Look...
...there's nothing "tight" about going to the dump with a load of hedge cuttings and coming home with a garden table. Missed that film at the cinema? Just wait roughly 18 months and the very same film will be available in the bargain box at Tesco for just £3.00. Why buy vegetables in a bag, when the very same vegetables cost less loose and you get to choose each one? We have an armchair at home that was found on a skip outside a pub in Hounslow, about a mile from home, in 1987. I carried that fucker home and we got it upholstered - that's a bargain. Like the other posters of, I imagine, a similar age, we put on jumpers and dressing gowns rather than spend silly money heating the great outdoors via the drafty windows and doors.

I may have mentioned once or twice that when I was a teenager, I was a punk. I did all my clothes shopping in charity shops or the Army surplus shop. Also, I used to hitch-hike - not just free, but you'd usually get stuff like coffee or food bought for you, and you got to meet interesting and nice people. Kids today, don't know they're born, and don't know the value of hard-earned money. Without us, the planet would have died years ago.

The only real tight-wads I came across (stop it), apart from myself, were a load of arrogant underwriters at Lloyds. I used to work at a luncheon club exclusively for Lloyds underwriters. As a members club, everything was on the tab - no cash, therefore no tips. At Christmas, the manageress put up a list for the members' Christmas boxes - bear in mind this was their 'tip' for a whole year of expensive lunches, sometimes three or four times a week, to be shared amongst about a dozen staff - kitchen, bar, waiting staff etc. Some of these (millionaire) members put £10.00 down, some £15.00, the highest tip was £25.00 - tight bastards.

See you all next week.

Apologies for crapness.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:33, 5 replies)

I agree with this.
That's not being tight, that's reusing perfectly good things.

Being tight is refusing to buy something that you genuinely need. It's haggling down the price on something that's already ridiculously cheap. It's complaining over the price of something costing less than the price of a candy bar.

We're of the same kind, you and me...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:46, closed)

But outside a pub
in Hounslow? I can't disagree with you on anything else here, but outside a pub in Hounslow?

I, of course, have only ever taken furniture I've found in the streets of quality places like Peckham, Woolwich & Hatfield.
( Moey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 15:07, closed)

Thanks TRL
It is definitely a mindset thing. I actually value things more if I've rescued or 'resussetated' them - makes them more mine and more precious. The thought of saving valuable resources is an added bonus.

...and Gunther, think about it: this chair was thrown out of a pub in Houslow for being not suitable...ergo, it must have had some good points!! [it's a lovely chair, with Queen Anne style wings to keep you cosy in a draft; it has real brass castors and mahogany feet. Lovingly upholstered and with a new cushion it will last another 20 years at least.]

I spent half of Saturday morning out in the garden, stripping down on old upright chair - must be 1950s, possibly 1960s - while listening to Jonathan Ross on Radio 2 - ah me, I must be getting middle-aged.






Nice, isn't it.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 15:27, closed)

I understand.
My favourite chair was rescued from a friends house after they had an overhaul of its contents. It had belonged to the grandmother of one of them, is probably older than I am, and is, in my reckoning, the best chair ever to have been... it even has a foot rest that springs up from beneath when you push the back back.

Everyone else hates it. I loves it.




and I seriously have acquired furniture from worse places than the outside of a pub in Hounslow... a street in Woolwich being one!
( Moey, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 15:43, closed)

No need for apologies
*Click* for overall quality but especially for
'Kids today, don't know they're born, and don't know the value of hard-earned money. Without us, the planet would have died years ago.'
You sound as if you want to grab an emo by the scruff of the neck and shake him till he cries.
(muzzvsworld, Sat 25 Oct 2008, 6:45, closed)