People Share The Cheapest Things They’ve Seen A Rich Person Do

Do you ever think, “When I’m rich, I’ll stop doing this,” or “When I have enough money, I’ll start doing that?” For some, it might be, “I’ll stop shopping discount,” or “I’ll start giving bigger tips.” The rich people in the stories down below may have had these thoughts before they were rich, but it looks like they didn’t follow through – not even a little bit. These mega-rich people have been caught doing the cheapest things, things that not even someone with an average income would do.

These things range from the ridiculous to the outrageous. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people have caught rich men and women refusing to give tips or giving small tips for big orders. Others are so greedy, you can’t help but wonder why they are the way they are. One man, for example, had a fit over a teenage girl who wouldn’t give him a free sample because she ran out. One millionaire employee gave his employees a ten-dollar bonus…uhhh, really?

Some of these stories are so no-frills and downright frugal that you’re left with your mouth dropped or scoffing in disgust. Ther are a few gems in here guaranteed to make you cringe as well as laugh out loud.  For example, one story you won’t forget is about an employer who took his employee to Costco and filled him up with samples just so he wouldn’t have to take him to dinner!

Are you intrigued yet? I’ve already read these stories, and still, I find myself wanting to read them again.

So, what do you say we stop putting this off and get started?

30. This Couple Exploded Over A Slight Miscalculation And $0.29

“I worked occasionally at a farm stand in NY. I don’t know for sure if these two customers (husband and wife) were multi-enough for the question but I was told that by the owner.

They (weekenders) came in from NYC. Husband came in, wanted ‘the best local [X] cheese.’ Best is a difficult word, I explained. These two types are both very good, but they taste a little different. He didn’t reply. He asked me how much it would cost. I gave him an approximate price based on the price of the cheese per pound and how much cheese he wanted, a half-pound.

We’re talking around $9 US dollars total.
So, I get the cheese slicer and cut a chunk that was very, very close to 1/2 pound. I have to eyeball it—understand that cheeses have different densities and you have to know how much a wheel of cheese weighs, to begin with. I also explained beforehand the exact price would be what the scale said. I cut a slice and weighed it. I was $0.29 off.

A good estimate on my part, but he argued and was angry. He insisted I misled him and therefore he shouldn’t have to pay an extra twenty-nine cents as if I mislead him.

I kid you not; he was outraged over $9.29 instead of $9.00. This is not a factory, I reminded him. But he continued to confront me. Over 29 cents.”  Chris Cu

29. He Asked For A 10% Raise, She Had A Fit

“I gave her computer lessons. This was more than ten years ago.

She lived with her husband in a three-story mansion in one of the nicer neighborhoods in Jerusalem, the kind of house that screams opulence: Italian marble, gold-rimmed mirrors in the bathrooms, enough rooms to play hide-and-seek for a lifetime, and live-in domestic help.

She drove a white BMW SUV and her husband a green, spacious Jaguar.

They owned a lot of real-estate in both Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. High-rise buildings worth obscene amounts of money.

I charged her the same amount per hour that I charged my other clients.
I came to her house every week for a few months. Then I went traveling to India for a while. When I got back, everything was a bit more expensive. Inflation.

None of my clients minded my charging ten percent more. ‘Oh yes, of course, a young man like you could use it!’ they had said.

She, on the other hand, freaked out when I told her.

‘You know, prices have gone up,’ I said.

‘Many other freelancers are charging more than I do. I’m asking for ten percent more. I don’t think that’s so much…’

She was in her fifties and had a good complexion, but as soon as I finished talking it was as if all those wrinkles biding their time beneath her nice, smooth skin erupted all at once, making her face into a corrugated mask.
‘WHAT? YOU WANT MORE MONEY?!’ she shrieked, the white leather couch squeaking as she shifted around uncomfortably. ‘WHY?! AREN’T I PAYING YOU ENOUGH?! NO ONE ASKS ME FOR MORE MONEY!’

‘Okay, okay, it’s fine…’ I raised my arms in surrender.

‘I was just saying… I’m sorry…’

The domestic help came in, wearing her starched maid’s uniform, and placed a silver platter with teacups on the table—sparkling fine bone china —before sidling out of the room silently. ‘It’s okay if you don’t agree…’ I went on. ‘Don’t worry about it… it’s really fine…’

She sat there pouting for a while in her white training pants, white designer t-shirt, and white slippers until the anger cleared from the air. Meanwhile, a brown-striped Persian cat came and leaped onto her lap, as if to console her, and glared at me with its half-moon jade-green eyes.
Oh, by the way.

Guess what she had me teach her. How to download music [illegally] for free.” Ben A. Wise

28. This Rich Man Only Looked Like He Was About To Help Someone

“I was working at a warehouse that used a lot of day laborers. A guy on my team is down and out, really shabby-looking. His clothing is falling apart, and just really doesn’t look very put together. The manager strolls by and sees this guy is tripping over his shoes because the sole of his runner has separated and is flapping. The manager pulls a wad of bills from his trousers, held together by an elastic band.

Says to the floppy shoe guy that we can’t have this and let me help. The manager pulls out the wad of bills, unwraps the elastic band and hands the band to the flappy shoe guy.” Mistercrawlingchaos

27. This Millionaire Got A Teenage Girl Fired Because She Ran Out Of Free Samples

“My dad has a friend who is very successful, very rich, and most definitely a multi-millionaire. He comes to visit every once in a while with his family. While I’ve never liked him very much, he didn’t come off as stingy to me…until he visited this summer.

We were at the food court at the mall.

