Being ‘tight’ with money - how tight are you with yours?

newatc

I grew up in an environment where money was scarce and my parents and grandparents went to incredible lengths to save money and waste absolutely nothing.
I have fortunately been very lucky and I'm now very comfortable financially speaking. I think I'm reasonably generous but no doubt because of my upbringing I hate waste. Even in my daughter's house I will go around knocking unused lights off. I infuriate my wife by doing the same at home and hanging on to my clothes well past their best days to just give two of many examples. In fairness to her, she understands why I'm like that and would never call me tight or mean.

John_G_Jones

Not at all. I normally get the first round in, like trading friends to dinner, and enjoy getting people nice presents.

I had a friend at school who was tight, who’d make sure he got the round in in the cheapest pub,,if he got a round at all, he’d refuse to pay back money owed for as long as he possibly could, and would always let others pay first, and he rightly got a terrible,reputation because of it.

EachPenny

debtfreeforlife wrote: »

'Tight' to me means being selfish with money - thrifty is just using what you have efficiently and sensibly. I'd interpret things like not tipping a waiter who has provided acceptable service as tight, trying to avoid paying your fair share of a bill, etc. Companies which are registered in tax havens are tight.

This is a good example of just how down to personal perceptions things can be.

Why on earth would you tip a waiter who has only provided an "acceptable" service?

Carl31

EachPenny wrote: »

This is a good example of just how down to personal perceptions things can be.

Why on earth would you tip a waiter who has only provided an "acceptable" service?

Tipping in the UK is just plain weird anyway, like service charges, although Service charges are just a rip off anyway

michaels

I think it may depend on how hard earned your money is - if that £10 means another hour of work in the job you hate then you would need something pretty special to spend it on to go through an hour of misery for. If you quite like your job then what you get for that same tenner no longer needs to be nearly as good to make up for having to do an hours work.

ouraggie

My sister and I grew up in an environment where money was tight. As an adult she spends freely but usually within her means. I find it hard to do the same and have always been a saver.
I think I am thrifty rather than tight but I reckon my friends would say I am tight. However, I find largely that people who say that to my face ( often as a "joke") are actually the tight one themselves. I am thinking of one lady in particular.; when we eat out as a group she orders several beers while the rest of us have one or just drink water. She then ends with an Irish coffee and when the bill comes she always says "Oh, life's too short to spend an hour working it out. Let's just say 18 quid each" . On past occasions I have said that I will put in £12 as that is my share and she then jokes that I am tight. She also never seems to have any coins for the tip. I have now stopped eating out with her. On another occasion I paid for a hotel room and everyonee owed me £40. She couldn't go at the last minute and I had already taken all the £40s except hers. Neither she nor any of the others offered me anything ( they knew she hadn't paid me) so I paid £80 for my share. I could have asked but I know they would have commented that I was tight so I didn't bother. Now I am £40 out of pocket. I decided not to organise any more trips.
Having read the above posts I will in future respond to comments by saying "I am not tight. I am thrifty" and give definitions if necessary. That might shut them up!
I can identify with the above poster who cycled to save 10p on milk. What the vast majority of my family, friends and colleagues seem to not comprehend at all is that it is 20p here and 5p there which adds up to huge amounts. I have busted a gut trying to stop my partners mum buying carrier bags every time she goes shopping and not taking some withher. Her response is usually "Oh, yeah, save10p. Don't make me laugh!" Last week she was moaning yet again that she was skint. In exasperation I emptied out the cupboard in her kitchen where she stashes them and counted (I kid you not) £32.45 worth of bags!!! She was astounded.....but next time she went shopping she brought home 4 more for her collection!

Brewer20

^^^ The plastic bags from the supermarket (when free) were used as pedal bin liners, nothing I guess unusual there I guess. Now we use charity bags, they seem to be on the increase being handed out or through the door, and you can get more in them, just need a bigger pedal bin:rotfl:
Never ever bought proper pedal bin liners because we are tight.

ouraggie

LOL, Brewer 20. Sadly she doesn't even reuse them. She buys pedal bin liners!
I too use the big bags the "charities" put through my door. I also have several friends and family who save up the ones they get and pass them on to me, normally with a sarky comment,whilst buying bin liners for their own bins! I give up!

comeandgo

Brewer20 wrote: »

^^^ The plastic bags from the supermarket (when free) were used as pedal bin liners, nothing I guess unusual there I guess. Now we use charity bags, they seem to be on the increase being handed out or through the door, and you can get more in them, just need a bigger pedal bin:rotfl:
Never ever bought proper pedal bin liners because we are tight.

We used to use the supermarket bags too, though now use any plastic bag. We use the bread bag, bag the bananas come in, bags the carrots come in, any sort of bag. Our waste is very minimal so small bags will do a couple of days.

debtfreeforlife

EachPenny wrote: »

This is a good example of just how down to personal perceptions things can be.

Why on earth would you tip a waiter who has only provided an "acceptable" service?

I would for two reasons - firstly in a number of countries and particularly the US, waiters rely on tips to bring their salary to something resembling minimum wage. Waiters in the UK are often paid minimum wage which is not enough to live on. Also, I've waitressed previously. Since then I have had a number of jobs, all of which are high pressure and stressful. That waitressing job was still one of the hardest, due to customers who would shout (and swear at me when drunk) for not serving them faster when I was looking after 20 tables, or the food not being good (I had nothing to do with that) or because they'd sat at the table for another half hour after finishing coffees when I had people queueing for tables. If I can't afford a 10% tip then I can't afford to go out, in my opinion.