45 People Are Sharing the Strangest Habit of the Cheapest Person They Know, and It’s Over the Top

This poster’s friend refuses to use the air conditioning in his car to save on gas, even though he lives in Phoenix, Arizona! For context, on July 18th, 2023, the temperature in Phoenix was a staggering 118° Fahrenheit. And still, he refuses to budge. But we think we’ve worked out why…

Arizona and neighboring New Mexico are notorious for UFO sightings, so we think this guy must be a cold-blooded, reptilian alien to withstand those kinds of temperatures.

We don’t know if this penny-pinching trick is genius or the behavior of someone who’s, wait for it… gone bananas! The elderly man discarding the banana skins has its pros and cons. The upside is that he only has to pay for the part of the banana he actually eats.

But, the downside is bananas turn brown within minutes of being peeled. Presumably, he ate the bananas on his way home before they turned. If you see someone who obviously can’t pay for their food, why not help them out?

If you thought only paying for peeled bananas was genius, then wait till you hear this one! This social media user says their local newspaper ran a competition to find out the biggest cheapskate in town. That’s some fine news reporting right there!

A local man wrote in to admit he used to pop around to his neighbors to use the restroom so he could save on TP! He also presumably saved on soap while he was there. Hell, while you’re there, why not use their toothpaste and toothbrush?

What is it with these men who pop around to their neighbors or use work restrooms instead of using their own toilet at home? Do they save up their ablutions? Because we always thought that when a man’s gotta go, a man’s gotta go!

Working out how much money you save not going to the toilet means only one thing. This guy’s gotta be an accountant, right? Which reminds us of an old kid’s joke. Did you hear about the constipated accountant? He worked it out with a pencil.

Speaking of accountants, this social media user’s sister is also as cheap as chips… as they say in England. Although, in today’s financial climate, nothing is cheap, not even English French fries. Anyway, can you imagine being asked out for lunch and then taken out to some grotty chiropractor’s surgery to chomp on some stale sandwiches?

They say, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” But there is… so long as you don’t mind sharing your free lunch with a gaggle of elderly strangers complaining about their bad backs. Happy Birthday, Sis!

This person knew a tightwad who would drive to within a certain distance of his road trip destination and purposefully pull his fuel pump relay. Next, he’d call a CAA tow truck to take him the rest of the way and save gas.

Now, when they say their friend called the CAA, we assume that’s the Californian Automobile Association and not the Civil Air Authority and that he was driving his car and not a pilot flying a jumbo jet!

This poor man was living through a nightmare. He’d just been arrested for a visa violation and was on his way to jail for who knows how long when the cops had the cheek to ask him for gas money! We hope he told them to go to hell… because it’s not too far away.

In neighboring Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert lies the Gates of Hell. The Darvaza Gas Crater is a 230-foot-wide drilling hole that caught on fire in 1971 and has been burning ever since.

This guy’s gluten-intolerant friend is so mean that he prefers to poison himself rather than spend money. So when he discovered San Fran’s bottomless free bread places, he took full advantage. In fact, bread is the only thing he ate, sending his food allergy into overdrive.

Apparently, he spends his days moaning in agony as his insides churn and roil, suffering from a constant “fiery diarrhea,” but he refuses to stop eating all this delicious bread because it’s free!

This hilarious entry works on several levels. It’s the gift card that keeps on giving. The first funny thing is imagining receiving a Starbucks gift card for Christmas. Then, imagine your face when you open the envelope to see the gift card is for a measly five bucks… which might cover a pumpkin shot in a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

But wait, there’s more! When you go to use the card, it’s only got 10 cents loaded on it. Now you know why they say, “It’s the thought that counts.”

Staying with Starbucks, this employee’s co-worker is so cheap he not only takes expired food home with him (which is canny and should be applauded and encouraged), but he also dives into trash cans to save sandwiches that have been dropped on the floor.

Everyone knows that dropped food is fine if it’s only been on the ground for less than two seconds. We’re not sure the two-second rule also applies to trash cans! The same employee also used to wash himself and his clothes in Starbucks employees’ showers.

This guy’s sister is such a cheapskate that when she invited him over for dinner, she served up a delicious bowl of plain pasta, saying pasta sauce because it’s a waste of money! What do you think she cooks when she doesn’t have guests?

She doesn’t have baked beans on toast, as she believes bread is a waste of money, so she has baked beans on a plate. That’s if she’s got plates — it might actually be a case of baked beans on the floor.

Pasta guy’s sister also revealed his sister rents her apartment out on Airbnb, advertising the property came with free Hulu and Netflix. However, when renters wanted to kick back and watch some television, they couldn’t watch Hulu as she was already using the account.