He kept on making rude remarks about how the food was ‘low class’ and harassing the staff, which was all very stereotypical rich jacka*s like things to do, but then he does a complete 360-degree personality switch when we get to a Ghirardelli shop at the mall.
A teenage girl, who is maybe in high school, is giving out free samples. My dad’s friend approaches and asks for a sample. She apologizes and says, in a very polite manner, that the store has just run out of samples.

What any normal, semi-respectful person would have done was thank the person for the information and walk away.

No. This guy has enough money to buy the entire Ghirardelli chain, yet he decides to pick a fight with a high-school girl.

‘Excuse me?’ he snaps, drawing the attention of a small crowd. ‘What do you mean, there are no more samples?’

The girl grows nervous and is clearly uncomfortable by the attention he is drawing. ‘Um, the store gives me a certain number of chocolates for samples, and I’m afraid we’ve run out.’ You would’ve expected him to back down. But no. He persists.
Pointing angrily at the girl, he demands to talk to her manager. He then proceeds to trash talk her.

‘You are a lying, cheating, little brat,’ he hisses. ‘How dare you disrespect me. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘The customer is always right?’ Ungrateful wench. I’m going to get you fired for this, just wait.’

The girl is biting her lips nervously. She’s so upset she’s almost crying. Her eyes are red-rimmed and she looks scared. ‘I need this job. Please don’t fire me, sir.’

Skip to the end of the story: He gets her fired.

I have never seen someone look as upset and humiliated as that high-school girl. She was crying freely and begging the manager to rehire her. Meanwhile, my dad’s rich jacka*s friend is smirking on the sidelines and bragging to the large crowd that has gathered that he is glad that he has fired her, and laughs in contempt when she begins to weep.

I was disgusted.
This man, a multi-millionaire, had fired a girl for something that was entirely not her fault. He had fired her because the store had run out of samples.

If that’s not cheap, I don’t know what is. We are definitely not inviting that jacka*s and his family to come over next summer.” Laura Chiu

26. He Owned Half The Town, And Yet, He Couldn’t Pay For A Full Milk At McDonald’s

“When I was in college, I worked at a McDonald’s near campus.  This was in a college town where the number of students is roughly equal to the regular population of the town (around 25,000 each).

One of our regular customers was a wealthy man who owned half the town. Seriously, he owned almost all of the apartment complexes where students lived, as well as some other local businesses.  He was basically a slum lord.  I avoided his apartments for the first few years I was there, but I lived in one of them during my last year. It was terrible. The apartments were poorly maintained and in terrible condition. They were ridiculously expensive for how sh*tty they were.  Without going into too much detail, I will say that it was my worst rental experience ever. Over the years, I’ve rented and lived in about 10 different apartments/houses, and that one was clearly the worst, in terms of the condition of the apartment itself and also the service from management and maintenance.

This man came into McDonald’s every single day for breakfast. He would get his senior citizen coffee (I don’t remember now if it was free or if it was 25 cents), which he was eligible for due to his age. That was fine with me, I will never resent older people for their age-related discounts, no matter how much money they have, but he would also order the cereal with milk and demand that we give him the kid’s price, which was a discount for kids age 12 and under. That really bothered me a lot. The same person can’t be both old enough for the senior discount and young enough for the kid’s discount.  If you charged him the regular price for the cereal and milk, he would reach over the register and show you which button to use to give him the kid’s price.

And to top it all off, he always asked a manager to go to our break room to get him our newspaper. They had a subscription to the local paper for us to read on our breaks, and it was not out in the lobby for customers to read. But this customer insisted on reading it every day. If an employee was reading it on their break, it would be taken from them so he could read it. He was too cheap to buy his own damned newspaper.

That was over 20 years ago, and I still remember him as the cheapest, most miserly tightwad I’ve ever met.’ Heather Jedrus

25. He Was A Billionaire But He Insisted This Teen Overcharged Him

This is probably the most shocking thing that has ever happened to me.

My family owns quite a popular boutique hotel in Turkey that is absolutely swarming with American tourists every summer. Back in 2014, when I was a 13-year-old kid, I was the (metaphorical) mascot of the hotel. Working here was the highlight of my life. All-day and every day, I would do anything to make our guests feel at home. I was the best at this job, I had been born into it.

It was on one such occasion that I met two of the most pleasant guests to ever stay at our place. A gentleman called Isaac, and his wife, Angela.
For 3 days, Isaac (60) and I (13) would talk about travel, politics, botany, wine tasting and every conceivable topic there is.

Isaac treated me like a man rather than a little kid, which made me feel quite honored. His knowledge and education were impressive, and he was obviously an extraordinary man. However, when I asked what he did for a living, he told me that he sold toys.

When the time of departure came, I had to complete the checkout process of this lovely couple. This meant that I had to break down the total cost of their stay down to each component and take their money. After about calculating the total cost and converting it to dollars for about 5 minutes, I told them the price.

‘670 Dollars.’

Isaac took a long look at the sheet, and politely said:

‘$660.’

I was confused. I re-did my calculations, took another 5 minutes, and arrived at $670 again. Rather than asking him why he didn’t think so, I declared the same number.

He did not seem frustrated, but I could see from his tone that he was not willing to budge. Finally, I asked why it was $660. He showed me where I had made a clear mistake in my calculations. I apologized, and to compensate for my arrogance, took $650.

With both sides content, they sadly departed. Once they had left, I searched up his name on Google.

He was none other than the founder and CEO of MGA Entertainment, Isaac Larian. A BILLIONAIRE.

In a sense, I feel he did not care one bit about the $10. He wanted to teach me how to be more precise and reliable in what I do, but that’s one way to look at it.

