Bargain Shoppers Beware!

My mother is the quintessential bargain shopper.  She’s amazing at getting a deal and loves to share with you how she executes each score.  Mom starts with an ‘End of the Year Sale’, layers it with a clearance rack and a cupon from the paper, then tops it all off with her senior citizen discount.  

This time of year my mom has a tradition, the end of the year dress sale at a local department store.  When my sisters and I come home each year for Christmas, our mom shepherds us down to the basement where she displays her booty- a clothesline full of dresses, coats, and accessories.

Marked down from $100 or more to just $5 a piece, these items are serious bargains and my mom presents them to us like Oprah delivering her “favorite things”.  There’s just one problem.  The dresses are always 2-3 sizes too big, and 3-4 seasons too old.

My mom can’t pass up a bargain, its in her blood.  Its an obsession.  The feeling of getting extra value for her dollar fills her up like Christmas pudding.  Its understandable, she was raised in the era of the real Great Depression.  She knows what it is like to wear clothes made from feed sacks and eat things caught in her own back yard.  But now that her freezer’s full and her fabric’s from JoAnn’s, I remind her over and over, “It’s not a bargain if you don’t need it”.  Let’s face it,  $100 of unwanted clothes, is $100 wasted.  

These are the thoughts going through my head as I peruse the grocery store isle.  Egg Nog, powdered donuts, and Little Debbie cakes are all “10 for 10$” this week.  Groupon offered me a cupon for half priced Big Macs last week, and on Wednesdays the Chinese buffet advertises a 5$ early bird special.  

Tempting aren’t they?  We all want value, whether we are in a recession or not.  In fact, some of my wealthier friends are actually the cheapest.   There is something satisfying about knowing that you could have paid more, but didn’t, like somehow, you got around the system and came out ahead.

Not this time though.  Because before you know it, the afterglow of a good deal becomes the regret and belly ache from a fast food frenzy.

During this holiday season, and throughout the new year, be reminded that a bargain is never a bargain if you didn’t need it in the first place.  

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