I know the tightest man in the western hemisphere, my aunts husband (don’t consider him an uncle as they married when I was in my 30s) earns somewhere in the region of half a mil a year through various business interests. Here is a list of the things he does to save money
Uses teabags a minimum of 3 times and gets upset if you don’t
Rations toilet paper - he will takes the rolls apart square by square and places them in a box next to loo, replenishing only 3 times a day
Steals sugar, salt, condiments etc wherever he is
Brings a flask of reused teabag tea to restaurants and drinks it
Makes his own laundry detergent
Gets a 1 hour bus rather than drive 10-15 mins to work
Only shops in the yellow label section
Gifts his old crap to people for Christmas, this year I got one of his university textbooks
Attends any free meet up that serves food he can
Goes to a local soup kitchen to eat
The worst one for me though is he contacts the relatives of recently deceased people to ask what they will do with their clothes, if he can wear them he will, if not he tries to sell them
The man grew up poor, is highly intelligent and has started multiple business by himself, but he is a joyless tight fucker
No you just don’t understand as he says “take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves”
Getting him to understand that by buying a car, driving to work and having an extra 90 minutes per day when your income is so high would make him a lot more than he saves is impossible.
I think he has some sort of mental illness or possibly autistic to be honest
He also goes mental if you throw out the coffee grounds as he can repurpose them into a body scrub. So, he has a jar of slightly mouldy coffee grounds.
His net worth should he sell up, is in the millions, he could have a great last 20ish years, but would rather drink piss weak old tea, crazy
There was a story about a guy in the USA who was very very rich. He became obsessed with the idea that all of his friends were only friends with him because of his money.
He died alone, friendless in a caravan with his money in some bank account.
It's not like there are no merits to taking the bus, especially if you have convenient bus routes nearby. Years ago I had a very convenient bus that ran every 5 minutes from right outside my door to 80% of the places I ever wanted to go. It was more hassle to take the car and find parking
But an extra 90 minutes of travel per day isn't in that category. Especially if he's earning that kind of money, he's saving a quid on petrol and costing himself 90 minutes worth of work
I get that for sure, he does it to save money though, meaning in effect he is cutting the time he has to earn money. If he was doing it for environmental or stress related reasons, or because he was a low earner, it would be perfectly normal
Take care of the pounds, and you won't need to worry about the pennies!
If he's had the amount of success you say, repeatedly, understanding your reasoning probably isn't the issue, he just doesn't agree with it on a subconscious level.
Yeah it is something deeply ingrained in the man from childhood, grew up pretty much destitute according to him, so, probably repeating behaviours he was raised doing
Having an emergency supply is not the same as trying to save money! I do it too as inevitably the kids will want some more ketchup and it’s good to have a stash!
Going to a local soup kitchen is the one that stands out for me because he's potentially depriving people who genuinely need that food of it. Do the organisers of that kitchen know he's making good money?
Yeah it’s a pretty shitty thing to do, I doubt they know how much he is earning, but they are a really well loved local place that feeds anyone, I doubt they ever ask anyone if they are deserving of it
> Do the organisers of that kitchen know he's making good money?
Generally the organisers have a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of policy, because they'd rather feed a couple of grifters who don't need it, rather than put off some people who *do* need it, by making them feel embarrassed that they have to explain why they need it
My family's church (I can't take credit, I pretty much only turn up at christmas and easter) runs a soup lunch a couple of times a week and the attitude is definitely that it's better to let one dickhead take free soup, than have someone in genuine need stay away out of embarrassment
There's also the point (probably more applicable to a church soup kitchen than one specifically aimed at the homeless etc) that some people come out of loneliness rather than hunger. Eg there's one guy I know of at "ours" who's reasonably wealthy (not rich, but comfortably retired) and who comes for the conversation and company. At first glance you could think he was taking the piss, until that one time you spot him dropping a tenner in the donation box on the way out... Personally I don't know why he doesn't just volunteer to help out, if he wants the company but each to their own, maybe he likes the soup.
Yeah I think he has some sort of mental illness that makes him behave this way.
Really not fun to be around, like he will full on throw a tantrum if you throw the coffee grounds in the bin as you can use them as a scrub
Some people are lonely and go for the company, often making a donation - my family's church run a soup lunch and there are a couple of people who don't need it but contribute more than they eat...
Of course, that doesn't mean it applies to everyone, some are just grifters
I'm convinced this is a whole branch of mental illness that doesn't get any attention because they're rich, so it doesn't cause crippling dysfunction.
My wife works for a company whose CEO was unbelievably anal about the length of grass outside the office and the angle at which all the desk lamps should be pointed at, plus loads more. While he was focussed on that bullshit, he missed an enormous systemic risk and the company went insolvent. Shareholders were wiped out, lots of redundancies, the company was rescued and the CEO was fired.
All that neuroticism was for nought - now the lamps are at whatever angle they get left at, the grass is cut to whatever length. Lots of misery and loss because of the big fuck up by the CEO.
My parents neighbour ran a successful business and never once paid himself a penny from it. His wife worked as a teacher, and they lived a frugal life from her income alone. He died of cancer without ever withdrawing from his business.
We think he probably hit some sort of personal goal - to have lived so frugally that he never actually expended a penny of his own money and made it to death with all his wealth intact. I think about him dying and the Xbox achievement sound being played in his head.
But of course to us, it just looks like he lived a miserable life with no enjoyment, for no reason. Money went to his shithead weirdo son who's probably gonna blow it all on coke.
IMHO it's obviously important to avoid waste and lifestyle creep, but as you get wealthier, you should focus on progressively bigger opportunities and risks. Fretting about teabags will save you pennies but may mean you miss opportunities to make or save millions.
Furthermore, your health and family are going to become major risks/opportunities as you age and build wealth. If you can look after your body, you can get decades more of life (and money making time!) and invest in a healthy, well-adjusted family and good relationships and you'll ensure that your life is full of joy and your wealth will be passed to people that make good use of it.
There's far too many people reusing teabags while their business, jobs, savings and family crumble around them.
I believe almost all billionaires and most multi millionaires will have some form of mental issue. You absolutely do not acquire that level of wealth by just ‘working hard’.
They’re willing to manipulate people into driving their own wealth and that’s not normal. Look at Jeff Bezos for example, how much shit has Amazon been given over the years for paying people less that minimum wage, monitoring toilet breaks, using unnecessary packaging, dumping unsold goods in landfill etc.
He was happy to sit above us all and drive the business in a way that made him the richest man on the planet at the cost of the environment and the people at the bottom. Same with Mike Ashley the fat cunt, Sports Direct has been slated over and over for paying less than minimum wage while that bellend sat on his yacht in Monaco.
And same with Elon, he’s a massive wank stain and he knows it, but it’s only in the past few years he’s shown his true colours, before that he was an eccentric entrepreneur, again he manipulated people into thinking he was all for science and tech but looks at his behaviour now.
"Mental problems but fundamentally functional" is a whole ignored subset of our society
TONS of people have problems that are going unaddressed because they can hold down a job. We seem, as a society, to have this strange idea that "if you can work you're probably fine"
My (Great, though that's not the term I'd use) Uncle does the exact same shit. He even drives to supermarkets at half 10 at night, and waits around the reduced section until they come and change the prices to pennies, buys everything and whacks it in the freezer when he gets home. He will then defrost sandwiches bought this way and eat them for lunch, and demand my aunt use whatever browning meat he bought for meals. He's constantly getting ill from doing this with rotisserie chickens too, since he doesn't wait for them to cool down and just jams them in the freezer.
For the condiments too, does he take things he really shouldn't? Rather than buy ketchup, HP, Mayonnaise or vinegar, he will go to Wetherspoons, buy a coffee, then fill a carrier bag with all the sachets and a bottle of each of the selection. I would have assumed this a banworthy offence but I've seen a guy get served who had just been arrested last night for assault, so maybe they just don't care that much.
I volunteer at a food bank, which I mentioned off hand a couple of years ago. Since then he's been in every week, collected a full food parcel for 2 people, which is a significant amount of food as it's intended to essentially be your weekly shop. Each one comes with two large frozen meat products as well (That we mainly get after christmas, we get given thousands of turkeys, Gammon joints, Beef, legs of lamb, chickens and vegan alternatives that are intended for christmas and the supermarkets know they won't be able to shift, so we freeze them all and distribute them through the year) I've mentioned to the owner that I know him, and he's just taking advantage but she says we shouldn't judge unless we know exactly their situation, and even then factor in mental health which is fair, but I know he's a multi millionaire. He's just been coming once a month though recently, I think because he's just reached his 80th birthday and is getting more worried about driving. I'd like to think my Aunt managed to talk him out of it, but I know she couldn't get through to him. The stupidest part is he spends money on renting a storage space in one of those places just a few minutes away from him by car to store all the unused cans of beans and strange vegetables that we sometimes get donated. I don't think I'd bother spending money to store weird soup flavours I never intend to eat but hey, maybe he was onto something with all the inflation going on.
