Monday, July 10, 2006

I'm What?!?

Cheap. I'm cheap.

I knew I was a tightwad. I knew I liked garage sales. I knew I like a good deal. I like my $20 Cole Haan shoes. I know I bought my prom dress at an outlet store. Since then I found a formal that I love for $2. I thought that made me frugal. I didn't know it made me cheap.

So Hubs and I went on a date last week and we ended up at this fancy-shmancy new shopping center that would be fabulous in California. On the plaines? I predict some very slow months in the winter. It felt like San Antonio's Riverwalk without the river. I even mean that in a good way. So while there I expounded on my thought on the difference between people who buy name brands because that is what they buy and people who buy name brands so that they can tell people it is "Versacce." (I just learned from one of said people that it is pronounced Vir-sa-chi. And all this time I thought it was pronounced vir-sauce. And I call myself a chick-lit writer.)

Yes, there is a difference.

So afterwards I needed to go to Target to pick up a curtain rod (that was on sale) and some saline (which I hesitated to buy at Target because they are typically more expensive than Wal-Mart on such things). On our way to the curtain rod section we passed a clearance rack and I slowed down to glance.

Have you seen Target clearance racks? Sometimes they have perfectly good diapers clearanced out--cheap--just because they don't want to carry the case size any longer. I have got some screaming great deals at Target clearance racks. I go just for the clearance racks. Sometimes I bomb, but sometimes I get lucky.

Anyway, on said clearance rack they had these wall sconce, wrought iron, candle things. I said, "Tami has these all over her house and it looks awesome...maybe I should...."

When my husband, out of NOWHERE said, "The reason Tami's house looks awesome is because she buys the things she likes. Our house looks crappy because you see someone else do something and you buy two steps cheaper and expect the same result."

Ouch.

Of course at that point I had no choice but to not buy the sconces on the clearance rack. We continued the conversation in a rather good natured way and I proceeded to buy my "cheap" curtain rod.

So the next day I admitted that I was still smarting from the cheap comment. After all, isn't it frugality that has gotten us this far? He insists that I first called the house crappy (I don't agree) and that it was all in good fun and that he is glad I'm frugal. But he insists that "some day" he will hand me money and insist I spend the whole wad on a single room.

And if I come back and tell him how I did it on 10% of the funds I had to take it all back and start over.

The nerve. What fun is that?

4 comments:

kpjara said...

My husband is constantly riding me to buy something FULL PRICE...why..I NEVER!

It's just not in me. I too, am cheap and I won't flinch before I say it. I can pronounce ALL those high-end 'labels' (from watching too much t.v.) and still I am quite satisfied with my thrift-store knock-offs or my garage sale finds!

I would however, LOVE to spend someone else's money!

Chaos-Jamie said...

BUT, if you're anything like me, you'd take that someone else's money and spend it at the clearance racks to make it stratch. Am I right? Because unless I have all the money in the world, I'll always be saving for that next thing: Siding, grass, carpet, garage door opener, a van where the windows open, jeans that fit, you know, whatever. If you can get versacce at a fifth of the price...why would you buy it at full?

kpjara said...

Yes...but don't tell a soul! it's our little secret!

Chilihead2 said...

Husband will NEVER understand the thrill of the hunt. Never.

However, I will let you in on a little comment a friend of mine made to me after I realized the dress I was trying on was only $5 (at Dillard's!). It didn't fit great, but it was only $5. She said to me, "Only YOU know it cost $5. Everyone else thinks you're just wearing a dress that doesn't fit."

Point taken. LOL.