At the local Pizza Inn where a lot of the teenagers would go after the thursday night meeting, one of the elders and his wife would get 1 (yes, just 1) all you can eat salad bar. He would use the plate to pile it high & deep, after he was done eating his wife would go fill up. His rationalization? It was the same plate. Cheapest bunch I have ever seen, eventually all of the teens refused to be seen with them. Can you wonder why?
Who was the biggest cheapskate that you knew in the Truff?
by JK666 20 Replies latest jw friends
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choosing life
A regular pioneer lady who was constantly praised for her dedication. She would constantly get out of driving her car in service and then never give any money for gas. Her husband, also a pioneer refused to ever really work for a living and they mooched off of the government at every opportunity.
Between the two of them, I was repulsed. The lady was also so lazy in service that she would mostly just sit in the car while others got the doors. And then people would give them money handouts in the congregation because they were poor pioneers. They had quite a racket going on.
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Abandoned
The biggest cheapskate in the truff? Oh, that one guy, you know him, I think he went by the name JEHOVAH or something like that.
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Stephanus
One brother at our hall felt 15 cents was a pretty good tip when he ate in restaurants. He took his wife to MacDonalds for their anniversary!
Sounds like our typical anniversary!
Next year, I'm going to try to make it special - we'll go to a Westfield foodhall, I'll give her $10, and tell her to go for it!
Oh, and the word is "thrifty".
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Fe2O3Girl
My ex-husband.
We were both working full-time, and had plenty of money in the bank, so this was not just about living within our means. The house was always freezing cold because he refused to put the heating on. We shopped for clothes at charity shops. Grocery shopping took hours as we went to several discount stores to get everything as cheaply as possible.
I realised that he had a problem when I caught him emptying sachets of sugar he had taken from a cafe into our sugar bowl. His colleague had stopped for a coffee, but he had refused to pay for one, just took the sugar instead.
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Lady Lee
Two elders with the same issue. Both were married and both had teenaged daughters.
One lived in the KH apartment which had only one bedroom. The girl slept on the sofa in the living room. Poor girl had people in and out of her "bedroom" all the time.
Second elder paid rent for an upscale apartment which had only one bedroom. The girl's bedroom was behind a blind in a corner of the living room. As soon as she was old enough she got a job and moved herself and her parents into an apartment with two bedrooms.
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frozen one
"parking RV's in a hotel parking lot where witnesses friends were already paying hotel room fees. They were running in and showering, using the toilets, pillows, blankets, etc. and using the pool. Some were coming in an getting the free breakfasts using the room numbers of those already registered."
"He would use the plate to pile it high & deep, after he was done eating his wife would go fill up."
The above examples of JW "thriftiness" do not represent "cheapskates." These are examples of blatent thievery.
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blondie
There is a difference between being frugal and being cheap.
In my vocabulary a cheap person saves money at the expense of others; a frugal person saves money at the expense of themselves.
Blondie
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Forscher
In the spirit of Blondie's definition:
I knew an elder who was on the service committee of the congregation. He was not without the means for a comfortable living, but. Whenever he went out in service, he expected others to pay for his treats when the group went on the inevitable morning "coffee break" and give him a little gas money if his car was used. He expected others to pay for his expenses when he went to the assemblies (including the hotel room, eats, basically everything).
He expected the publishers of the congregation to cut the grass in his yard, clean his house (his poor little wife had an injured neck from an auto accident, but the only time I ever saw her wear a court collar [Emt's know what I mean there] was on the day she went to court when they sued the other driver), and even fix most of their meals for them. Those who wouldn't play ball with him found themselves on the congregation shit list and were not allowed at private gatherings, etc...
And it got even better. Anybody who had the misfortune of being between jobs would always find themselves hauled before an "investigative committee" and be informed that
they
were lazy parasites who didn't deserve any help from the friends and that the word was to be put around that they were not to be helped in any way. I guess he was like the government, he couldn't tolerate any competition for the charity of the congregation.
That particular elder nows lives in North Carolina, and I hear he is still just like that. I won't name him of course, but I pity the congregation that has him as an elder!
Forscher
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blondie
I was around pioneers that expected to be catered to because of it. I made me cringe since I was pioneering at the time. I always wondered why single mothers with children didn't receive similar treatment.
I can remember a pioneer sister only inviting people who had a lot of money to her wedding/reception.
Blondie