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Rants >> Rant 295

::Today's soundtrack: Depeche Mode "Everything Counts" ::


You know, it occurs to me that I have mentioned any of my petty annoyances in a little while. Allow me to correct that.

One thing that gets to me are those really cheap bargain hunters. I'm not talking about "normal" people looking for a deal on a certain item which they need. They are bargain hunters and then there are those people who take bargain hunting to a whole other level. There is nothing wrong with clipping coupons out of the Sunday paper or checking more than one store for the best price on a video game or anything like that. I'm talking about those insane, usually elderly ladies, who will do anything, or buy anything just to save a few cents.

There is a drug store a couple of blocks from my home. It is conveniently located between my house and my work, so I often buy my essentials there, like toothpaste, paper towels, et cetera. Well, one time, they were having this sale on apple sauce. I did not check their flier or read any signs to know this. I did not have to. Ahead of me at check out was a little old lady with her shopping cart filled to the brim with apple sauce. Seriously. A whole cart. Of apple sauce. She went on and on to the check out girl about how much money she was saving. All I could think was "Saving? How much money would she have saved had she bought LESS apple sauce? Unless of course she was planning on eating nothing but apple sauce for weeks and weeks..."

In that same vein of a cart-load of applesauce, are the people (again, typically old lady types) who will buy stuff simply because it is on sale. It doesn't matter if it is something they actually need or will never use in their entire life, but golly if it's fifty percent off, they will buy it! Do you really NEED a second set of dinner plates? Never mind the fact that it is a "good price" for a set of plates. Yes, plates usually go for twice that price, so it's like half of them are free. I get that part. The part I don't get is that if you're all about saving money, then why are you spending it in the first place on something you do not need?? If you were looking to replace the plates you had, okay, fine. But if your current plates are perfectly good and you are only buying these new ones because they are inexpensive, then that is no reason to buy plates (or whatever item) in my book. You just spent twenty dollars on plates when they usually go for forty so you saved twenty dollars? Good for you. Oh look, I DIDN'T BUY PLATES I DON'T NEED AT ALL AND KEPT MY TWENTY DOLLARS.  Which one makes more logical sense?

Then there are those horrifically anal coupon people. I have witnessed, more than once mind you, people who say, bought a bottle of shampoo on Monday then come back to the store on Tuesday to cash in a coupon for that shampoo after the fact. Seriously? You drove all the way back here to redeem a coupon for a sale you made yesterday? You're not even buying anything else today? You came here JUST to get that thirty-five cents, didn't you? You couldn't have SAVED that coupon for the NEXT time you needed shampoo? How much money's worth of gas did you burn up in your car so that you could get that thirty-five cents? I thought so. You didn't really think this through, did you?

What about those people who try to haggle? Have you seen these guys? They try to convince a check out person to lower a price from say two dollars to a dollar fifty because they saw it for a dollar fifty someplace else. That is so painful to watch. When they get told to buy the product at the other store, they get all huffy and indignant, as though the clerk is the one being rude and not the other way around. I will shake the hand of the employee who give in and backhands one of these hagglers across the face.

Look, little old ladies, I know you're on a fixed income and times are tough and every penny helps, but there is a limit. Some of your "money saving" tactics make NO SENSE and I think it is time you figured this out. You have to face the fact that you will have to spend the money for the items you actually do need and just don't spend your money on the things you don't. I don't care if lightbulbs are going for the low, low price of fifty cents each. Buy how many anticipate needing and (gasp!) stop. Don't fill up your cart on lightbulbs, because unless you have like 100 light fixtures in your home, you will probably die before you use them all and that is money wasted. It is also money wasted to buy something just because it is "a good deal" and not because you need it, mmkay? Keep that in mind the next time you see cat food for sale and you are tempted to buy some even though you do not have a cat! I'm just sayin'.

William the Bloody (big spender)

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