But there’s another way. I haggled with a billionaire over $10 at the age of 13.” Tavit Nisanyan

24. His Rich Grandfather Stole His Dad’s Money

“My grandfather was a very rich man. He lived in a big house. At one time he even had a chauffeur drive him around. That was my image of him.

He also owned a lot of property. And he loved money. He would rather go hungry than spend money at a restaurant or even a roadside stall. He insisted on going back home to eat.

When my father got his top job, my granddad went to see him about borrowing some money for his ‘project.’

My grandfather concocted a story where he said his cash was tied up and he needed some money for this investment property he was going to buy.

My dad was elated at his recent promotion, so he didn’t think too much about it and issued my grandfather with a personal cheque.

It was a big sum, my dad had been saving some money for a nice big home he had been looking at. My dad trusted his own father. Why wouldn’t he?
Several weeks went by before my father got suspicious. He went to see his father, my grandfather. I went with him, I was only a small boy.

I still remember my father yelling at my grandfather through his big gate to open up. My grandfather sent his sh*tty maid to see my dad and ask him what he wanted. My dad was pretty angry and said some stern words.

The maid went back into the house.

And we waited and waited in the hot sun. 30 minutes later the maid came back with a note for my dad. Dad read that note and crumpled it in his hand before throwing it on the ground. I naively picked it up and read it.
On it was my grandfather’s neat handwriting, ‘Never trust anyone, son.’

My dad was never the same again after that. He became quite bitter.

To some people who do not understand what happened. My grandfather deceived my father into loaning him a large sum of money, enough for a deposit for a home. He never returned it. My mother much later speculated that my grandfather felt my dad owed him the money for his education and bringing him up.

He realized my dad wouldn’t give him such a large sum. So he thought up this trick, or maybe someone else suggested it to him, who knows?
My grandfather remained estranged from us. I seldom saw him. I heard that he used to go to the bank on a bus to deposit his money. He would carry his money in a brown paper bag. Several times, the money got stolen. Either he forgot and left the money on the bus or someone took the money bag when his back was turned. My dad heard this from the banker, who was his friend too.

My grandfather eventually died in squalor with old newspapers piled all over his home and broken machinery from his other business ventures. He was still rich, very rich though.” David K. Lee

23. It’s One Thing To Worry About Wasting Food, It’s Another To Be Stingy

“My ex-boyfriend came from a wealthy family. I never knew how much but it was at least a couple of millions. Every Christmas, the kids would receive a ton of money. Literally, a ton. Around 100.000 euro and they didn’t even say thank you.

But they were weird about spending it. One the one hand, lots of luxury (they had just bought their fifth car, even though the kids all had their own cars already).

On the other hand, when his family and I went out for dinner and he ordered a pizza, his mother interrupted his pizza ordering since it would be too big for him and taking it home was not an option to her. So he ordered spaghetti instead.
He was 28 years old and his mother still decided what he ordered. One summer day, I was out with them and I fancied an ice cream. A Magnum. Nothing fancy or expensive. Just a normal ice cream that I bought and paid for myself. We kept on walking down the boulevard and at some point I was finished with my ice cream (my sweet tooth was satiated and having forgotten how filling it is), but there were still a few bites left on the stick.

So I offered them to my boyfriend.

Me: ‘…Would you like the rest of my ice cream?’
Him: ‘No, thank you.’

Me: ‘Ok I’ll throw it away then.’

Him: ‘Why would you do that?’

Me: ‘Because I am finished with it and you don’t want it.’

Him: ‘Why can’t you finish the ice cream?’

Me: ‘Because I am full.’

Him: ‘Why did you buy ice cream if you can’t eat it all?’

Me: ‘…Because it is hot outside and I wanted an ice cream’

Him: ‘But why don’t you finish it?’

Me: ‘Because my stomach is full.’

Him: ‘So?’

Me: ‘ iI I eat more I will get sick.’

Him: ‘You shouldn’t have bought it if finishing it meant you would get sick.’

Me: ‘But I did buy it.

Now what?’
Him: ‘Eat it.’

Me: ‘And get sick?’

Him: ‘Yes.’

An ice cream worth 1 euro and 50 cents. I ate about 80% of it, and we argued because I should eat it until I get sick.

I know you should try to avoid wasting food. And I agree with that completely. What surprised me is A) his mother decides what he can order in a restaurant because she decided he cannot finish a pizza (and she was too snooty to take the leftovers home) and B) he would rather have me be sick than waste MONEY. It was never about solving world hunger for him.

Or wasting food. He never made a single donation to charity to relieve poverty or help people eat through a food bank. It was about wasting money. My money to be exact.” Sandra Norris

22. His Rich Boss Really Wanted To Find A Coupon For A $15,000 Order

“Like a good portion of your ‘mega-rich’ demographic, my boss is very sensitive to how much he spends.

I remember his wife telling me a story about how he analyzed their electricity bills and saw where they were using 10% more electricity than the year before. He then tried to calculate the exact temperature to set their thermostat on to achieve maximum cost-efficiency.

It’s always stuff like that with him.

The cheapest thing I saw him do happened when we were ordering new office furniture online, back in the summer of 2016. Our total bill was over 15k dollars. He was okay with it. He knew it was all stuff we needed, but he wanted to make sure we were getting a good deal.
Before he would let me hit submit on the order, he made me do a Google search for coupons that we could use. As with any site, we found tons of fake or expired codes.

We honestly kept searching and trying different coupon codes for 20–30 minutes until we finally found one that took $10.00 off our total.