It turns out she was too mean to fork out an extra seven dollars a month to share her streaming service account. In the end, she reluctantly caved in and coughed up the additional few bucks.

They say never speak ill of those who’ve passed away, but this guy thought stealing flowers from graves to give to his wife on their wedding anniversary was okay. When she confronted him about his ghoulish crime, you won’t believe what he said in his defense.

He had the audacity to tell his wife that since the owners of the graves weren’t around, they wouldn’t miss the flowers. Hopefully, the couple didn’t make it to their next wedding anniversary, and she filed for divorce from this awful man.

Unusually, this post comes from a self-confessed cheapskate. Well, at least they’re honest and candid about saving those pennies. In addition to wearing quarter-of-a-century-old swimming trunks and riding a bike to save on sky-high California gas prices, his original post explains he won’t buy clothes, shoes, or food unless they’re on sale.

He’s so cheap he admits he drives a beat-up old Nissan and rotates streaming services, so he only pays for one streaming service per month. He still hasn’t seen the final episode of The Sopranos.

When it comes to grocery shopping, we all love seeking out the best offers in stores. Who doesn’t love a ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offer? Especially when it’s buy one pizza, get one free. But, this social media user’s father loves the prospect of getting something for nothing so much that he bought a dozen yellow sponge cake mixes just to get one free.

After eating a yellow cake every day for almost two weeks, Dad would have ended up looking like Spongecake Bob Squarepants.

This guy was so cheap that he eventually reached his breaking point. Or should we say braking point? We’ve heard stories about people saving money on gas, but this fella was so thrifty that he literally wouldn’t use his brakes to save buying new brake pads.

Presumably, he’d also have been conserving his tires, so he’s a double winner. However, he mowed down several hundred people by not stopping at red traffic stops, costing him millions of dollars in court costs and insurance premiums.

When this dude’s aunt and uncle visited with their two kids, the uncle took his nephew and his two cousins to an ice cream parlor. However, things didn’t go as expected. The uncle bought himself and his own kids ice creams but didn’t buy one for his nephew.

If you asked the uncle, you can bet your bottom dollar he would explain that he was teaching his nephew a valuable life lesson. But, we know the truth — he’s cheap and not very Friendly.

We thought buying clothes and then returning them to the store only existed in 1970s sitcoms, but it turns out people really do it! This poster says her “very wealthy ex-boyfriend” used to do exactly this after attending special occasions. This is how rich people keep their money.

There’s a famous rural legend about a guy who ran out of gas in the English countryside. He walked until he found a huge country estate. The posh landowner let him call the Automobile Association but charged him 10 pence for the phone call!

This example from someone’s mean-spirited sister-in-law is bad enough, but it’s the last sentence that really puts the boot in. The final, last-minute twist is like an M. Night Shyamalan movie. The only difference is, this time, you didn’t see the twist coming.

She talked two different relatives into paying for her children’s private tuition, lying that she needed the money. It’s just another example of the rich staying rich by being mean with their money. However, truth be told, this level of manipulation sounds like narcissism.

This social media user’s uncle had the gall to ask for change from a five-dollar bill from a homeless person. As if homeless people don’t already have enough troubles without having to count out change. The more you think about it, the crazier it gets.

The aunt made the uncle hand over the five-dollar bill to show their charitable side, but it backfired big time. The poster was so unimpressed that she posted his distinctly uncharitable ways on the internet for the entire world to read.

Coffee can be expensive, especially if you like an organic, fair-trade bean from the Amazon. But, this person’s mother cares so little about her cup of joe that she drives to her bank instead of buying a jar of instant coffee!

A morning cup of coffee is meant to be five minutes of peace and quiet — not jumping in your car, hurtling into your bank at 60 miles an hour, and then stealing coffee in a styrofoam cup like a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde!

This guy posted that someone he knew would accept everyone else buying a round of drinks but would disappear when it was his time to buy a round. The longer original post explained he would sometimes buy his round, but only if he knew everyone was staying long enough so another set of rounds would begin.

Then, he’d disappear when it was his second round! Unfortunately, we all know someone who does this. Naming no names — but isn’t that right, Uncle Robin?

Not paying for your round of drinks is one thing, but stealing the tips your friends leave for already underpaid waiting staff is a whole new level. In fact, let’s call it what it is… theft. You like tips? Here’s a tip for you… buddy.

Don’t steal from the waiting staff. He’ll get his comeuppance one day, if not in this life, then in the next. We hope you like the smell of sulfur and brimstone. Oh, and you may wanna pack some sunscreen; it gets hot down there!

