What it means
A penny-pincher is someone who's so stingy with money it stops looking sensible and starts looking painful. It's not just being careful or hunting for a bargain. It's the sort of person who acts like buying their round is financial ruin and treats every tiny expense like daylight robbery. You're calling them mean with money, not broke.
Usage examples
"Dave brought his own milk to the café, blagged a free hot water, then tried paying in 2p coins. Absolute penny-pincher, tight as a drum."
"My uncle is such a penny-pincher he drives clear across town to save two cents a litre on petrol."
"The company is run by penny-pinchers, they still ration the printer paper like it is wartime."
"He's such a penny-pincher he turned up to the pub after everyone had ordered, then said he was just there for the atmosphere."
"Mum called the landlord a penny-pincher after he patched the boiler with tape instead of getting the thing fixed properly."
Where it comes from
It comes from the older English phrase pinch pennies, used for being extremely careful with money. Penny-pincher shows up by the late 1800s and stuck as a label for someone who clings to every last coin. The image is dead simple and sharp: somebody literally squeezing pennies so hard they can't let go.
Other ways to say it
This expression also appears in