His response:

‘Ah, there it is! I knew we’d find one. Alright, go ahead and check out now.’” Robert Puckett

21. His Uncle Saved This Man’s Life, But It Didn’t Make The Man Any Nicer

“A few years ago, my uncle, a heart surgeon, was ordering a coffee in a luxurious and very expensive restaurant where the cashier turned out to be the owner of the business. While the restaurant is one of the most famous in my city, that man is the owner of a company that owns, along with that restaurant, many other luxury shops, cafeterias, food stores, etc, that company has a profit of about 30–40 million euros a year.

So, my uncle took the coffee and was about to pay when the owner had a heart attack, and my uncle provided him first aid and eventually managed to take him to the nearest hospital and save his life.

After a month, my uncle, as he used to do almost every weekend, goes to take a coffee in that restaurant when he sees the owner for the first time since that accident. The owner warmly greets my uncle and then, here comes the plot twist, tells him (not jokingly), ‘Hey, last time we met, you forgot to pay your coffee.’

My uncle paid for his coffee and never set foot in that place again.” Ludcocivo Lazzati

20. This Millionaire Wouldn’t Pay For A Stamp

“Ok so I’m a landscaper and confident about it, but 10 years ago I had just started out.

I was pretty nervous about my abilities and was fairly new to quoting.

I got a call and agreed to go out and quote for grounds maintenance. I was actually recommended by a taxi driver. I turned up in my nice, shiny van, with my logo prominently displayed. This place was just wow. Like, you couldn’t see most of his house due to the hill in his drive, his house was HUGE, he had 8 or 9 kids like a proper old catholic and they had EVERYTHING they wanted.  One kid was 16 or so, not only did he have his own race car, he had a truck to take to races that read out his telemetry.

He borrowed one of his dads Ferraris to go to the school prom when he couldn’t even drive. That’s just one kid of many.
House had a housekeeper, the guy had many cars including a Bentley, massive outside swimming pool, just everything, and well over an acre of the lawn he wanted me to mow by hand with a 21″ mower twice a week to keep the stripes perfect (Dear American readers, you should know I’m in England. We just don’t have stuff like swimming pools like you do and the land is very EXPENSIVE here).

Ok so fast forward many months. He was paying me like £15 an hour while I was using my own tools.

I wised up and realized I wasn’t making anything, and I really didn’t like how it felt working there. Nothing overt to be honest but I wanted out. So I put in my final bill (he paid me monthly) and waited. No response. I rang him, spoke to the housekeeper and he was out of the country (Oh yeah he had houses elsewhere. The guy wasn’t even ENGLISH, God knows what his main houses were like…). Ok cool. Well, over a period of weeks I kept trying to chase him, I sent letters, rang, called into his house but still didn’t hear from him and I was getting pissed.

One evening I was driving by again and called by his mansion on the off chance and he opened the door! Great, I thought! So I said to him, ‘Hello Sir, I was just passing by and thought I’d pick up my cheque and save you the cost of a stamp.’ He got an odd look on his face and said, ‘Don’t worry, I put it in the post today, you will get it tomorrow morning.’

Well, sure enough, the next morning came and the postman popped a letter through my door. I opened it all eager when I saw it was handwritten, and it was from my customer! I really needed that money so I whipped out the cheque and it was everything that he owed me – minus the cost of a first-class stamp!
I kid you not.

No one has ever done that to me before or since. What a rich pr*ck!” Garth Longhorn

19. This Woman Wouldn’t Let Anyone Pay A Tip

“A very close family member made a big show of bringing the extended family together for a celebratory lunch. There were three generations present including young kids and grandparents and great uncles and aunts.

We ordered starters, mains, desserts, and many drinks. There were spillages, there were changes to others, there were last-minute additions. We were looked after very well and spent a few hours over our meal.

The original family member then asked for the bill and after stating that they would, of course, be paying (cue thanking and all sorts) they proceeded to itemize the ENTIRE bill, questioning the waitress on numerous occasions, ‘I don’t think we had 6 cokes, I think it was 5.’ ‘There was certainly only one calzone, take the other off…’ You get the picture.

It was excruciating.
Then this person proudly declared that a tip wouldn’t be left, …’ because I didn’t drink the wine and the 6 glasses on the bill frankly add up to what I would have been prepared to pay.’ This would have been less than 7% of the bill if it had actually been left!!! I was MORTIFIED!!! The poor waitress had been run ragged for over three hours by this huge table and NO TIP. I tried to make light and say, of course, we should all pay the tip as the meal cost was covered but it was made crystal clear that we should do nothing of the sort.

I won’t be attending another lunch hosted by this person.

Worth noting, firstly, is that although I’m in the UK and tipping isn’t as culturally ingrained as it is in the US, there is still the assumption that a large party who have stayed for an extended meal would tip at least 10% of the total bill but more likely 15%.

Secondly, this family member referred to has a net worth of several million pounds and a meal of this amount would be equivalent of me taking my family to a drive-through McDonald’s.” Charlotte Light

18. This Rich Woman Would Make Her Friends Pay Her Food For Her

“I once knew someone whose family was filthy rich.

As for her, she earned a huge a*s salary at her company. And she was the cheapest person I knew. Because she would NEVER pay for food.
Everyone at her workplace used to have breakfast together at their office daily. She would enter the restaurant with her friends and proceed to order food and then ask one of her friends to pay for it, promising she will pay it back later or vehemently suggesting that that person owed her a treat for doing so and so, 100 years ago. There was never a payback, of course. I guess that’s how the rich stay rich.

When it would be time for lunch, she would have made some very little food at home and brought it and then sit together with others who brought food from home and proceed to share all the food. (Translate: free food, yay)
Going out as a group which included her was no different. She would ask someone in the group to pay her share and never pay them back. But she would ALWAYS be there for every group outing, even encouraging others to go out regularly.