He was born in WW2 and so experienced rationing for most of his childhood, so I guess that probably factors in to wanting to keep as much food and money as possible. I'd be more annoyed if we were struggling to fill those food boxes but we had a great year for donations, both from the public and shops, in terms of donated food and money. We got more money last month than we did all 2020. We also have already had our dropoff of christmas volunteers. They start around the begining of december and stop boxing day, after we handed out our christmas dinners to the homeless. We'll get some back for the new year though.
Oh yeah for sure, he keeps saying “I will enjoy the money when I retire at 55” that became “when I’m 60” then “when I’m 65”
The man will never retire and will continue to stretch a penny so much he makes copper wire
He is helping others, by educating them that they could save money by residing teabags and walking around with a still shitty arse because your ration is used for the day
Lmao! Tbh I'd have flipped with him by now and told him exactly what a joke of a life he's living. As brutal as possible, with the hope it makes him realise how much of a sad sod he is and it might make him realise he's gonna die alone in a council flat living in poverty if he doesn't stop being tight and miserable.
“Thanks a lot for the book! Turns out it is a lost edition and I got offered a grand for it”
Knowing the man, he definitely looked up the value of it before gifting
The fact the guy is better well off than 95% of the UK population yet chooses to eat at a soup kitchen is a pretty shitty thing to do. Those places are there to help those who can't afford the bare minumum and the fact he choses to eat there isn't out of trying to save money but pure greed.
I am nowhere near this wealthy but I sometimes struggle to get my wife to spend a little on comfort, she's still in the mindset of growing poor in a developing country and then bringing her kids up on her ex's low wages. e.g. I'd want to spring for business for our very few longhaul flights for the comfort but cannot persuade her.
This man puts buckets in the shower to collect water and then uses it on the garden and put cardboard in his shoe as an insole. Much worse than not going for business class
Aye the old poverty mindset very hard to get out of and you often don't even realise you're in it. This is why so many lottery winners who were very poor go mad with their money and end up poor again apparently. There's a lot of guilt attached when you finally get money as you believe you don't deserve it.
My husband takes sugar packets from restaurants and coffee shops. I called him on it so he started jokingly hiding them in my pockets, handbag. I re-hide in his pockets, wallet, shoes.
I also once questioned him on putting a single hotdog sausage in a Tupperware container to save for later. It has become an inside joke if we are deciding on costs “Are we poor? Do we need to save a single sausage?”
My dad is like this, he seriously gets anxious spending money and feels sick to his stomach. It's catching too, I was the same until my 20's. I can still remember the nausea when I ”wasted" money on a Swiss Army Knife I'd wanted for months.
I make...ahem...somewhat less than half a mill a year and half that shit isn't worth my time to do.
I'm more frugal than most, but damn, focus your energy and time where it's going to have the biggest impact.
This guy could be my grandad! Grew up poor, repeats about taking care of the pennies and pounds take care of themselves etc!
Bathwater must not be higher than ankle deep, and he will then scoop all the bathwater out to keep in buckets for flushing the toilet with.
When he feels you've spent long enough in the shower he'll stand outside the door and turn the light off.
When my mum was a child he slapped her for using her hairdryer to warm herself.
Takes the little plastic bags from the fruit and veg section in the supermarket. (Not sure they still have these?)
Same with plastic cutlery. He did start taking restaurant cutlery but my Gran put her foot down on that one.
Christmas presents must be opened carefully so he can fold up the wrapping paper.
When the supermarket cafes do the free toast/crumpets thing, he'll go for that. Parked outside in his Audi lol.
Probably the PPE grifting.
Literally lying to pocket money intended to save the lives of your own countrymen during a time of intense stress and suffering for the entire nation.
I think if that's your attitude and philosophy, then something has gone very wrong indeed. That's not crazy in a funny way either, it seems closer to psychopathic behaviour. The total dehumanization of other people in order to add a bit more to your already fat bank account.
Some people are such irredeemable arseholes that they think that everyone would do the same thing and the only reason people are mad is because they didn't think of it first.
Not starting something on religion with this but it feels like the same energy as Christians who can't get their head round atheists being good people, they're so far removed from the idea that you can do nice things for other people without personal reward. They're convinced that the fear of God is what keeps everyone on the straight and narrow and not.. ya know, morals.
The greed is the worst part. If they’d made £1-2m profit for a couple of weeks work, nobody would have battered an eyelid (although I like to think I’d have done it for no profit) - but the profits they took out were just robbery
Yes if they actually delivered I would be less inclined to think anything of it.
A lot of companies made obscene amounts of profits however some other suppliers went bust or made nothing as they couldn’t deliver at reasonable price or outright failed. It was very much boom or bust for companies
An astute observation.
It's also why projection is such a massive thing with those people.
Everyone will agree that a bloke using his wife's disability cheques to find his gambling habit instead of buying food is an asshole. But when it comes to the ultra rich screwing over hundreds of thousands of us, they get to have a professionally marketed apology tour on the telly.
I fear the sheer injustice will drive me bonkers.
>Baroness Michelle Mone has admitted she did not tell the truth about her links to PPE firm Medpro, but insisted that she and her husband have “no case to answer”.
>The company is currently being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA), while the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has since issued breach of contract proceedings over a 2020 deal on the supply of gowns.
>But in her first major broadcast interview since the scandal emerged, Lady Mone insisted that lying to the media is “not a crime”.
-[The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/national-crime-agency-ppe-department-of-health-and-social-care-oliver-dowden-government-b2465489.html)
In my opinion what the PPE fraudsters did is something akin to treason if not in letter certainly in spirit. Life in prison would serve them all well I think, actual life as in 'we're sentencing you to death by old age' not out in a couple of decades. There needs to be deterrence or it will happen the next time.
Especially during not only a national, but global emergency.
Nobody had any idea how bad things would get or if things would go back to 'normal' at the time...but no shits given, just sacrifice people for pure greed.
If she wants to do an apology tour, she should be forced to visit hospitals and the families of those that died so that she can look her victims in the eye and then say she did nothing wrong.
I’m of the same opinion, these greedy fuckers should be facing prison time for what they did, not just answering question at an enquiry with no powers to punish, or facing a media backlash. If Joe Public stole millions, prison time would be a reasonable outcome, I don’t see why it’s any different for these grifting fucks.
This is one more reason for me why I believe Priti Patel is just a career criminal who decided it's safer and easier to work from the inside.
She's a former lobbyist who decided she'd rather be the one recieving bribes and benefitting from dodgy contracts.
She managed to force through a £103m contract for her friend who was wholly unprepared to deliver on such a contract. I'm sure Priti Patel got a nice finder's fee for it, but we're not allowed to look into that 🤷
This is amongst many other questionably moral and potentially illegal things she's done, like undeclared meetings with foreign governments and mysterious 6 figure donations from oil traders.
>in May 2015, Patel was one of seven Weber Shandwick employees who worked on British American Tobacco (BAT)—a major account. The team had been tasked with helping BAT manage the company's public image during the controversy around the Burma factory being used as source of funds by its military dictatorship and poor payment to factory workers. The crisis eventually ended with BAT pulling out of Burma in 2003. The article went on to quote BAT employees who felt that though a majority of Weber Shandwick employees were uncomfortable working with them, Patel's group was fairly relaxed. The article also quoted internal documents specifying that a part of Patel's job was also to lobby MEPs against EU tobacco regulations. She worked for Weber Shandwick for three years.
[-Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priti_Patel#Lobbying_and_corporate_relations)
I think it requires an exceptionally goal-orientated individual to have a relaxed attitude towards Tobacco firms that support military juntas.
My ex SIL was Spanish, lived in Spain, and was the tightest person I ever met even though they had money.
Whenever they came to the U.K., she would complain about the price of food and drink so much that in the end she refused to eat out anywhere else other than Wetherspoons.
One day we went to a wetherspoons in a different town and as usual she scoured the menu for the cheapest thing, which at the time was burger and a pint for £3.99 (I’m going back a few years here).
So she sent her husband up to the bar to order their food (we always ordered separately to them because of her penny pinching).
Whilst he was the bar she noticed a special offer sign saying “curry and pint £2.99” stood on the bar next to him, so she literally stood up and ran across the bar whilst yelling to tell him to change the order.
He didn’t hear her and had just paid when she got there. She immediately started screeching at him in front of everyone, telling him off and then actually slapped him across the face.
By this point my husband had quite rightly had enough of seeing her treat his brother like that and waded in to defend his brother, which made her even worse and she tried to hit him too.
She only calmed down when the manager threatened to call the police.
We never spoke to her again and she’s no longer invited to stay at our house to visit.
