    via u/katzilla9
  • 17
    Font - Massif_centrale I knew a farmer who only had one lightbulb, he would carry it around with him all the time. Taking it from one room to another if he needed to.
    via u/Massif_centrale
  • 18
    Font - Falcon Punchline The company I work for won't buy us pens. ឋ 2.2k Share HMN142 Start using crayons.
    via u/FalconPunchline
  • 19
    Font - quietlyjudgingyou Last night this happened at a fair. The man at the front of the line for ice cream offered to pay for all the kids in the family behind him because he was taking awhile. He gave the booth $40 bucks and said what was ever left over should go to the charity (the church was running the ice cream booth). The people with the kids ice cream totaled $21 and they insisted for the change back. It wasn't even their money!! When the lady refused she asked for the manager! WTF! EDIT
    via u/quietlyjudgingyou
  • 20
    Font - Codyk you I have a cousin who invited their friend over to their side of the family's house for Christmas dinner. She then charged her invited friend 5 dollars for their meal. Who does that?!
    via u/Codyk***you
  • 21
    Font - orangepeel My first best friend in like first or second grade invited me to spend the night at his house. When it was time to brush our teeth I realized I had forgotten my toothbrush. He told told his mom about it and I thought I was in luck when his mom brought us a brand new toothbrush but she opened it, handed it to him, and told him to give me his old one. I was skeptical, but I used it.
    via u/orangepeel
  • 22
    Font - Oh I have a great one! My dad was scheduled to get a hip replacement and the day before the operation I came home to find him mowing the lawn with a push mower. He was grimacing in pain, face was red. When I asked him why the h he was mowing he replied, "I'm getting a new hip so I wanted to wear the old one out and save the new one a mow."
    via r/AskReddit
  • 23
    Font - [deleted] I lived with 3 other people during my Junior year of college, and one of them insisted on keeping the AC off in the summer and the heat off in the winter (even though we lived in campus housing and didn't pay for any utilities) just so she could prepare herself for the following year when she would be living on her own in an apartment and never using it to save money.
    via u/deleted
  • 24
    Font - I got fed up, found the manual for the thermostat online, and set it to never be allowed to go above a certain temperature in the summer and never go below a certain temperature in the winter.
    via u/deleted
  • 25
    Font - Vexxill A few years back, my (now ex) boyfriend asked me to go camping with him and his family. I had never been camping before and was really excited about it. We were going to stay on some islands in the middle of a lake, and the week before, his mom made us all come up with recipes and throw in some cash for the food we'd be eating for the week. I didn't have a problem with this and we came up with some awesome pasta dish ideas.
    via u/Vexxill
  • 26
    Font - When we got there, however, she changed her mind and decided no, she wanted to eat out in the town nearby every day (we were out camping for a week, and we had also brought a cooler packed full with the ingredients for each meal). Nobody warned me of this happening and well, as a 15 year old, I didn't really think I'd need money when camping. Just the complete basics.
    via u/Vexxill
  • 27
    Font - After she realized I didn't bring any money with me, she screamed at my boyfriend for about an hour about how she shouldn't have to treat his guest, how he's going to have to pay for all the food I eat this week and how she expects this never to happen again, all while I sat crying in my tent nearby. Needless to say, every time we went out, I had a water with the cheapest meal on the menu :c Even if it was something I knew I didn't like. Worst camping experience of my life.
    via u/Vexxill
  • 28
    Font - Skyhooks At Ikea coffee is bottomless (now a cup is free with the ikea family card) but before that it was like $2. My girlfriends friend, and her family, would go in and buy one cup and it would be passed along to each member to get their turn. They would apparently be there for hours socializing over a single coffee.