It p*ssed me off to no extent that people put up with this. I can understand someone wanting to save money on other items, but your own food? Really?? At least spend money enough for your own needs! But no, even that had to come out of others’ pockets.

She tried to make me pay once when the two of us went out for dinner. I proceeded to tell her that I brought money only for me, after which banknotes somehow magically appeared in her hand. That was the first and last time she went out alone with me.
Well, naturally. I was such a tyrant, who made her pay her share. Oh, the cruelty.” Shruti Devan

17. She Didn’t Want To Pay Her Food, So She “Tasted” Everyone’s Food Instead

“This incident happened a few years back. When my colleagues and I went out for lunch/dinner the bill was always split by the number of people dining, equally.

There was one colleague in particular (I’m not really sure why she was working in the first place. Her reason was that otherwise, she’d be bored and alone with her in-laws and child all day – I guess she didn’t really even need the money, which is why this story gets on my nerves…) who suggested that when we went to order food in a hotel, instead of splitting the amount equally, each one should pay for what they had ordered. Even though everyone had reservations about it, we all decided to go with it. So, we started ordering – and she didn’t order anything! She said she brought her own lunch.

Everyone was agitated, but things were cleared, and within a few minutes lunch was served.
She literally helped herself to what we ordered, claiming she was just ‘tasting,’ when in reality, she ate just as much as us or more. She just kept ‘tasting’ this and ‘tasting’ that, not being considerate at all about what she was consuming. Totally oblivious!  In the end, she ended up tasting more than what we ate, when the bill came, she didn’t pay as she had not ordered anything.” Ramesh Rao

16. He Didn’t Want To Pay For A Cab

“A previous boss of mine was a multi-millionaire and notorious for the cheap scams he pulled on clients.

He had some pretty unbelievably selfish and greedy behavior in general.
One of the worst things he did was when he moved home, he would fly interstate from the company head office. He would fly into the city on Monday, then fly interstate to his home every Friday. The flight was only about an hour long and we presumed he stayed in a hotel during the week or at his former home (which was at that point, on the market to be sold for over a million dollars).

The only problem he had with this arrangement was that he had to catch a taxi to and from the airport.

This guy was willing to pay hundreds of dollars on flights every week (domestic flights in Australia are insanely expensive!), however, he just simply couldn’t bear to foot the bill for two 15-minute taxi rides a week.
So he devised a plan, in which he enlisted a native girl working at our firm (who was earning less than $30k a year) to essentially be his taxi driver to the airport every week. He had turned down other candidates for this role as he deemed their company cars too shabby for his tastes. Anyway, he told this girl that he would pay her extra for fuel costs and time spent working as his chauffeur and she agreed.

Many months passed with this arrangement ongoing. Until one day the poor girl finally revealed that he still hadn’t paid her for any of this work or for fuel costs (which is also very expensive in Australia). We tried to get her to speak up but she was too scared. He eventually moved overseas (to one of his ski resorts or luxurious holiday homes he owned) and never paid that girl (who was barely making minimum wage) a single cent for her extra duties.
This is the same boss who loudly complained when he received a UNICEF present (a charitable purchase of some vaccinations for children living in poverty, on his behalf) in an office Secret Santa one Christmas.” Katie C.

15. He Bargained For A Better Price At Kentucky Fried Chicken

“A multi-multi millionaire and I were driving home after a poker game.

We stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. The millionaire asked to speak to the manager. When he came over he asked him, ‘What do you do with the chicken when you close?’ The manager said, ‘Well when we close in 20 minutes we have to throw it out.’ The millionaire said that we shouldn’t pay full price for what you’re throwing away, why don’t you let us have it for a third the price? The 2 of them spent 8 minutes bargaining and finally agreed on half price.
When we got to the car, my companion said that since he bargained the manager down, I should pay for it.

I said that since I was driving him home he should pay. He looked disgusted but eventually agreed.” Cari Grant

14. He Wouldn’t Even Pay For A $1.50 Soda

“My high school friend’s father is a very well-off bachelor living in Southern California. When we were about 15, my friend invited us to his dad’s house for his birthday. We drove about two hours to find the ultimate bachelor’s pad. A house with minimal decor other than the usual sports memorabilia and diamond-encrusted sea-creature paintings. The house was empty even though it was full of random stuff, it just felt weird.
Anyway, he recommended that we go to Costco to get pizza.

When we were getting out of his SUV, he went to the rear of the car. When he returned from the hatch of the car he had a paper cup in hand and said, ‘This is how you get free drinks.’ He then proceeded to lead us all into the store with his cup in hand and passed the person at the front door. All of us were very uncomfortable with what he was doing. The membership checker said, ‘OOOH YEAH, FREE SODA…’ knowing exactly what he was doing. We then went to the area of the store where you order food and his plan was a success.

We were all confused as to why someone with so much money would do something that causes so much embarrassment just to save $1.50. I now work for his son and I see it carry over to the way he does things. They are both so frugal and have been so successful. My friend’s father now owns many exotic cars and has the same old bachelor’s pad in SoCal.

My friend is the kind of person who doesn’t tip at restaurants because they’re ‘just doing their job’ and I’ve learned that I want to be nothing like him or his father. I understand wanting to save money but there are certain ways that are acceptable and some that aren’t.” Wyatt Pishinky

13. He Moved His Car So He Wouldn’t Have To Pay $1.00 For Parking

“I’ve never forgotten this.

A few years ago my husband and I went to our local shopping center, and by chance, we bumped into two friends of ours who were with a couple of their friends who lived out of town and were staying with them over the weekend. They invited us for a coffee, so we nipped into Starbucks with them and had a chat. Twenty minutes later our friend’s guest excused himself and left for about 10 minutes. We thought he just went to the toilet.
The next day our friend phoned us and told us laughingly. ‘So what did you make of  Paul? He’s absolutely loaded.

