Her daily routine included visiting bakeries and grocery stores to ask for leftover cakes, broken biscuits, and even free bones for her dog. She sewed her own underwear at 16 and wore the same underpants until her death!
Henrietta “Hetty” Green, dubbed the “Witch of Wall Street,” was one of the richest women in history, yet her legendary stinginess overshadowed her financial genius. Born in 1834 to a wealthy Quaker family in Massachusetts, Green inherited $7.5 million (now $2.3 billion) and transformed it into a $100 million fortune through shrewd investments in railroads and real estate.
Despite her wealth, she lived like a pauper, wearing a single black dress until it frayed and scavenging for leftover food. “I buy when things are low and nobody wants them. I keep them until they go up,” she famously told The New York Times in 1905.
Green’s frugality bordered on cruelty. When her son Ned fractured his leg, she delayed medical treatment to avoid fees, leading to an amputation. Married to millionaire Edward Green, she demanded a prenuptial agreement and later bailed him out of bankruptcy—only to separate after he squandered her money. Her children wore secondhand clothes, and she allegedly reused candles from her birthday cake.
Hetty’s daily life was shockingly frugal, despite her immense wealth. She wore the same tattered black dress every day and refused to use hot water or heating. For meals, she ate cold pies that cost two cents. Her daily routine included visiting bakeries and grocery stores to ask for leftover cakes, broken biscuits, and even free bones for her dog. She sewed her own underwear at 16 and wore the same underpants until her death!