Frugal overspending is still overspending
Posted
Aug 08 2008, 02:08 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
After a recent yard sale foray, I needed to squeeze what I'd bought into my gift closet. My "closet" is actually a big cedar chest bought for $15 at yet another yard sale. Because I'd been tossing stuff in higgledy-piggledy, I couldn't fit the new stuff in without reorganizing the stash. When I did, I was a little surprised to find out just how much I had.
Hardbacks bought at the dollar store (yes, they're by legitimate authors and no, there wasn't a mark on them) and at yard sales, plus quality fiction picked up for as little as 40 cents from the university bookstore's clearance table. Games, coloring books and a really cool fire truck bought pennies on the dollar a few months after Christmas. Unopened book-toy combos that cost as little as 50 cents at garage sales. Washable markers that were free after a drugstore rebate. Art card sets, gorgeously scented spa items, a craft kit, picture frames, candles -- all of it cheap. I felt like a frugal Santa Claus.
Once the lid was closed, barely, I congratulated myself for being all but finished with my holiday shopping, and for having enough kids' gifts to see my great-nephews through three or four more years of Christmases and birthdays.
I'm somewhat concerned, though, that I obtained all these things without being fully aware of how much I had.
Nothing succeeds like excess
I've written before that the trouble with yard sales and dollar stores is that things are too cheap. It's easy to overdo it and wind up with things you don't necessarily need. But if I see a set of pick-up sticks for 5 cents at a yard sale, well, why not buy it?
This particular time, it worked out: A young relative who's visiting this week was very excited to learn that I had pick-up sticks. A nickel to make him happy -- am I going to miss a nickel?
But when do I stop? That young man's mom might want to hit yard sales this weekend. Suppose I see killer prices while I'm ferrying her around. It's likely I'll be tempted when, after all, it's only a quarter.
Yet why buy it if I don't need it? Don't I already have enough?
Because it's hard not to buy at those prices, that's why. These days you can't buy much with a quarter, so the idea of getting an article of clothing or a book for two bits is very satisfying.
Yet that's the kind of attitude that could get a person in trouble. I'm afraid I might wind up with a house full of toys, books and fancy bath salts -- and there are only so many special occasions in a year.
There's also the cost factor. A quarter here, 50 cents there -- before you know it you've got some serious money stashed in a cedar chest in your living room.
Put it down and walk away
The big question: Will I stop buying?
Sometimes it's an easy choice, as with the dog statue I found at a yard sale for a quarter. Cute, yes, but I didn't have anywhere to put it and, more to the point, I didn't need it. I put it back.
It's harder to be smart when I'm looking at books. Many, many times I've had to remind myself that I don't have any more room for books, that I should be giving books away rather than buying them, and that if I really want to read that particular book, I can get it from the library.
Ditto children's toys, clothes and books. I'm discovering how easy it is to get carried away when young children are back in your life. When I see games or book-and-toy combos still shrink-wrapped at yard sales for 50 cents, the grandma gene is activated. I'm suffused with the urge to give presents to my great-nephews every time I see them, plus five or six gifts apiece for birthdays and Christmas.
Of course, I just answered my own question. The fact that those toys were never opened means that somebody else's kid received way too much. Imagine having so many things that you never got around to playing with them.
Right now, I'm imagining a gift closet that never empties. I'm imagining my great-nephews in college and me struggling to close the lid on a cedar chest full of "Go, Diego, Go!" checker sets and Maurice Sendak books. I'm also imagining the kind of monsters I'd be creating if these kids started to expect a gift every time they saw me.
Overspending at a yard sale may be cheaper than rampaging through malls with a credit card, but it's still overspending. I need to get a handle on it. That doesn't mean I can't spend money. I just want to spend it on things that matter.