Got properties in 3 different countries, a yacht, owns a Bentley plus a few other cars, and popped out yesterday to drive the car out of the shopping mall and back so he would not have to pay the car park charge which was free, but £1 after an hour and a half.’

I asked them if they were winding me up. They were absolutely adamant it was true. Actually, you couldn’t make it up really!” Jacky Dror

12. This Man’s Bonus To His Employees Sounds Like A Joke

“1983. I was the sole support of two children and my entire paychecks went toward rent, daycare, gas, and electric bills.

There was nothing left over.
I worked as a media buyer for a small boutique agency owned by a multi-millionaire. He knew the situation I was in, so when he announced that there would be bonuses a couple of weeks before Christmas, I was excited and relieved—I hadn’t yet been able to buy a single Christmas present for my kids.

When the ‘big day’ finally came, he called all 10 of the employees out to the lobby at lunch, where we were treated to a plastic cup of champagne. After telling us all how important, talented, and wonderful we were, he handed us these fancy red envelopes.

Seriously, these things were thick and felt like fine linen. I didn’t want to appear as desperate as I was, so I waited until I was back in my office. I then carefully opened that expensive envelope to find one $10 bill. All the ‘ladies’ in the agency (as he liked to call us) received $10. The men received $20.
I ended up at the pawnshop on Christmas Eve, selling $300 worth of stuff for $75 so I could give my kids some sort of Christmas.” Anonymous

11. He Was Supposed To Take His Chauffeur To Lunch, But He Did This Instead

“My dad’s cousin  – we’ll call him Dan – worked for a fabulously wealthy man in Los Angeles.

The man owned several huge office buildings in Culver City and other business districts that he would lease out.

Dan acted as a chauffeur, errand boy, and whatever millionaire man needed. One day millionaire man’s wife asked her husband to treat Dan to lunch after the two of them finished the day’s errands.
On one of their errands, they stopped at Costco. Millionaire man was insistent, even pushy, that Dan tries every free food sample offered.

After they were done, millionaire man said, ‘Well, you must be too full for lunch now.’ Meklit Gebre-Mariam

10. She Did Them A Huge Favor, But They Didn’t Care

“In the mid-50s, when even a mere millionaire was considered very rich, my aunt was a teacher at a very exclusive girls’ boarding school.

During the term, she stayed at the school, and at the end of each term, drove home to her parent’s house to stay before driving back for the beginning of the next term.
It happened that the parents of one the students owned property about halfway between the school and Brisbane where my grandparents lived. Every term for about three years, my aunt drove this girl home and then picked her up and drove her back to school again for the beginning of the next term.

She was never rewarded in any way for doing this, not even as much as a cup of tea.

In fact, she was never even invited into the house, just thanked and sent on her way. She didn’t give it a great deal of thought because it was not out of her way so there was no real inconvenience for her.
Until one day when she was dropping the girl off at home, she realized she had forgotten to refuel her car, and didn’t have enough petrol to get all the way home and possibly not even to the next petrol station.

Like many very large rural properties in Australia, they had their own petrol supply, so my aunt asked if she could refill her tank before leaving.

As a courtesy, she offered to pay for petrol, expecting to be refused.

These multi-millionaires, whose daughter had been getting the free door to door transport to and from school three times a year for several years not only accepted her money but charged her full retail price for it! Now that is cheap!” Mickie Southam

9. He Argued With Every Employee Until He Got His Discount

“The other day I was at a café. A married couple entered with their couple-months-old baby. The woman settled at one of the tables with the kid, while the husband went to place the order. A few minutes later there was a commotion.

There was some disagreement between this man and the person who was taking the orders.

Apparently, the man had a 50% discount coupon of the café that he wanted to use. The staff was trying to explain to him that their modem was down and as such, they couldn’t process the coupon request. But, the man wouldn’t listen. He kept raging and arguing and generally scolding the servers. This went on for 20 minutes, in which the man kept shouting, and insulting them. Everyone in the café was getting uncomfortable, and those poor servers were also feeling ashamed, and kept apologizing profusely.

But this guy didn’t stop there. Oh no! He spoke (screamed at) to the manager, and argued with him too. Still not satisfied, he then even asked for the contact number of the regional manager, called him and argued with him too! After all of this commotion, the manager agreed to give him the discount out of his own pocket, just to avoid any more drama. Thus, having got what he wanted, the man finally placed his order – a brownie with ice cream. That’s all he wanted to have!

So, basically, he created havoc, irritated everyone, insulted the employees… and all for an order worth Rs.115 (that’s $1.56 USD, which means the discount would have been Rs.

57 or $0.80 USD…)
The man’s car parked outside was an Audi.”. Naveen Kumar

8. His Cousin Is Viler Than He Is A Cheap Person

“I know a cousin of mine who grew up rich and entitled. He is privileged and makes 6 figures living in a semi-rural place these days.

I was riding in his Chevrolet and we were stopped by a bunch of kids selling lemonade and cookies. It was 90 degrees outside and the humidity made it worse. I was distracted with something else as I saw my cousin get out of the car. There was a brief interaction with a young boy.

Then I noticed the boy rush off to his father watering the lawn, to get something (change? some query?) and my cheap cousin grabs an extra 4 cookies on the sly and sneaks them in his pocket.
He later brags about it and shows off in his condo. At that moment, I realized that my cousin is a shameful specimen of humanity. I still have no clue why a rich guy who makes great money (with no loans because daddy paid them off) would have the need to steal cookies from a kid standing in the heat selling lemonade. To me, it looked vile, disgusting and almost comical.