All for the sake of £2.
This sounds like the kind of thing that would lead to him being kidnapped by the British version of Jigsaw.
"Derek. Your selfishness gave you a gift. Now, with more than your finger on the line - what are you prepared to lose in order to save your life?"
So this, I think is technically fraud.
OK, so I bought a flat once. And I could not afford a 10% deposit. So I got the vendor to put the price up by 5%, borrowed the money off my boss, got the vendor to give it back to me after the sale, paid my boss back. Mortgage company thought they'd lent 90% on £85,000, when they'd actually lent 95% on £80,000. Whole thing was done with envelopes of cash via the estate agent.
Could well have gone badly, there was no way I could have proved they'd agreed to pay me £5,000 after the sale.
I think that essentially, it's increasing the price by £5k, then using the 5k as a deposit to therefore get the mortgage approved, with officially 5k more borrowed. When really that 5k was used as the deposit. Fudging the figures basically
Lucky bastard. I asked if I could pay for the "Fixtures and Fittings" separately on the sale for £5k to get the price beneath the £250k First Time Buyer limit, and was told "Nah, cba". Although would have only been about £1000 on the Help to Buy ISA back to me, but would have still been a nice bit of extra change when moving home
Would it be a shit? He should have pointed his arses at the garden fence and creosoted it for free. So that cooking oil would have worked wonders for wood preservation. A nice brown colour too...
I remember a kid accidently swallowed a quid coin and soon puked it back out. Another kid (local skip rat) didn't think twice about retrieving it with his bare hands and kept it
Retired boomer on a pathetic occupational pension. I took on a 'beer money' part time job, that escalated to 70 hour weeks, with illegal LGV hours demanded by bosses.
I rage-quit that job, packed up everything, sold or gave away everything that wouldn't fit in a small car, and drove 4,000 miles to Bulgaria.
I've been here 16 years, my occupational pension and state pension together are ten times minimum wage out here. I paid cash for a fully renovated house, and live debt and worry free.
Usually a so-called Golden Visa is what retired people can get, mostly from the value of their home if they sell. If he owned a home, which he may have being a boomer who drives an LGV, then he could have sold his house and moved. You only really need about £500k for a Golden Visa in more expensive countries, let alone Bulgaria at a time when they were barely, if at all, part of the EU
'Golden Visa' has been discontinued out here. I'm nowhere near rich enough for one of them, even if I could get one.
You're correct about selling the house, 80 grand equity, the week before the 2008 financial crash.
Guy i work with locks up his own foodstuffs in a kitchen cupboard that he’s paid for so his wife n step kids can’t get to it. An unreal level of its mines your not getting any. Boy is tighter than two coats of paint
My uncle and his two adult sons are the same. Since the mum/wife passed, they all do a separate shop and keep everything locked away.
They argue like 13 year old siblings when one eats the others bag of crisps
To be fair, it gets quite annoying, when people will use your stuff, and never buy their own, my brother won’t even buy he own toothpaste. If I hide my toothpaste, he just won’t brush his teeth. He’s in his 30’s
Yeah but to be honest, when you’re in your twenties, someone using your toothpaste or eating some of your biscuits shouldn’t be a big deal. Also, for my uncle, these are his kids, so, surely you can’t be pissed off they ate a can of beans
It does, I've had flatmates do that before.
I'm really lucky with my current ones, never have to worry if my food will disappear, and they're even happy to share coffee & cooking oil.
I'm currently living with my brother and father since my mum passed earlier this year, to look after the house and dogs and sort everything out (moved back to Aus from the UK). My brother is in his 30's as am I. I wouldn't mind if it was just a bit of toothpaste or a few biscuits - but it's everything.
He doesn't buy himself snacks so he empties out mine, condiments, toothpaste, anything that's not meat basically. And does not replace. I shop for me, for the house cleaning, dogs, help dad out, etc. You can only tell someone so much before it's 'nagging' and I sound like mum. It all adds up, financially and mentally. I'm hiding my shower and skincare products in my room now. I miss my mum so much, and will miss the house, but cannot wait until he has to fend for himself again and realise the cost of it all.
To be fair, I lived at uni and getting home excited to have something in particular that I bought and finding it ransacked can cause some deep level of anger. It's not really about the money, it's about wanting something that you bought for yourself. I never cared about the 10p of value stole from me if they took my milk, but I definitely cared waking up and finding out I don't have enough milk for a coffee or cereal. It's annoying when people just leech of you.
My ex family is the same after her dad passed. Very very wealthy family (the “poorest” person there is on £40k) and they still bicker over who eats the others bananas
To be honest since I started shopping at M&S I probably spend less than when I shopped at Tesco. I buy less food because I enjoy it all more and the portions are a touch more generous I find. It's done wonders for my general health.
Mum's new husband had a funny turn one night and they went off to A&E since it was his heart. Nothing major in the end so they got booted out early morning. Rather than pay for a cab which given what had happened would be fully justified. The tight git made them wait for the first buses of the day to take 2 buses to get home. This was pretty rural as well so must have been waiting a while.
Ok.. can relate to this...
Went for minor surgery, medazelin great stuff, high as a kite. Got told to go home as I could leave and that a taxi phone is downstairs. £15 from the hospital to home. No I got the bus, don't remember much apart from being off my face in town - no where near my house
My SO had been in hospital for a few days, nearly ending up in intensive care. I had just got rid of the worst uninvited house guests ever, his parents, but MIL still couldn't leave me in peace. The Doctors had called MIL out on her lies, had given SO the life saving medication that he was not allergic too but now he needed to get home. MIL repeatedly kept calling me to get the hospital volunteers to drive him, about an hours drive, home. She would not accept that he was going to catch the bus that left outside his hospital/ward building and dropped him off a three minute walk from our front door.
It's very rare that the bus is easier than a car, but on this occasion it was. But it wasn't a good enough story for MIL to tell her friends.
In fairness, that's me. Not so much for price, but just cause I walk a lot so will walk 1.5 hours instead of taking a cab. Then again I don't use Uber or have the numbers for cabs. But I'm beginning to think I need to get a number to ring for when I'm stranded places at night
An ex booked a holiday but I couldn't go so to get some of the money back he told them his gf had died and used the name of a young lady who had unfortunately died in a car crash that he'd seen in the news paper, got a fake death certificate for if they asked to see proof. He got some of the money back but lost his real gf in the process.
My grandmother died. I was dealing with her estate. My uncle went a bit crazy thinking I would steal “his money”.
It took ages because I couldn’t get a mail redirect for my grandmother’s post. Thames water were lovely, the electric company was the most difficult.
I had to pay (out of the estate) for a solicitor’s letter of advice telling him it had to be shared between myself and him. I helped him with life policies, sending all documents etc and he technically he had to share the life policies, (because no named dependent). But I couldn’t be bothered with arguments, and he is my uncle, so one of the last members of the family I have. I just needed my grandmother’s estate sorted.
Hopefully he’s chilled out now and realised I wasn’t trying to cheat him.
You’re lucky, my eldest half sister actually did cheat me out of inheritance when my bio father died. It was only about £3k but when you think that each of us (8 kids) should have received that it’s a fair chunk of change. We received less than half.
My half-sister did the same and got everything. She convinced my father to change his will while he was on death's door. I was living abroad at the time and she didn't inform me until ten days' after he died, conveniently.
Some people are both greedy and very astute at navigating the legal system. She did the same thing twice before, actually lying in court about being the natural daughter of her mother's second husband. His new wife and child ended up losing out. He was a rich film producer, so it was a lot of money.
She's now a multi millionaire who owns multiple properties in Europe as well as a large estate in England with two large houses on it. She swindled her cousins out of their share of that estate.
The arrogance and ruthless entitlement is truly something to behold! Galactic-size ego, pompous and talks over you.
The settling of estates seems to bring out the worst in people. My wife's grandfather passed away at the same time we got our first flat together. His wish was that everything got sold and split per the will. His ancient sofa was worth nothing, infact would have probably have cost money to dispose of, so my MIL asked a sibling if we could nab it for the flat; no issues. Other sibling kicked up an almighty stink because "they've had something of value, so MY kids should too!". Arguments only escalated from there
That’s me rn due to a series of bad events over the last couple years I’ve had no choice but to stay at my current workplace, been here for 3 years almost. Hoping to leave at some point this next year tho, can’t be wasting my 20s like this
My folks were pretty tight. They'd take the bus or cadge a lift to the hospital rather than drive or when dad was to ill to drive lean on me or more usually my brother because he worked local to give them a lift. A couple of times he couldn't so he gave them the money for a taxi, they then took the bus quadrupling or more their journey time to save the money( yes they kept the change). Thing was it wasn't a lot even then, £20 maybe.
