Recently I ordered my husband a pair of slippers on Amazon. We had looked around town and couldn’t find what he was looking for, so online shopping became our only option.
The total came to $24.98. Right before I clicked on “submit order” I noticed they wanted to charge me $6.99 for shipping.
“No way I’m going to pay almost $7 for shipping,” I thought to myself. Then I remembered, they don’t charge for shipping on orders over $25.
So I added a crochet hook for $1.76 to get my order over $25.
When I explained to my husband what I had done, he laughed and said, “So you really saved only $5.23 and ordered a crochet hook that you really didn’t need?”
“It’s the principle of the thing,” I said. “I’m not going to pay them several bucks for shipping. And I can always use more crochet hooks!”
But the real reason I did it, I have to admit, is that I am really frugal. Husband Mike always says “You’re not just frugal, dear. You’re absolutely cheap.”
It’s true. I can still hear my dad emphasizing how important it was to always watch for the best deals — save money wherever you can. His lectures still resonate in my brain, sometimes so loudly that I make some questionable decisions.
Here are just a few examples of my frugality.
When Mike and I bought our first home and went shopping for a washer and dryer, I really wanted the Harvest Gold Maytag set but Sears charged $10 more for anything but white, so obviously we bought the white ones.
I can’t remember the last time I went to a movie theater. It almost causes me to have a panic attack when I see the cost they want for a ticket, let alone some popcorn and a soft drink. I mean, it’s 2-3 hours of entertainment and if I just wait a couple of months, the movie will probably be available on TV and I can watch it in the comfort of my own home, wearing my jammies and not pay a fortune. On the rare occasion we do go to the movies, Mike will go pay for the tickets while I “bury my head” in the sand so I don’t see how much he’s spending.
When we go out to dinner (which we try to do every Friday with three other couples), the first thing I look at on the menu is the price. Every week, I tell myself not to do that, but I always do. And then my decision of what to order depends on the price. If I’m really torn between two choices, like the chef salad or a patty melt, the lower-priced option always wins — even if it’s only a couple of bucks.
I know, I know. It’s not logical, but that’s the way my brain works.
A couple of years ago, my daughters and I went to Chicago to see “Hamilton.” They decided before the trip that they weren’t going to let me look at the menu when we went out to eat — they’d just read me some of the options that they knew I would like and I’d have to decide what I really wanted without looking at the prices. And let me tell you, I had some really fantastic meals including a wonderful steak dinner, amazing deep-dish pizza, melt-in-your mouth beignets — all that I enjoyed very much ‘cause I didn’t know how much they cost.
To this day, one of the Barkstrom family traditions is “Just tell mom the cost is $35.” It doesn’t matter if we’re ordering take out Chinese food, checking resort prices in Cancun, or buying tickets to the latest production at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, they’ll say, “Don’t worry Mom, it’s only $35.”
I looked up “frugal” in the thesaurus. I really like some of the synonyms like thrifty, prudent and conserving, but I’m not too thrilled about some of the other suggestions: miserly, tight-fisted, stingy.
But you know what? Like the well-known expression says “it’s the little things in life that make you happy” and after all these years, if looking for the best deal on everything we buy makes me happy, I’m probably not going to stop doing that.
Karen Barkstrom is the editorial assistant at The Daily World. She can be reached at kbarkstrom@thedailyworld.com and 360-537-3925.