6 years have passed and my cousin continues to show his excellent human values, blocking his parents from entering his home and refusing to allow his own parents and autistic brother from sitting (not driving) in his car. He has an adult autistic brother who he does not even acknowledge, leaving my uncle and aunt to worry, ‘After us, who will look after him?'” Tyler Schubert

7. Her Rich Roommate Took Credit For Her Very Expensive Gift

“I lived in a hostel in Delhi with my best friend, when a third roommate came in. She was rich, and bratty and would brag about her father’s wealth to no end.

She was frivolous, spending her money lavishly on this and that and everything. It was kind of unbearable after some time.

The daughter of our landlady (who my best friend and I were very close to) was about to celebrate her first birthday, but my best friend and I couldn’t be there as we were leaving the room a day before her party. It was urgent and we couldn’t change the dates. We were very close to the little girl and felt awful that we wouldn’t be around to celebrate, so we decided to go all out and really come up with a beautiful, thoughtful gift.

We spent a good chunk of money on a very nice gift for her that included beautiful dresses, expensive photo frames, chocolates, toys, dolls and more.  My friend edited a video to play at the party and it took her over two days to make it look really professional. We wanted our gift to be the biggest and most thoughtful and put everything into one big beautiful hamper and decorated it with a lot of love. We handed it to our roommate to give on our behalf before we left. She brought that little girl only a pack of chocolates, which was just one of the many packs she had in her cupboard.

A week later I had to come back to Delhi for a day. I was kind of feeling bad too since our landlady didn’t say a word about the thought we had put into making her daughter’s birthday extra special.

When I reached the hostel, I was shocked that our roommate had put her own name on our hamper and put our name on that stupid bar of chocolate. My landlady was telling me how nice her efforts were. Since she was super-rich, everyone thought only she could afford it.

I was extremely angry at her but I kept quiet. I called up my best friend and told her everything.

She asked me to tell our landlady the truth. I was afraid she might not believe me.
Lucky for us, my friend, out of habit, left her tiny signature on the tape that she used to edit videos. I told my landlady and she was upset too. When that girl came back from college, she had an earful from our landlady, who was usually a very nice woman. She said she would have received chocolate with just as much happiness but she was disappointed that our rich snobby roommate tried to take credit of all our work.

To this day, that girl thinks I did all this to defame her and I could have let it pass.

I don’t give a shi* about what she thinks!” Anonymous

6. He Tipped Even Less Than What Is Customary

“Back when I was in high school, one of my closest friends took me out to dinner for HIS birthday.

My friend is the son of a billionaire and one of the richest families in Hong Kong. He is mega-rich. When I protested and said I should be taking HIM out, he simply brushed it off and said: ‘In Hong Kong, this is how we celebrate birthdays. We pay.’

Fair enough. For some reason, I was the only friend that was around for my friend’s birthday (we were stuck on campus during a public holiday which just so happened to be his birthday weekend as well).

Since he was alone on his birthday, he decided to take me out to his favorite restaurant in town. And we ordered up a storm. It was one of the most decadent meals I’ve ever had, all the way from appetizers to main courses to dessert (no booze, since we were still in high school and our school had a very strict NO CHANCE policy for getting caught drinking underage). At the end of the meal, the bill came out and it was well over US$200.00.

Now, this might not seem like a lot to some of you reading but to me, at the time (1995), it was a FORTUNE.

I’d never had such an expensive meal in my life.
A $5/meal was my usual budget so my heart skipped a beat when the bill arrived.

Was he really going to pay for it? What if he didn’t have enough money? I certainly didn’t have enough to cover even MY share of this meal. Would we be doing dishes for the rest of the night??

Without even looking at the amount, my friend threw down his American Express Centurion Card and signed the bill after they ran the charge.

I remember seeing the restaurant staff quietly talking to themselves in the corner, gesturing over to our table as we finished our dessert.

I assumed they were impressed that this high school kid had a ‘black card’ and were just in shock and awe over that.
A few minutes later, the owner of the restaurant walks over to our table and says:

‘Excuse me boys, I have to ask, was there anything wrong with our service today?’

My friend and I glanced up at each other, confused. We both turned to the owner and replied,

‘No, the food and service were excellent. Thanks!’

The owner cleared his throat a bit and said in a stern tone,

‘It’s customary in this country to tip 15% for good service…’

….(awkward pause)…

For a second I sat there across from him thinking,

‘My God, for a billionaire, you are really f*cking cheap!’

It turns out my friend the billionaire had ‘only’ tipped 10% because in Hong Kong (his country) that was the automatic service charge added to every meal.

His face turned flush and he apologized profusely to the owner, asking to amend the tip amount in the final bill.

I saw him quickly scribble a 30%, double of what was ‘customary.'”

5. His Rich Friend Took A Detour Just To Avoid Paying The Highway Toll

“A friend of mine is pretty rich but drives a modest car. No big deal, that’s not the worst part.  It was when I was traveling to a nearby city with him in his car for a social function. We were expected to reach the destination in 90 minutes if we took the normal route (~70 km), highway.

But, this rich person took a detour which increased our journey to ~90 km one way, besides taking the risky route with the bumpy road for around 18km.

I was scared when he took a detour as the road we took was, well, less traveled. Nobody uses that road except a few couples looking for isolated places for romance!

Now, he took this detour, which put us at risk of being late to our destination, plus we had to experience a bumpy ride and travel an extra 20 km one way, only to save 85 INR toll tax ($1.20 USD on a return journey) that we would have to pay if we crossed the toll booth.