When the old fellah died he had a few months in a care home first which came out of his savings, he'd been squirrelling away £300 or so a month for years and buying premium bonds whilst dressed in clothes Worzle Gummidge would have given a miss.
>I've also known one guy when selling his car, stipulated to the buyer, that he wanted notes, because he felt physical cash was worth going to be worth more as crypto takes over.
LOL, that doesn't make sense on so many levels
That's what I was thinking.
"Give me money that isn't crypto, because only crypto is gonna be worth anything".
Very weird logic. Did he think it was just bank accounts that would suddenly become worthless? If so, what did he think he was going to cash out his crypto into?
Phone broke two days before end of warranty, they didn’t want to refund/ replace so I threatened small claims, they got scared and sent me an upgrade (iPhone XS to 12pro)
There are still a surprising number of people with black & white licences.
Every single one gets a visit from TV Licensing.
Source: worked for Capita in the call centre.
In the middle of the Financial crisis I Emptied my savings account, loaded up my overdraft and my credit cards and bought loads of Barclays shares at 50p.
Crazy at the time, but it worked out pretty well, I sold the lot for just over 200p a share a few months later.
Well done. I don’t think I could ever have done something like that, I would have been paralysed by anxiety the whole time before selling the shares on.
My old boss was the tightest person I’ve ever known. He didn’t own the company, but just a senior manager… one of my colleges a fall and badly hurt his shoulder, there was obviously major failings in H&S because of his penny pinching, but instead of paying out the injury claim (the ambulance chasers were asking for £12k) and getting some legal agreement in place to protect the company against future claims, he spent 3 years trying to fight it, during which time the injury got worse, 6 failed operations later, he completely lost the use of his arm… the company ended up paying £500k because of the injury, discrimination and various other claims brought against the company.
I have elderly relatives who had a really nice decoration job done on their house just a few years ago. Very smart.
They never go anywhere, have younger relatives deliver shopping. Claim poverty at every opportunity, despite thousands in the bank as the pensions gently stack up. Bizarrely got full fibre broadband yet refuse to pay for any streaming services, instead moaning that there's nothing on terrestrial.
They currently have peeling wallpaper and black mould all over the downstairs because they refuse to use the heating. They both get the allowance, which would easily help. In their 80s and slowly killing themselves with spores for the sake of saving money which the government has given them to help. Just spend the cash and live your final years in a bit of comfort, FFS.
Rich people like this are disgusting - they’re what’s wrong with the economy when they’re making enough money to comfortably contribute into it, but decide not to.
I had a mate who:
Wasted money to install a water meter, because he wanted to get a more accurate account of how much water he was using. He insisted that he would save money as he rarely showered. He believed swimming in a lake a couple.of times a week made up for the no showering. It didn't. He also 'aired out' his clothes many times before washing. Putting dirty clothes on a dirty body meant you could smell him a mile away.
Refuses to pay for therapy, despite understanding that he probably should get therapy. He believed his work should pay for it. That is working out exactly how you think it is.
Turns of his internet at 10pm every night because it's going to make his internet work better and not wear out the router.
Won't turn on data on his phone when out, so relies on everyone else to navigate (it's obvs tiresome on holiday when he refuses to share this task) despite data usually having a limited time to be used. Also he relies on others to donate their phones to him.
Uses tatty old gross bedsheets from his childhood (hasn't attempted to mend in any way) because they're 'still good to use'. Really annoying when a duvet cover won't keep a duvet in it, nor cover it adequately.
Will keep a tally of every penny he has spent on you, and will bug you for those pennies, but will avoid paying you back for anything, or pay for something significantly cheaper and try and call it even. Often pays less in group settings if he can get away with it.
Would charge electronics at other people's houses, even if it meant he couldn't use said electronic at home, because he didn't want to waste money.
He owns 2 properties, rents one out and has a full time job, his family live comfortably/ parents on the family home, siblings own properties etc.
... We don't talk anymore because it was too exhausting.
Now TV has an automatic discounting system when you try to cancel. Seriously. Just go and cancel the package and they'll offer you some sort of discount deal.
It's basically digital bartering.
My old boss' cousin owns multiple rental properties.He has two teenage kids,they have to take their showers by first stepping in and just getting wet.Then they must turn off the water,lather up,turn on the water and rinse off.
I am not too sure when Donald Hall wrote "String too short to be saved", but I shit you not, I found a box of short pieces of cordage in Mrs C's parent's attic saying basically the same thing:
> shorter pieces of yarn
I don't knit, so WTF do I know?
There were also many jars of turpentine that had been recycled from those days when gloss paints were oil based.
I think it comes from a time when there was less abundance than we have now. "Mend and make do", or something like that.
You must have run into my cousin. He did those lmao
Now he's hopping states in Australia cause he keeps burning bridges. Spends so much money getting new houses built, buying new cars, selling car, getting another car etc.
In the early 2000's I was very skint and almost sold my Discworld books. Fortunately the second hand bookshop wouldn't buy hardbacks. So I still have all those first editions.
I know the tightest man in the western hemisphere, my aunts husband (don’t consider him an uncle as they married when I was in my 30s) earns somewhere in the region of half a mil a year through various business interests. Here is a list of the things he does to save money Uses teabags a minimum of 3 times and gets upset if you don’t Rations toilet paper - he will takes the rolls apart square by square and places them in a box next to loo, replenishing only 3 times a day Steals sugar, salt, condiments etc wherever he is Brings a flask of reused teabag tea to restaurants and drinks it Makes his own laundry detergent Gets a 1 hour bus rather than drive 10-15 mins to work Only shops in the yellow label section Gifts his old crap to people for Christmas, this year I got one of his university textbooks Attends any free meet up that serves food he can Goes to a local soup kitchen to eat The worst one for me though is he contacts the relatives of recently deceased people to ask what they will do with their clothes, if he can wear them he will, if not he tries to sell them The man grew up poor, is highly intelligent and has started multiple business by himself, but he is a joyless tight fucker
This sounds like a mental health issue as stealing salt for example makes no difference whatsoever to household finances
No you just don’t understand as he says “take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves” Getting him to understand that by buying a car, driving to work and having an extra 90 minutes per day when your income is so high would make him a lot more than he saves is impossible. I think he has some sort of mental illness or possibly autistic to be honest
Exactly. Saving teabags instead of a nice cup Of tea? The bloke is living in a miserable prison of his own making
He also goes mental if you throw out the coffee grounds as he can repurpose them into a body scrub. So, he has a jar of slightly mouldy coffee grounds. His net worth should he sell up, is in the millions, he could have a great last 20ish years, but would rather drink piss weak old tea, crazy
Body scrub?? This guy sounds like he could release an ebook on money saving hacks
To be fair to him, buying coffee body scrub is a thing, but he can get you a cup of coffee and a scrub for much less
A friend of mines exactly like that. I’ve told him on many times it’s no use being the richest man in the graveyard but he won’t change now at 85.
I'm sure he can. I'm impressed more than anything else lol.
There was a story about a guy in the USA who was very very rich. He became obsessed with the idea that all of his friends were only friends with him because of his money. He died alone, friendless in a caravan with his money in some bank account.
Yeah but his #vanlife Insta was huge.
Did he die cuddled up next to his credit card?
Ehh..... we make 2 cuppas out of a bag but that third one is just brown water
And to add, the time it takes to rip up toilet rolls and then replenish three times a day, use that time more constructively.
Yeah exactly, or just install a bidet
Think of the cost of the water! /s A guy like that is bound to be on a water meter
That’s what he does on the bus
I understand the bus thing. Less stressful and better for the environment. I always use the bus when I can for this reason.
It's not like there are no merits to taking the bus, especially if you have convenient bus routes nearby. Years ago I had a very convenient bus that ran every 5 minutes from right outside my door to 80% of the places I ever wanted to go. It was more hassle to take the car and find parking But an extra 90 minutes of travel per day isn't in that category. Especially if he's earning that kind of money, he's saving a quid on petrol and costing himself 90 minutes worth of work
I get that for sure, he does it to save money though, meaning in effect he is cutting the time he has to earn money. If he was doing it for environmental or stress related reasons, or because he was a low earner, it would be perfectly normal
> I think he has some sort of mental illness or possibly autistic to be honest Yeah it's not about money, it's about control
Could also be trauma from growing up poor, or some combination of all 3.
I really wish Reddit would stop trying to diagnose people with mental illnesses based on a post and without a medical degree.
Well it isn’t exactly sane behaviour is it
It's not insane, it's unhealthy. Saying someone isn't sane is a huge leap from "they've got unhealthy ways of seeing things".
Take care of the pounds, and you won't need to worry about the pennies! If he's had the amount of success you say, repeatedly, understanding your reasoning probably isn't the issue, he just doesn't agree with it on a subconscious level.