Adding water to eke out things like the last drops of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and dish soap is entirely normal — and we all do it from time to time, right? But reusing paper plates is taking penny-pinching to new heights.

Yes, preserving the environment is important, but what this person clearly doesn’t realize is that quickly wiping a paper plate will not get rid of lingering bacteria. Unfortunately, it’s a case of salmonella waiting to happen. It’s no wonder they’re single!

This is one of our favorite instances of being cheap. Using a plastic freezer bag as a wallet is pretty hilarious, but it does come with its advantages and disadvantages. You can see exactly how much cash you’ve got without opening your wallet.

But money is really, really dirty because it changes hands so many times. So, the best way around this is to wash your plastic bags and reuse them like this environmentally-friendly social media user.

This poor, put-upon bride explained that her frugal husband-to-be wanted to wear a 25-year-old shirt his ex-wife bought him… to his own wedding! He eventually caved in and reluctantly “splurged” out on a new shirt… for his own wedding. Talk about red flags!

Her original longer post also explains that her husband wears his battered and holey gardening hat around town. Holey, not holy — he’s not a bishop! Rather than buy a new hat, “he sewed a piece of random fabric across the entire front of the hat.”

This guy’s buddy not only stole Wi-Fi, but he also lived rent-free! The original post reveals he lived with his girlfriend and her three roommates, who were on the lease while he wasn’t.

His girlfriend’s parents paid her rent and didn’t want her living with him, so he didn’t split it with her. But he wasn’t just living parasitically off his girlfriend — he was also ripping off her three roommates by not offsetting their share of the rent. The nerve of some people!

You know how some diners have bowls of candy at the cash register? Well, this person’s friend steals them all! While it’s undoubtedly weird behavior, you can kinda wrap your head around it. But, the same guy also steals napkins and toothpicks from restaurants.

Their friend admits that if their light-fingered friend goes to a diner like Denny’s, his eyes light up like it’s Christmas because he helps himself to dozens of individual packs of jams and peanut butter from those little condiment baskets.

If you’re not from America, you might not know that diners offer free drink refills. Yes, you can buy one cup of coffee, cola, or lemonade and refill it until you burst. But, this student bent the bottomless rules by refilling his friend’s cup. Which is fine… fighting our corporate overlords is positively encouraged!

Still, the strange thing is — as well as stealing his friend’s fries — he didn’t ask. If he’d have just said, “I’m broke; can I get your refill?” his friend would have presumably been okay with it.

This social media user knew someone who’d buy a pack of lightbulbs and then replace the perfectly good new lightbulbs with his old, dead ones. Once he’d completed his quick switcheroo at home, he’d casually walk back into the hardware store, declare the whole pack was faulty, and get his money back.

We wonder how many years he’s been doing this and when he last actually paid for a lightbulb. If he’s a vampire, he might have been doing it since Edison’s first lightbulb in 1879.

This rich dude is so mean that he doesn’t eat because he considers food a waste of money! His ‘mate’ recounts evenings when his wealthy friend “would come over at 10 p.m. and be like, ‘What’ve you eaten today?’ And he’d answer ‘nothing’ and absolutely not be kidding.”

His friend continues, “This guy could order Uber Eats three times a day, and it wouldn’t bother him financially. But, he still just literally skips eating out of cheapness.”

As already mentioned, some rich people stay rich by being financially frugal. However, some other wealthy folks go the extra mile by pleading poverty. This guy has “thousands in the bank” but hates to spend money, so instead, he borrows the odd five or ten bucks from his friend.

The rich dude may forget to carry cash or fill his car with gas. However, his buddy is certain he’s purposefully pleading poverty, so we better take his word for it.

We’ve heard some pretty crazy money-saving tips today, but this one takes the cake. If it’s true, then we’ve never heard of a more miserly man. The stupidest thing about using one lightbulb is that it doesn’t actually save you any money on electricity bills — just the cost of a few extra lightbulbs.

It’s like an old-timey Eastern European folk tale or a Charles Dickens character not putting an extra lump of coal on the fire. Or Mr. Mean from Roger Hargreaves’ Mr. Men books, who gave lumps of coal as Christmas gifts.

Heading back to the old days when the world was black-and-white. This dude’s gran grew up never wasting food and washing out and saving every container for future use. Instead of buying her grandchildren birthday gifts, she would give them her empty makeup cartridges to play with.

However, the icing on the cake was when he found a 30-year-old pack of Jell-O in her cupboard. Eventually, the grandson convinced her to let him buy her a new box of Jell-O for one dollar. She’s still upset about it!

Today, we’ve run the gamut of funny, crazy, and unbelievably mean people and the lengths they will go to save a few pennies. Only flushing the toilet once a day is mad, but you can kind of understand it if they were adamant about saving the planet.