    via u/Skyhooks
  • 29
    Font - [deleted] Psh. One year? My grandparents lived through the depression. They waste nothing. Their freezer is a menagerie of ancient treasures. Last year we ate Thanksgiving at their house. My mom did all the cooking, but my grandma contributed a couple of desserts. One was a marshmallowy jello sort of thing with pistachios. When we got done eating, she proudly declared that it had been sitting in the freezer since 1996. She was afraid we'd find out and would waste it by not eating it. Weir
    via u/deleted
  • 30
    Font - hardtoremember A lady I used to know was thrown out of a buffet for filling her purse with food. She was actually offended and called the manager!
    via u/hardtoremember
  • 31
    Font - snap_wilson I went to a birthday dinner for my mother-in- law at a Filipino restaurant. Along with my wife and I, four of her friends were there. The friends ordered a MOUNTAIN of food for the table. There were seven of us there, but if there were a dozen, we couldn't have finished it all. This was a bit irritating right off the bat because while I was happy to pitch in for her birthday dinner, I didn't want to pay twenty percent of a godd feast from Westeros. It would up being over $200
    via u/snap_wilson
  • 32
    Font - So then the check comes, and I pitch in my credit card, and three out of the four friends turn into statues, except the oldest gentleman, who offers something like fifteen bucks. I grab the bill and divide it by five leaving out the dishes and drinks that my wife and I ordered for ourselves and tally it up, saying what everyone owes. Crickets. I remind everyone that they were the ones who ordered this giant mound of food in the first place, half of which is going to go to waste. To preven
    via u/snap_wilson
  • 33
    Font - from stopping her and causing a scene. I quietly lay into the three deadbeats at the table, for letting an elderly woman on a fixed income pay a $200+ bill for her own birthday dinner. I lose it and call them "fing moochers," and whoah, suddenly there's that scene everyone was working so hard to prevent, with them screaming at me and me screaming back. The restaurant owners understandably intervene and toss all of us out.
    via u/snap_wilson
  • 34
    Font - I go back in and apologize and explain what happened. The restaurant, to their credit, knock 40% off the bill out of nothing more than kindness (Salo-Salo Grill in Las Vegas, y'all) and cancel the charge on my mother-in-law's card, and I picked up the rest (which was still quite a bit, but I felt a lot better about it).
    via u/snap_wilson
  • 35
    Font - persona_dos My aunt and uncle once brought me out to eat with my cousins. We went to McDonald's, ordered one hamburger from the dollar menu, and split it three ways with my cousins.
    via u/persona_dos
  • 36
    Font - + [deleted] Sister in law only bought a windshield wiper for the drivers side.
    via u/deleted
  • 37
    Font - fulanitodetal My dad is a physics professor at a university, which if you know of this breed of humans, none of this might surprise you. He, I swear to all that is sacred, goes to the cafeteria on campus and makes a meal out of the free condiments (Mexican style chip salsa, chopped onion packets, crackers, etc.). Then, he'll call me to brag about it. Another one he does. He found a store that sells expired food for a ridiculously low price. He said he spent $20 and now has microwaveable p
    via u/fulanitodetal
  • 38
    Font - My dad never buys new tires; he buys used ones that the shop keeps when people replace them. He gets the tires for super cheap after negotiating them (like $15-$20). The best part is that he avoids driving to not waste gas so much that the tires actually never wear out; they just rot.
    via u/fulanitodetal
  • 39
    Font - When he feels like splurging, he will buy a pork shoulder which is a lot of meat for about $7-$10. He cuts off all of the meat and grinds it along with free condiments from a cafeteria into a cylinder shape that he wraps with shopping bags from a store. Then, he freezes it. When he wants some, he slices some pieces off like patties and sautés them...in its own oil of course. This will last him months. One time he called me while I was cooking. He asked me what I was making, and I said tha
    via u/fulanitodetal
  • 40
    Font - h00pla I had a bunch of cheap Bic pens when I worked as a server at Applebee's. I left one with a table so they could sign the receipt. I watched the dad sign it, get up, start walking away with his family, turn around six feet later, go back to the table, and pocket my pen.
    via u/h00pla

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ask reddit saving money friends askreddit cheapskate dinner family cheap dining money
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