We avoided the toll both, hence the increased distance and then got onto the highway and again before exiting the highway on next toll booth, we go off the highway.
All this, just to save around 85 INR toll tax!!” Bakhityar Alam

4. Her Mom’s Friend Charged Her For The Food Her Brother Cooked For Her

“My mom’s friend. I have seen countless things she’s done that is cheap beyond your wildest imagination, even though she’s worth about 10 million dollars.

I went on a trip with my mom and this woman. Usually, I would never make the mistake of going anywhere with her considering we just argued a few weeks earlier, but I decided to go.

Everything was bearable until this happened. We were traveling through Vietnam, in this woman’s hometown. Her brother still lives there and is extremely poor of course. Weird, considering how much money she has. We stopped at his place and he made us chicken porridge and stir fry chicken, which she made us eat in the car while it’s running as if we had somewhere really important to be, except we didn’t. Plus, the food wasn’t great. At all. It wasn’t really to my taste and I would have rather eaten something else where I can sit at a non-moving table. But I ate it anyway because I was hungry.

What I hated was when I suggested we go and eat at a restaurant nearby, she told me I needed to stop being so difficult and to blend in and stop being so selfish. I wasn’t in a mood to start a fight so I let it go.
At the end of our trip, guess what? She charged us for the food that her brother cooked for us, along with the food she brought with her that I didn’t even eat. It wasn’t a big amount, but I hated that I had no say in it, and who gives her a right to charge for unwanted catering service? Plus, isn’t she my mom’s friend?” Nadia Le

3. His Wife Was Choking And He Asked For Water, But The Worker Charged Him First Anyway

“This happened in our early days in Singapore.

I don’t know if we can call this restaurant owner ‘mega-rich’ but he and his wife seemed quite well-to-do, running the cafe/restaurant together.
My wife and I were shopping in a mall where we happened to be standing in front of this restaurant. Since she was still recovering from a fever and cough, she had to take her medicine. She assumed that she was carrying her water bottle and put two tablets in her mouth and reached her bag to not find her water.

My wife panicked and started to choke on her tablet. I rushed inside the restaurant and asked for water telling them that my wife was choking.

The restaurant owner (lady) who had a stern face, without an iota of emotion said, ‘thirty cents.’ Being new to Singapore, first I was aghast that not a single person came to rescue, but when I asked for help, seeing my wife’s condition, this person is trying to charge me!
I tell her I would pay her. She shook her hand. She gestured, ‘No’ and said, ‘Thirty cents,’ again.  I gave her a dollar and then the water came from the kitchen in a paper cup, exactly 3/4 full.

Needless to say, I took my change and gave her a piece of my mind about kindness towards a fellow human.

And, needless to say, she didn’t give a rat’s a*s about my lecture. It was a culture shock for me coming into a foreign country.”  Ravi Anantha

2. Her Rich Friend Refused To Pay At The Met

“A friend of mine has super-rich parents. Super rich as in they make the top 200 of the Sunday Times Rich List.
These parents were very generous to her. She had whatever clothes, makeup, and jewelry she wanted, a car and a very healthy allowance.

By very healthy I mean $10,000 a month. Crazy, right?

Well, I happened to be in New York at the same time that she was there on holiday, and so I showed her around.

We got to the Met, which is a particular favorite of mine.

Now, the way that pricing works in the Met is that you have to buy a ticket, but you can choose how much you pay for it. They have a list of suggestions up of how much they suggest you pay (senior citizens $5, students $10 and so on) but ultimately it is left up to you.
Anyway, we got to the ticket desk and I coughed up $10 and got my ticket.

This girl produced a dime and asked for a ticket, which she was given.

As we walked away, I was appalled and asked her why she’d done what she did.

Her reply?

‘Yeah, I know, I’m sorry, I’d have given less if I could but a dime was the smallest coin I had in my purse.’” Graham Leighton

1. You Know What They Say About Karma…

“A multi-millionaire lawyer spent a lot of money over 12 cents.

I agreed with a lawyer to pay for his services in 4 installments. I didn’t realize it, but the installments ended up being 12 cents short.
To my biggest surprise, I get a letter 3 months after the last installment, requiring me to pay for 12 cents plus interest, resulting in a whopping sum of 13.4 cents!

He spent well over 5 bucks to send me that letter (over registered mail).

I thought he had a valid point to make (e.g. not making exceptions), so I came to his office to pay for the 13.4 cents in person and confirm that. Turns out he said that ’12 cents is still money’ and in particular ‘his money.’ When I politely asked him why he spent a few bucks to collect the 12 cents, he told me ‘I manage my money the way I want to.’
I said he was right, and it had been a mistake to insinuate his strategy was not good. But then, I fired back:

‘Sir, here’s your money. 14 cents. However, the 0.6 cents are mine, so I demand them, and I am sure you’ll understand this, given that you demanded your 12 cents.’

‘That’s stupid, I can’t pay you 0.6 cents.’

‘Well, if you can’t pay me my change, the alternative is you to exempt me from 0.4 cents.’

‘Yes, yes… sure…’

‘Well, I would like to have that written down.’

His face was priceless.

He knew that according to the law I could just force him to spend more money on paper and ink, and, primarily his time. Just because he was such an arrogant, cheap guy, I didn’t leave the office without that letter. 🙂 Benjamin Davis
And that’s the last story! What did you think? Weren’t these just some of the cheapest stories you’ve ever heard? I couldn’t believe how greedy, rude, and stuck-up some of these people were.”

But, what about you? Do you have a story that could make it into this list? Leave us a comment down below and tell us the cheapest thing you’ve ever seen a mega-rich person do?