Would you take home food leftovers from a party? Some guests did, and Mumsnet users are not impressed

THERE'S an unwritten rule that when you get an invite to a party, you always take something along with you.

Quite often that'll be a bottle of wine, bx of chocolates or some flowers, but it's pretty common for everyone to contribute a dish too.

But would you scoop up the leftover bits of your potato salad and take them home again? Because that's what happened to one poor woman, who's shared her woe on .

Going by the username CheesedOffChiquita, the lady explained she was asked to throw a surprise hen party for her friend by the pal's other half.

As she didn't want to lay out for all the food and booze, she asked everyone attending to bring something.

So far so normal... but this is when the issues began.

"In the end I had around 12 people come, out of about 25 invited and confirmed until last minute," she explained.

"One of these was supposed to have brought a certain food (fairly critical to the party theme) with her but turned up completely empty-handed, although she'd splashed out on a new dress for the occasion. She tucked in to the food and drink with relish."

That's bad enough, but even worse was to come...

"When the party was about halfway through, several of the guests left together but before they did so, they gathered up every single sandwich/cake/mixer/bottle of alcohol leftover from what they'd brought and took it home with them," she fumed.

"I couldn't believe they would sit and eat/drink everything that other people had brought with them, bearing in mind that some items were more popular than others and so there weren't any leftovers of some things, and then gather up what they'd brought and take it away!

"Am I being unreasonable to be completely outraged at the behaviour of so many of these guests?"

Many forum users were stunned by the story, with user Forsythja summing things up: "They were extremely rude! If I take food and drink to a party I wouldn't dream of taking anything home afterwards!"

DarkAngel 1984 agreed, saying: "I think it's completely out of order to take food back unless the host insists."

This was the general consensus, with users then sharing their own tales of rude guests.

One has a friend who only ever brings cheap wine with her, then 'accidentally' necks a much more expensive bottle from the fridge.

Another detailed someone they knew who invited his family over for a barbecue, but asked them each for a tenner to pay for the food as soon as they arrived.

The worst tale came from MadHattersWineParty through, who revealed: "Well, the other week we went to a BBQ that was meant to start around 3. We got there at 4.

"BBQ clean and out away, nowt left but a few bowls of crisps.

"We'd bought loads of beautifal meat, lovely steak and burgers etc, and the host just popped it in the freezer and we never saw it again.

The only wine left was one we'd brought so we drank that! Couldn't bring myself to ask for the meat back.
"My auntie takes a Tupperware box to parties or weddings where there's a buffet and collects up her lunches for the week. She's not even subtle. Caught her trying to put the top layer of my 21st birthday cupcake cake in her handbag once."