A real miser - Do you know anyone worse ?

He uses his teabags three times and he's getting married for £500... Meet Britain's meanest manBy Jenny Johnston

They say you can tell a lot about a man from his shoes. So where on earth do you begin with Ieuan Butler, a 39-year-old builder from Wales? The boots he is wearing today are the boots he has worn every day since, er, he can't remember. Perhaps the Dark Ages.
They started out as 'smart boots', but were downgraded many years ago to 'work boots'. Since he spends most of his days stomping across construction sites, they've taken a battering.

Three years ago, you or I would have flung these boots in the bin when bits started dropping off them. Ieuan, however, was determined that he would get 'another few day's wear', and strapped them together with duct tape.

'People say to me, "but Ieuan, you must spend a fortune on gaffer tape?" But I don't. I'm a builder by trade. When you use a roll for a job there is always some left over, and it just gets thrown in the back of my van. This way there is no wastage. It's brilliant.'

To say that Ieuan doesn't like spending money, then, is a bit like saying Ian Paisley doesn't like the Pope.

Ieuan - a father of seven who uses teabags at least three times - was the clear winner. The boots are just the start of it when it comes to 'make-do-and-mend'.

He cleans his house with a tiny pink (toy!) dustpan and brush set that one of his daughters received as a present when she was four. She is now 18.

Even when things can't be mended, Ieuan refuses to replace them. He tells me he has worn the same jumper to work for eight years.

It is not surprising to discover that Ruth - the mother of Ieuan's youngest child, Rosie, three - does not live with him. They have been together for six years, and have a 'perfect relationship', he says. Except for the fact that his attitude to spending so infuriates her that she refuses to live with him.

'She says it wouldn't work out, and she is probably right there. She would want to buy pillows and cushions and things, which just aren't necessary and which I couldn't bear to look at because it would remind me of money needlessly spent.

Waste not, want not: Ienan reuses teabags three times before finally throwing them away

'Us living apart works out fine. I drive down to see her every weekend and stay at hers. She doesn't much like my driving, so once I am there, we tend to use her car if we have to go out. That suits me absolutely fine because it means I don't have to pay for the petrol.'

Ah, the romance! The pair are planning to get married next year - on a beach, of course, to save venue costs.

'I've told her that I reckon we can do the whole thing for less than £500,' says Ieuan. 'We're going to have everyone in casual clothes to keep costs down, and Ruth's not the sort to be bothered about having a white or peach dress with a veil.'

He is a walking talking calculator, able to tell you the cost of everything, from a packet of Tetley tea to a candlewick (4p, if you know where to go). He has a mobile phone, but prefers to borrow his sons', saving his own free texts and calls.

Life can't be a bundle of laughs with him, though. Poor Ruth, for instance, never gets lavish meals or presents.

'If we are out for the day, Ruth might want to go into KFC, so I'll go with her, but I'll take my own Tupperware box of food with me, and much better value for money it is, too.'

It's all very laudable - if extreme. And the benefits of his frugal living are evident.

He has no debts. And he has also put one son through university and another through college.

'It baffles me when people who earn an awful lot more than me say they can't manage on their money and start racking up debts on credit cards,' he says.

'I have one friend who earns £45,000 a year and says he can't manage. That's ridiculous. If I earned that, in three years I would have £80,000 in the bank, at least.

'One of my sons is a boxer. He won a fight and got a write-up in the paper. He told me to buy it, to put it up on my wall. I said, "No, your granny gets that paper, so I will just wait and get hers when she is done with it." That might seem harsh, but I wouldn't dream of spending even 50p it if wasn't completely necessary.'

Source: Daily Mail