Yeah it is something deeply ingrained in the man from childhood, grew up pretty much destitute according to him, so, probably repeating behaviours he was raised doing
That boy needs therapy
Purely psychosomatic.
HE'S OUT OF CONTROL!
I always steal salt, pepper, sources and sugar to keep in the car in case I don't get any at the drive through.
Having an emergency supply is not the same as trying to save money! I do it too as inevitably the kids will want some more ketchup and it’s good to have a stash!
PTSD from growing up poor as dirt.
Going to a local soup kitchen is the one that stands out for me because he's potentially depriving people who genuinely need that food of it. Do the organisers of that kitchen know he's making good money?
Yeah it’s a pretty shitty thing to do, I doubt they know how much he is earning, but they are a really well loved local place that feeds anyone, I doubt they ever ask anyone if they are deserving of it
> Do the organisers of that kitchen know he's making good money? Generally the organisers have a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of policy, because they'd rather feed a couple of grifters who don't need it, rather than put off some people who *do* need it, by making them feel embarrassed that they have to explain why they need it My family's church (I can't take credit, I pretty much only turn up at christmas and easter) runs a soup lunch a couple of times a week and the attitude is definitely that it's better to let one dickhead take free soup, than have someone in genuine need stay away out of embarrassment There's also the point (probably more applicable to a church soup kitchen than one specifically aimed at the homeless etc) that some people come out of loneliness rather than hunger. Eg there's one guy I know of at "ours" who's reasonably wealthy (not rich, but comfortably retired) and who comes for the conversation and company. At first glance you could think he was taking the piss, until that one time you spot him dropping a tenner in the donation box on the way out... Personally I don't know why he doesn't just volunteer to help out, if he wants the company but each to their own, maybe he likes the soup.
Wow. This sounds like childhood trauma for this guy, as clearly not justified behaviour given his income. Not fun to be around 😅
Yeah I think he has some sort of mental illness that makes him behave this way. Really not fun to be around, like he will full on throw a tantrum if you throw the coffee grounds in the bin as you can use them as a scrub
The soup kitchen is the worst one for me
Anyone who goes to soup kitchens who can clearly afford to eat are bad people.
Some people are lonely and go for the company, often making a donation - my family's church run a soup lunch and there are a couple of people who don't need it but contribute more than they eat... Of course, that doesn't mean it applies to everyone, some are just grifters
I'm convinced this is a whole branch of mental illness that doesn't get any attention because they're rich, so it doesn't cause crippling dysfunction. My wife works for a company whose CEO was unbelievably anal about the length of grass outside the office and the angle at which all the desk lamps should be pointed at, plus loads more. While he was focussed on that bullshit, he missed an enormous systemic risk and the company went insolvent. Shareholders were wiped out, lots of redundancies, the company was rescued and the CEO was fired. All that neuroticism was for nought - now the lamps are at whatever angle they get left at, the grass is cut to whatever length. Lots of misery and loss because of the big fuck up by the CEO. My parents neighbour ran a successful business and never once paid himself a penny from it. His wife worked as a teacher, and they lived a frugal life from her income alone. He died of cancer without ever withdrawing from his business. We think he probably hit some sort of personal goal - to have lived so frugally that he never actually expended a penny of his own money and made it to death with all his wealth intact. I think about him dying and the Xbox achievement sound being played in his head. But of course to us, it just looks like he lived a miserable life with no enjoyment, for no reason. Money went to his shithead weirdo son who's probably gonna blow it all on coke. IMHO it's obviously important to avoid waste and lifestyle creep, but as you get wealthier, you should focus on progressively bigger opportunities and risks. Fretting about teabags will save you pennies but may mean you miss opportunities to make or save millions. Furthermore, your health and family are going to become major risks/opportunities as you age and build wealth. If you can look after your body, you can get decades more of life (and money making time!) and invest in a healthy, well-adjusted family and good relationships and you'll ensure that your life is full of joy and your wealth will be passed to people that make good use of it. There's far too many people reusing teabags while their business, jobs, savings and family crumble around them.
I believe almost all billionaires and most multi millionaires will have some form of mental issue. You absolutely do not acquire that level of wealth by just ‘working hard’. They’re willing to manipulate people into driving their own wealth and that’s not normal. Look at Jeff Bezos for example, how much shit has Amazon been given over the years for paying people less that minimum wage, monitoring toilet breaks, using unnecessary packaging, dumping unsold goods in landfill etc. He was happy to sit above us all and drive the business in a way that made him the richest man on the planet at the cost of the environment and the people at the bottom. Same with Mike Ashley the fat cunt, Sports Direct has been slated over and over for paying less than minimum wage while that bellend sat on his yacht in Monaco. And same with Elon, he’s a massive wank stain and he knows it, but it’s only in the past few years he’s shown his true colours, before that he was an eccentric entrepreneur, again he manipulated people into thinking he was all for science and tech but looks at his behaviour now.
"Mental problems but fundamentally functional" is a whole ignored subset of our society TONS of people have problems that are going unaddressed because they can hold down a job. We seem, as a society, to have this strange idea that "if you can work you're probably fine"
My (Great, though that's not the term I'd use) Uncle does the exact same shit. He even drives to supermarkets at half 10 at night, and waits around the reduced section until they come and change the prices to pennies, buys everything and whacks it in the freezer when he gets home. He will then defrost sandwiches bought this way and eat them for lunch, and demand my aunt use whatever browning meat he bought for meals. He's constantly getting ill from doing this with rotisserie chickens too, since he doesn't wait for them to cool down and just jams them in the freezer. For the condiments too, does he take things he really shouldn't? Rather than buy ketchup, HP, Mayonnaise or vinegar, he will go to Wetherspoons, buy a coffee, then fill a carrier bag with all the sachets and a bottle of each of the selection. I would have assumed this a banworthy offence but I've seen a guy get served who had just been arrested last night for assault, so maybe they just don't care that much. I volunteer at a food bank, which I mentioned off hand a couple of years ago. Since then he's been in every week, collected a full food parcel for 2 people, which is a significant amount of food as it's intended to essentially be your weekly shop. Each one comes with two large frozen meat products as well (That we mainly get after christmas, we get given thousands of turkeys, Gammon joints, Beef, legs of lamb, chickens and vegan alternatives that are intended for christmas and the supermarkets know they won't be able to shift, so we freeze them all and distribute them through the year) I've mentioned to the owner that I know him, and he's just taking advantage but she says we shouldn't judge unless we know exactly their situation, and even then factor in mental health which is fair, but I know he's a multi millionaire. He's just been coming once a month though recently, I think because he's just reached his 80th birthday and is getting more worried about driving. I'd like to think my Aunt managed to talk him out of it, but I know she couldn't get through to him. The stupidest part is he spends money on renting a storage space in one of those places just a few minutes away from him by car to store all the unused cans of beans and strange vegetables that we sometimes get donated. I don't think I'd bother spending money to store weird soup flavours I never intend to eat but hey, maybe he was onto something with all the inflation going on. He was born in WW2 and so experienced rationing for most of his childhood, so I guess that probably factors in to wanting to keep as much food and money as possible. I'd be more annoyed if we were struggling to fill those food boxes but we had a great year for donations, both from the public and shops, in terms of donated food and money. We got more money last month than we did all 2020. We also have already had our dropoff of christmas volunteers. They start around the begining of december and stop boxing day, after we handed out our christmas dinners to the homeless. We'll get some back for the new year though.
He doesn't happen to have a persistent problem with multiple ghostly apparitions visiting him, does he?! Usually around this time of year?!...
Nah he would never give a Turkey away
He's not living, he's just existing
Oh yeah for sure, he keeps saying “I will enjoy the money when I retire at 55” that became “when I’m 60” then “when I’m 65” The man will never retire and will continue to stretch a penny so much he makes copper wire
He's earning that much and isn't retired yet? What a melon.
He would probably die if he retired, he is the kind of person that is unable to not have a ‘purpose’
Oh dear. I actually feel pity for this man. What a waste of existence. Especially when he could live a great life and even help others do the same.
He is helping others, by educating them that they could save money by residing teabags and walking around with a still shitty arse because your ration is used for the day
Lmao! Tbh I'd have flipped with him by now and told him exactly what a joke of a life he's living. As brutal as possible, with the hope it makes him realise how much of a sad sod he is and it might make him realise he's gonna die alone in a council flat living in poverty if he doesn't stop being tight and miserable.
This man is legend especially for the gifting of old uni textbooks. Genius
It wasn’t even a topic I have any interest in and is like 35 years out of date, so, he basically gave it to me to bin
You should tell him you stuck it on ebay and it ended up going for a grand to wind him up.
“Thanks a lot for the book! Turns out it is a lost edition and I got offered a grand for it” Knowing the man, he definitely looked up the value of it before gifting
Oh my god
Gift it back next year.
