In this financial climate, everyone is looking to save a few bucks here and there. But some frugal people take it to the extreme and end up doing stingy things that don’t sit well with the people around them. It might involve extreme couponing, reusing old items even when they should be retired, or not sharing food with friends.

A shocked woman shared her experience with a stingy friend who invited her over for dinner, only for the hosts to indulge in a feast while she had to make do with a salad.

More info: Mumsnet

A woman was invited for dinner, assuming she would get a meal, but when she arrived the host was surprised that she didn’t bring her own food

Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)

Woman invited friends to her house for dinner and cooked up tasty traditional dishes, she received a dinner invitation from the same friends telling her to “come to theirs for some food”

Image credits: Pepper Geek (not the actual photo)

She took a jar of chili peppers as a small gift, but her host was confused and asked her if that was all she would be eating because they expected everyone to bring their own food

Image credits: Pavel Danilyuk (not the actual photo)

The woman was perplexed because she thought her friends had invited her as a guest, to which her friends replied, “yes, we invited you to come to the house for dinner!”

Image credits: Marssuri

She didn’t have anything to eat so they chopped raw vegetables, added white sauce, and put the salad on the table while they ate their own meals without offering her anything else

The author shared her experience with a stingy friend when she was invited to their house for dinner. She started off by sharing that she had called her friends to her place for dinner one day and prepared tasty dishes from her culture, such as sausage rougail and chicken cari. She also made dessert for them. Because of her invitation, her friends returned the favor and told her to come to theirs for supper.

Usually, people don’t turn up empty-handed when they are invited to someone’s house. So the poster brought a small jar of chili peppers to give her friends. When she gave it to them, one of the hosts asked her if that was all she was going to eat. The woman was confused until the friend mentioned that they had wanted everyone to bring their own food.

That’s when the woman was shocked and tried to clarify that she had been invited for dinner. The hosts did not seem to realize the misunderstanding, but they said that they would “share” some of their food with her. Instead of letting her eat their meals, they cut up different raw vegetables and placed them along with white sauce in the middle of the table. 

The author was surprised by her friends’ stinginess and probably had to return home with an almost empty stomach. According to Psychmechanics, “stinginess is the opposite of generosity. While a generous person gives freely, often finding giving a pleasurable activity, a stingy person withholds and finds giving hard and uncomfortable. Though stinginess is commonly associated with money, it manifests in other areas too.”

Image credits: fauxels (not the actual photo)

Research has shown that stingy people might be the way they are for a number of reasons. It can be due to their upbringing, where resources were limited, and they developed a scarcity mindset to try and hold onto things. Another reason could be due to low self-esteem or anxiety about the future. Sometimes life difficulties and loss of one’s job can push people into a form of survival mode where they want to hold onto resources.

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Stinginess can manifest in many different ways. Most people think that it’s about being miserly with money, but it can also be seen when people hoard objects, don’t want to share, or end up scarfing down food without giving their friends any. Whatever the reasons were for the poster’s friends not to share their meal, it ultimately annoyed the woman enough for her to write this post.

Being miserly about things can also have negative effects on the person’s mental health. Researchers at Queensland University of Technology conducted an experiment on participants who were playing a financial bargaining game. They found that the people who made lower offers experienced more stress than those who were generous. It shows that being stingy can negatively impact your mood and increase your stress levels.

The author’s story helps shine a light on the way being miserly can impact one’s relationships with other people. The post received over 1k replies, and many people shared their own experiences with miserly folks. What would you have done if your friend called you over for dinner only to give you a salad to munch on? Let us know in the comments, and tell us if you’ve ever had a similar experience.

Netizens shared their experiences with stingy friends, and some even faced this annoying problem at people’s weddings

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