But, using boiled frankfurter water to make your coffee is ridiculous. We’ve tried to explain away some of these odd behaviors, but sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say… this is the wurst idea ever. You’re insane, man!

This poor kid’s mom left him to stay with his auntie while the rest of the family went to Disneyland. His brothers got to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride, his sisters were riding the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and his cousins got to bust ghosts on The Haunted Mansion attraction.

But, this poor kid was sweeping chimneys and begging his aunt and uncle for one more spoonful of porridge. Luckily, his uncle taught him to be a pickpocket like Oliver Twist, which was nice.

We’ve had so many examples of rich people being mean that we were beginning to think there must be something more than this economics equation: Staying rich = spending no money.

Then this guy comes along with a story about his millionaire father-in-law never paying an extra 50 cents for cheese in his burger. His wife’s miserly dad grabs onto every penny because he grew up poor. So, in this example, there’s a deeply embedded psychological reason stemming from childhood.

This person’s former friend came up with a genius plan to collect fast food receipts, then complained so she’d get a free meal. Can you imagine lying to a fast food worker, potentially starting an argument, and demanding to see the manager for a free Fillet-O-Fish burger?

In upmarket Chiswick, London, a woman was arrested for picking receipts off Sainsbury’s supermarket floor and then filling her shopping cart with all the items on other people’s receipts. Apparently, she’d been doing it for years!

We’ve all heard people saying their ex-partner took everything from them in the divorce, but in this case, it’s true. This poor woman’s ex-husband took everything he could get his greasy paws on, including cleaning out the kitchen cupboards and taking basic cooking ingredients.

What didn’t he take? He probably also took the kids’ bikes, the TV remote controls, the lightbulbs out of their sockets, the screws out of the furniture, the comforters off the beds, and the lint out of his kid’s belly buttons.

Some people have no shame. This couple stooped so low that they took a whole box of free stuff from their neighbor’s garage sale and then sold the items they’d just bagged for free to people wandering into their neighbor’s garage sale.

What comes over people when faced with the prospect of making some cold, hard cash? On a similar note, a 2016 study revealed that 21% of American CEOs are psychopaths, sociopaths, or narcissists. That’s much higher than the national average.

After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Depression caused world devastation throughout the 1930s. In the United States of America, mid-western states were particularly affected. Anyone with grandparents who grew up in Dust Bowl states will probably have heard their stories of woe.

So, this isn’t really a story about being cheap — it’s fair enough as it’s a learned survival mechanism. But who ever heard of tomato, peanut butter, and mayonnaise sandwiches? That’s enough to give you anyone a great depression.

Staying with the Great Depression, this poster’s mother grew up in the late 1930s and reuses aluminum wrap. That’s fine, but she also re-uses paper towels. The original, longer post explains that their grandmother was a single mom and an immigrant, which couldn’t have been easy.

But the funny thing is, they explained, now their mom and dad are quite wealthy — but she still re-uses paper towels! We guess some survival techniques are as deeply ingrained as that Midwest dust.

This person has compiled a long list of complaints about her friend’s cheap tricks. She makes whipped butter by whipping soft margarine with water. Her burgers are more breadcrumbs than beef. She dilutes powdered drink mix with twice as much water.

She uses half milk and half water on her cereal. She also puts individual servings of ketchup, mustard, and mayo in snack bags so no one wastes condiments. Finally, when she takes her friends out for dinner, she only orders from the kids’ menu!

Now, if you thought that peeling the skins off bananas before weighing them was nuts, wait til you get a load of this. You’ve heard of seedless grapes, but what about stemless cherries? Yes, folks, this person’s mother went out with a guy who would pull the stalks off cherries before weighing them.

Apparently, the 0.001 cents he’d save on each cherry was worth the humiliation. You can bet that life wasn’t a bowl of cherries growing up in this household.

Christmas comes but once a year. The holidays are meant to be a time of peace on earth and goodwill, togetherness, charity, and understanding. People are supposed to become less grumpy, and instead of declaring, “Bah, Humbug!” show their charitable side. But not everyone does, it seems.

What would you do if your cousin invited you over for Christmas dinner and then charged you five dollars? That would be enough to turn the most charitable person back into Ebenezer Scrooge!

Speaking of Charles Dickens, this guy’s father once saw his Scrooge-like boss straightening out staples so he could re-use them! This begs the question — what else did the thrifty head honcho reuse when no one was looking? Toilet paper?

Did the fat cat eat those tiny slivers of metal for lunch as part of his staple diet? Do not try eating staples or reusing toilet paper at home… save money by doing it at your neighbor’s house!