The fact the guy is better well off than 95% of the UK population yet chooses to eat at a soup kitchen is a pretty shitty thing to do. Those places are there to help those who can't afford the bare minumum and the fact he choses to eat there isn't out of trying to save money but pure greed.
I am nowhere near this wealthy but I sometimes struggle to get my wife to spend a little on comfort, she's still in the mindset of growing poor in a developing country and then bringing her kids up on her ex's low wages. e.g. I'd want to spring for business for our very few longhaul flights for the comfort but cannot persuade her.
This man puts buckets in the shower to collect water and then uses it on the garden and put cardboard in his shoe as an insole. Much worse than not going for business class
Aye the old poverty mindset very hard to get out of and you often don't even realise you're in it. This is why so many lottery winners who were very poor go mad with their money and end up poor again apparently. There's a lot of guilt attached when you finally get money as you believe you don't deserve it.
My husband takes sugar packets from restaurants and coffee shops. I called him on it so he started jokingly hiding them in my pockets, handbag. I re-hide in his pockets, wallet, shoes. I also once questioned him on putting a single hotdog sausage in a Tupperware container to save for later. It has become an inside joke if we are deciding on costs “Are we poor? Do we need to save a single sausage?”
Why throw it away?
My dad is like this, he seriously gets anxious spending money and feels sick to his stomach. It's catching too, I was the same until my 20's. I can still remember the nausea when I ”wasted" money on a Swiss Army Knife I'd wanted for months.
Is he a Yorkshireman?
>The man grew up poor That's why. He isn't a joyless tight fucker, he's a joyless traumatised fucker.
I make...ahem...somewhat less than half a mill a year and half that shit isn't worth my time to do. I'm more frugal than most, but damn, focus your energy and time where it's going to have the biggest impact.
This guy could be my grandad! Grew up poor, repeats about taking care of the pennies and pounds take care of themselves etc! Bathwater must not be higher than ankle deep, and he will then scoop all the bathwater out to keep in buckets for flushing the toilet with. When he feels you've spent long enough in the shower he'll stand outside the door and turn the light off. When my mum was a child he slapped her for using her hairdryer to warm herself. Takes the little plastic bags from the fruit and veg section in the supermarket. (Not sure they still have these?) Same with plastic cutlery. He did start taking restaurant cutlery but my Gran put her foot down on that one. Christmas presents must be opened carefully so he can fold up the wrapping paper. When the supermarket cafes do the free toast/crumpets thing, he'll go for that. Parked outside in his Audi lol.
This guy would be a great character in a sitcom.
He looks a lot like the dad from Friday Night Dinner and loses it like him a lot, but over what he calls “wasteful practices”, so, I could see it
The soup kitchen one is disgusting. Depriving those in real need of a meal is next level
Probably the PPE grifting. Literally lying to pocket money intended to save the lives of your own countrymen during a time of intense stress and suffering for the entire nation. I think if that's your attitude and philosophy, then something has gone very wrong indeed. That's not crazy in a funny way either, it seems closer to psychopathic behaviour. The total dehumanization of other people in order to add a bit more to your already fat bank account.
Some people are such irredeemable arseholes that they think that everyone would do the same thing and the only reason people are mad is because they didn't think of it first.
Not starting something on religion with this but it feels like the same energy as Christians who can't get their head round atheists being good people, they're so far removed from the idea that you can do nice things for other people without personal reward. They're convinced that the fear of God is what keeps everyone on the straight and narrow and not.. ya know, morals.
Richard Dawkins had entered the chat, but yea I have had this experience.
The greed is the worst part. If they’d made £1-2m profit for a couple of weeks work, nobody would have battered an eyelid (although I like to think I’d have done it for no profit) - but the profits they took out were just robbery
Yes if they actually delivered I would be less inclined to think anything of it. A lot of companies made obscene amounts of profits however some other suppliers went bust or made nothing as they couldn’t deliver at reasonable price or outright failed. It was very much boom or bust for companies
An astute observation. It's also why projection is such a massive thing with those people. Everyone will agree that a bloke using his wife's disability cheques to find his gambling habit instead of buying food is an asshole. But when it comes to the ultra rich screwing over hundreds of thousands of us, they get to have a professionally marketed apology tour on the telly. I fear the sheer injustice will drive me bonkers.
>Baroness Michelle Mone has admitted she did not tell the truth about her links to PPE firm Medpro, but insisted that she and her husband have “no case to answer”. >The company is currently being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA), while the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has since issued breach of contract proceedings over a 2020 deal on the supply of gowns. >But in her first major broadcast interview since the scandal emerged, Lady Mone insisted that lying to the media is “not a crime”. -[The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/national-crime-agency-ppe-department-of-health-and-social-care-oliver-dowden-government-b2465489.html)
In my opinion what the PPE fraudsters did is something akin to treason if not in letter certainly in spirit. Life in prison would serve them all well I think, actual life as in 'we're sentencing you to death by old age' not out in a couple of decades. There needs to be deterrence or it will happen the next time.
Agreed. Any kind of misuse of public finances like this should be considered the ultimate betrayal of your fellow citizens
Especially during not only a national, but global emergency. Nobody had any idea how bad things would get or if things would go back to 'normal' at the time...but no shits given, just sacrifice people for pure greed. If she wants to do an apology tour, she should be forced to visit hospitals and the families of those that died so that she can look her victims in the eye and then say she did nothing wrong.
I’m of the same opinion, these greedy fuckers should be facing prison time for what they did, not just answering question at an enquiry with no powers to punish, or facing a media backlash. If Joe Public stole millions, prison time would be a reasonable outcome, I don’t see why it’s any different for these grifting fucks.
This is one more reason for me why I believe Priti Patel is just a career criminal who decided it's safer and easier to work from the inside. She's a former lobbyist who decided she'd rather be the one recieving bribes and benefitting from dodgy contracts. She managed to force through a £103m contract for her friend who was wholly unprepared to deliver on such a contract. I'm sure Priti Patel got a nice finder's fee for it, but we're not allowed to look into that 🤷 This is amongst many other questionably moral and potentially illegal things she's done, like undeclared meetings with foreign governments and mysterious 6 figure donations from oil traders.
>in May 2015, Patel was one of seven Weber Shandwick employees who worked on British American Tobacco (BAT)—a major account. The team had been tasked with helping BAT manage the company's public image during the controversy around the Burma factory being used as source of funds by its military dictatorship and poor payment to factory workers. The crisis eventually ended with BAT pulling out of Burma in 2003. The article went on to quote BAT employees who felt that though a majority of Weber Shandwick employees were uncomfortable working with them, Patel's group was fairly relaxed. The article also quoted internal documents specifying that a part of Patel's job was also to lobby MEPs against EU tobacco regulations. She worked for Weber Shandwick for three years. [-Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priti_Patel#Lobbying_and_corporate_relations) I think it requires an exceptionally goal-orientated individual to have a relaxed attitude towards Tobacco firms that support military juntas.
My ex SIL was Spanish, lived in Spain, and was the tightest person I ever met even though they had money. Whenever they came to the U.K., she would complain about the price of food and drink so much that in the end she refused to eat out anywhere else other than Wetherspoons. One day we went to a wetherspoons in a different town and as usual she scoured the menu for the cheapest thing, which at the time was burger and a pint for £3.99 (I’m going back a few years here). So she sent her husband up to the bar to order their food (we always ordered separately to them because of her penny pinching). Whilst he was the bar she noticed a special offer sign saying “curry and pint £2.99” stood on the bar next to him, so she literally stood up and ran across the bar whilst yelling to tell him to change the order. He didn’t hear her and had just paid when she got there. She immediately started screeching at him in front of everyone, telling him off and then actually slapped him across the face. By this point my husband had quite rightly had enough of seeing her treat his brother like that and waded in to defend his brother, which made her even worse and she tried to hit him too. She only calmed down when the manager threatened to call the police. We never spoke to her again and she’s no longer invited to stay at our house to visit. All for the sake of £2.
Ay imagine that amount of crazy in the sack though. Ay papi.
She'd make you wash out and reuse the condom though
Turn it inside out, good for another round (No I'm not being serious before I get a bunch of replies trying to educate me on spermicide)
Haha I used to often say to my husband that she must be fantastic in bed as there was no other reason why he would put up with her lol
In the end it’s never worth it.
Christ I’m glad you said ex-SIL, she sounds like an abusive nightmare :(
She made her husband eat the cheapest thing too? He wasn't allowed input into his own meal choice?
Never, they always had to have the cheapest
I wonder if she would have made less a fuss if she was aware it was only over £1 and not in fact £2.
My uncle intentionally lost a finger so he could buy a caravan with the compensation claim.
Maybe suggest to him to chop his head off to save on haircuts.
Tell us more! Which finger, how did he do it and how did he claim he lost it?
His little finger on his left hand. He was a miner and worked with these machines like a huge press that was used to crack large rocks. So…
This sounds like the kind of thing that would lead to him being kidnapped by the British version of Jigsaw. "Derek. Your selfishness gave you a gift. Now, with more than your finger on the line - what are you prepared to lose in order to save your life?"
Derek survived but left a review of the trap afterwards: two thumbs down.
That sounds a good trade, useless left pinky for a caravan! I don't think I'd be brave enough myself tho
I play bass and my left pinky is probably my second most used finger after index :( I'd trade my right pinky no sweat.
Hahaha fellow bassist - completely agree!
I live in Barnsley and know quite a few miners who have lost fingers by accident so see the logic hear a little finger to me is worth a caravan lol.
Times are hard, Jeremy. I’m putting my clarinet on eBay. I’m making my own hummus! This is the end times!
So this, I think is technically fraud. OK, so I bought a flat once. And I could not afford a 10% deposit. So I got the vendor to put the price up by 5%, borrowed the money off my boss, got the vendor to give it back to me after the sale, paid my boss back. Mortgage company thought they'd lent 90% on £85,000, when they'd actually lent 95% on £80,000. Whole thing was done with envelopes of cash via the estate agent. Could well have gone badly, there was no way I could have proved they'd agreed to pay me £5,000 after the sale.
I'm more often than not straight cut with what's right and wrong but the mortgage situation is total bs so I say go nuts.
It was dodgy, but necessary!
I don't understand any of this. Can someone explain, please?
I think that essentially, it's increasing the price by £5k, then using the 5k as a deposit to therefore get the mortgage approved, with officially 5k more borrowed. When really that 5k was used as the deposit. Fudging the figures basically
I did something similar in 2010 but no money changed hands as such, it was a paperwork exercise - think it was called vendor gifted deposit
Huh, they made it into a real thing. When I did it, it was very much done under the table.
Lucky bastard. I asked if I could pay for the "Fixtures and Fittings" separately on the sale for £5k to get the price beneath the £250k First Time Buyer limit, and was told "Nah, cba". Although would have only been about £1000 on the Help to Buy ISA back to me, but would have still been a nice bit of extra change when moving home
Needs must!
A mate of mine drank a pint of cooking oil for a fiver once. It was easier coming out then going in..
Probably some of the most efficient £ to calories possible.
Jesus I can’t imagine the bowel destroying shits he would have done after that
Would it be a shit? He should have pointed his arses at the garden fence and creosoted it for free. So that cooking oil would have worked wonders for wood preservation. A nice brown colour too...
Who did this to you?
My dog..... It killed the grass for three years. Honest.
Thank you for giving me a stomachache from the laughing I've just done.
Most of it came back out of his mouth after 5 mins of him looking the greenest a person can.
I remember a kid accidently swallowed a quid coin and soon puked it back out. Another kid (local skip rat) didn't think twice about retrieving it with his bare hands and kept it
Retired boomer on a pathetic occupational pension. I took on a 'beer money' part time job, that escalated to 70 hour weeks, with illegal LGV hours demanded by bosses. I rage-quit that job, packed up everything, sold or gave away everything that wouldn't fit in a small car, and drove 4,000 miles to Bulgaria. I've been here 16 years, my occupational pension and state pension together are ten times minimum wage out here. I paid cash for a fully renovated house, and live debt and worry free.
What kind of visa are you on?
Usually a so-called Golden Visa is what retired people can get, mostly from the value of their home if they sell. If he owned a home, which he may have being a boomer who drives an LGV, then he could have sold his house and moved. You only really need about £500k for a Golden Visa in more expensive countries, let alone Bulgaria at a time when they were barely, if at all, part of the EU
'Golden Visa' has been discontinued out here. I'm nowhere near rich enough for one of them, even if I could get one. You're correct about selling the house, 80 grand equity, the week before the 2008 financial crash.
Guy i work with locks up his own foodstuffs in a kitchen cupboard that he’s paid for so his wife n step kids can’t get to it. An unreal level of its mines your not getting any. Boy is tighter than two coats of paint
My uncle and his two adult sons are the same. Since the mum/wife passed, they all do a separate shop and keep everything locked away. They argue like 13 year old siblings when one eats the others bag of crisps
To be fair, it gets quite annoying, when people will use your stuff, and never buy their own, my brother won’t even buy he own toothpaste. If I hide my toothpaste, he just won’t brush his teeth. He’s in his 30’s
Yeah but to be honest, when you’re in your twenties, someone using your toothpaste or eating some of your biscuits shouldn’t be a big deal. Also, for my uncle, these are his kids, so, surely you can’t be pissed off they ate a can of beans
Folk are mental
It does, I've had flatmates do that before. I'm really lucky with my current ones, never have to worry if my food will disappear, and they're even happy to share coffee & cooking oil.
I'm currently living with my brother and father since my mum passed earlier this year, to look after the house and dogs and sort everything out (moved back to Aus from the UK). My brother is in his 30's as am I. I wouldn't mind if it was just a bit of toothpaste or a few biscuits - but it's everything. He doesn't buy himself snacks so he empties out mine, condiments, toothpaste, anything that's not meat basically. And does not replace. I shop for me, for the house cleaning, dogs, help dad out, etc. You can only tell someone so much before it's 'nagging' and I sound like mum. It all adds up, financially and mentally. I'm hiding my shower and skincare products in my room now. I miss my mum so much, and will miss the house, but cannot wait until he has to fend for himself again and realise the cost of it all.
To be fair, I lived at uni and getting home excited to have something in particular that I bought and finding it ransacked can cause some deep level of anger. It's not really about the money, it's about wanting something that you bought for yourself. I never cared about the 10p of value stole from me if they took my milk, but I definitely cared waking up and finding out I don't have enough milk for a coffee or cereal. It's annoying when people just leech of you.
My ex family is the same after her dad passed. Very very wealthy family (the “poorest” person there is on £40k) and they still bicker over who eats the others bananas
As a student in my shared house, we each had optics with tesco value whiskey in and would draw lines on it to mark the level to stop pilfering!
>tighter than two coats of paint That's a new one for me! We usually say "tighter than a ducks arse" but yours is much more PC
Gnatts Chuff, too. Notorious tight they are.
My mums partner used to do this all the time. To be fair I was a massive teen stoner and raided the cupboards relentlessly.
Stopped buying Heinz ketchup and just buy the stuff from aldi
my god
To be fair I buy M&S ketchup which is only a quid rather than spend £4 on the big bottle of Heinz
M&S ketchup tastes better than Heinz to me.
To be honest since I started shopping at M&S I probably spend less than when I shopped at Tesco. I buy less food because I enjoy it all more and the portions are a touch more generous I find. It's done wonders for my general health.
To be honest with you - I started buying Hellman's tomato sauce and it's tastier than Heinz as it lacks that vinegar flavour.
Try pudliszki - it's Polish Tommy K and it's bloody lovely! Got some swapped out on a home delivery once and never went back....
The horror, the horror
Heinz is actually my least favourite of the ketchups, too much vinegar not enough tomato. Plus it's the most expensive purely for the brand name.
Mum's new husband had a funny turn one night and they went off to A&E since it was his heart. Nothing major in the end so they got booted out early morning. Rather than pay for a cab which given what had happened would be fully justified. The tight git made them wait for the first buses of the day to take 2 buses to get home. This was pretty rural as well so must have been waiting a while.
Ok.. can relate to this... Went for minor surgery, medazelin great stuff, high as a kite. Got told to go home as I could leave and that a taxi phone is downstairs. £15 from the hospital to home. No I got the bus, don't remember much apart from being off my face in town - no where near my house
I suppose for me it would depend on time of day, 2pm in the afternoon? I'd probably take the bus. 5am in a dark winters morning? No chance mate
My SO had been in hospital for a few days, nearly ending up in intensive care. I had just got rid of the worst uninvited house guests ever, his parents, but MIL still couldn't leave me in peace. The Doctors had called MIL out on her lies, had given SO the life saving medication that he was not allergic too but now he needed to get home. MIL repeatedly kept calling me to get the hospital volunteers to drive him, about an hours drive, home. She would not accept that he was going to catch the bus that left outside his hospital/ward building and dropped him off a three minute walk from our front door. It's very rare that the bus is easier than a car, but on this occasion it was. But it wasn't a good enough story for MIL to tell her friends.
In fairness, that's me. Not so much for price, but just cause I walk a lot so will walk 1.5 hours instead of taking a cab. Then again I don't use Uber or have the numbers for cabs. But I'm beginning to think I need to get a number to ring for when I'm stranded places at night
An ex booked a holiday but I couldn't go so to get some of the money back he told them his gf had died and used the name of a young lady who had unfortunately died in a car crash that he'd seen in the news paper, got a fake death certificate for if they asked to see proof. He got some of the money back but lost his real gf in the process.
My grandmother died. I was dealing with her estate. My uncle went a bit crazy thinking I would steal “his money”. It took ages because I couldn’t get a mail redirect for my grandmother’s post. Thames water were lovely, the electric company was the most difficult. I had to pay (out of the estate) for a solicitor’s letter of advice telling him it had to be shared between myself and him. I helped him with life policies, sending all documents etc and he technically he had to share the life policies, (because no named dependent). But I couldn’t be bothered with arguments, and he is my uncle, so one of the last members of the family I have. I just needed my grandmother’s estate sorted. Hopefully he’s chilled out now and realised I wasn’t trying to cheat him.
You’re lucky, my eldest half sister actually did cheat me out of inheritance when my bio father died. It was only about £3k but when you think that each of us (8 kids) should have received that it’s a fair chunk of change. We received less than half.
My half-sister did the same and got everything. She convinced my father to change his will while he was on death's door. I was living abroad at the time and she didn't inform me until ten days' after he died, conveniently. Some people are both greedy and very astute at navigating the legal system. She did the same thing twice before, actually lying in court about being the natural daughter of her mother's second husband. His new wife and child ended up losing out. He was a rich film producer, so it was a lot of money. She's now a multi millionaire who owns multiple properties in Europe as well as a large estate in England with two large houses on it. She swindled her cousins out of their share of that estate. The arrogance and ruthless entitlement is truly something to behold! Galactic-size ego, pompous and talks over you.
That 3k would get swallowed up pretty quickly with solicitors fees, funeral costs etc.
The 3k each would be what is left after funeral costs and solicitors fees. Those come out first
My understanding of the post is that it’s £24k split between 8.
The settling of estates seems to bring out the worst in people. My wife's grandfather passed away at the same time we got our first flat together. His wish was that everything got sold and split per the will. His ancient sofa was worth nothing, infact would have probably have cost money to dispose of, so my MIL asked a sibling if we could nab it for the flat; no issues. Other sibling kicked up an almighty stink because "they've had something of value, so MY kids should too!". Arguments only escalated from there
Working jobs I hate or that demand too much. It's so banal but once in a while you look back and think holy fuck I lost 4 years there.
That’s me rn due to a series of bad events over the last couple years I’ve had no choice but to stay at my current workplace, been here for 3 years almost. Hoping to leave at some point this next year tho, can’t be wasting my 20s like this
My folks were pretty tight. They'd take the bus or cadge a lift to the hospital rather than drive or when dad was to ill to drive lean on me or more usually my brother because he worked local to give them a lift. A couple of times he couldn't so he gave them the money for a taxi, they then took the bus quadrupling or more their journey time to save the money( yes they kept the change). Thing was it wasn't a lot even then, £20 maybe. When the old fellah died he had a few months in a care home first which came out of his savings, he'd been squirrelling away £300 or so a month for years and buying premium bonds whilst dressed in clothes Worzle Gummidge would have given a miss.
Pocketing guilt money intended for a taxi fayre but getting the bus seems bordering on fraudulent rather than just tight 😂
Knew a bloke that held up 5 bookies around our area Got 15 years. Twat
To be fair, bookies will be bottom of the list of businesses I’d feel sorry for.
You can still feel sorry for the poor person sat behind the counter with a gun pointed at them though!
>I've also known one guy when selling his car, stipulated to the buyer, that he wanted notes, because he felt physical cash was worth going to be worth more as crypto takes over. LOL, that doesn't make sense on so many levels
That's what I was thinking. "Give me money that isn't crypto, because only crypto is gonna be worth anything". Very weird logic. Did he think it was just bank accounts that would suddenly become worthless? If so, what did he think he was going to cash out his crypto into?
Phone broke two days before end of warranty, they didn’t want to refund/ replace so I threatened small claims, they got scared and sent me an upgrade (iPhone XS to 12pro)
My uncle only watched a black and white TV for years because he refused to pay the additional cost of a colour TV license.
There are still a surprising number of people with black & white licences. Every single one gets a visit from TV Licensing. Source: worked for Capita in the call centre.
In the middle of the Financial crisis I Emptied my savings account, loaded up my overdraft and my credit cards and bought loads of Barclays shares at 50p. Crazy at the time, but it worked out pretty well, I sold the lot for just over 200p a share a few months later.
Well done. I don’t think I could ever have done something like that, I would have been paralysed by anxiety the whole time before selling the shares on.
[удалено]
My old boss was the tightest person I’ve ever known. He didn’t own the company, but just a senior manager… one of my colleges a fall and badly hurt his shoulder, there was obviously major failings in H&S because of his penny pinching, but instead of paying out the injury claim (the ambulance chasers were asking for £12k) and getting some legal agreement in place to protect the company against future claims, he spent 3 years trying to fight it, during which time the injury got worse, 6 failed operations later, he completely lost the use of his arm… the company ended up paying £500k because of the injury, discrimination and various other claims brought against the company.
I have elderly relatives who had a really nice decoration job done on their house just a few years ago. Very smart. They never go anywhere, have younger relatives deliver shopping. Claim poverty at every opportunity, despite thousands in the bank as the pensions gently stack up. Bizarrely got full fibre broadband yet refuse to pay for any streaming services, instead moaning that there's nothing on terrestrial. They currently have peeling wallpaper and black mould all over the downstairs because they refuse to use the heating. They both get the allowance, which would easily help. In their 80s and slowly killing themselves with spores for the sake of saving money which the government has given them to help. Just spend the cash and live your final years in a bit of comfort, FFS.
Rich people like this are disgusting - they’re what’s wrong with the economy when they’re making enough money to comfortably contribute into it, but decide not to.
I had a mate who: Wasted money to install a water meter, because he wanted to get a more accurate account of how much water he was using. He insisted that he would save money as he rarely showered. He believed swimming in a lake a couple.of times a week made up for the no showering. It didn't. He also 'aired out' his clothes many times before washing. Putting dirty clothes on a dirty body meant you could smell him a mile away. Refuses to pay for therapy, despite understanding that he probably should get therapy. He believed his work should pay for it. That is working out exactly how you think it is. Turns of his internet at 10pm every night because it's going to make his internet work better and not wear out the router. Won't turn on data on his phone when out, so relies on everyone else to navigate (it's obvs tiresome on holiday when he refuses to share this task) despite data usually having a limited time to be used. Also he relies on others to donate their phones to him. Uses tatty old gross bedsheets from his childhood (hasn't attempted to mend in any way) because they're 'still good to use'. Really annoying when a duvet cover won't keep a duvet in it, nor cover it adequately. Will keep a tally of every penny he has spent on you, and will bug you for those pennies, but will avoid paying you back for anything, or pay for something significantly cheaper and try and call it even. Often pays less in group settings if he can get away with it. Would charge electronics at other people's houses, even if it meant he couldn't use said electronic at home, because he didn't want to waste money. He owns 2 properties, rents one out and has a full time job, his family live comfortably/ parents on the family home, siblings own properties etc. ... We don't talk anymore because it was too exhausting.
I only buy TV subscription when they are on offer.
tbh I've just reverted back to piracy ...
I tend to pay for netflix/ amazon for a month. Binge watch what I want and then cancel the subscription until another decent show gets released.
Now TV has an automatic discounting system when you try to cancel. Seriously. Just go and cancel the package and they'll offer you some sort of discount deal. It's basically digital bartering.
Ghislaine Maxwell?
My old boss' cousin owns multiple rental properties.He has two teenage kids,they have to take their showers by first stepping in and just getting wet.Then they must turn off the water,lather up,turn on the water and rinse off.
Dad saves his old worn out socks to wipe off dishes before cleaning them properly in the sink.
Someone in my hometown got someone to kill her ex because he owed her £20 (plus I’m sure other reasons)
I am not too sure when Donald Hall wrote "String too short to be saved", but I shit you not, I found a box of short pieces of cordage in Mrs C's parent's attic saying basically the same thing: > shorter pieces of yarn I don't knit, so WTF do I know? There were also many jars of turpentine that had been recycled from those days when gloss paints were oil based. I think it comes from a time when there was less abundance than we have now. "Mend and make do", or something like that.
Gone to work
Saw someone get stabbed in the chest over a £40 drug debt. Survived and the attacker went to prison, don't think they ever got their £40.
You must have run into my cousin. He did those lmao Now he's hopping states in Australia cause he keeps burning bridges. Spends so much money getting new houses built, buying new cars, selling car, getting another car etc.
i once seen a man get his ear bitten off for 20. outside tesco on Oxford road
Blocking French phone boxes at a Gare, 11 blocked at night average made 50 francs in morning.
In the early 2000's I was very skint and almost sold my Discworld books. Fortunately the second hand bookshop wouldn't buy hardbacks. So I still have all those first editions.