My Odd Soft Side

So this blog is taking a real odd turn after about a year of putzing around.  I promise to get back to posting about grocery store coupon savings eventually.  Maybe.  I'm not good at following through a lot of times. 

One thing about being cheap, for me that is, isn't so much that I don't want to spend money - I just want to make sure that I am getting the most value out of my dollar.  This was apparent 2 weeks ago. 

So here's a crazy thing that happened to me.  I'm a Yankees fan.  I live about 6 miles to the border of Boston.  So for the die hard Red Sox fans, I'm kind of like a Nazi.  Another quirk about me - I love radio contests.  Honestly, I've probably won about 2 dozen things off the radio in my 31 years of life.  No joke.  Well back in March, I won 2 tickets to a Red Sox opening day party.  Oh joy.  Since they were playing the Yankees though, I thought it would be great to go.  Unfortunately, when we found out the time - due to work, school, life, etc. - the husband and I couldn't make it.  Boo Hoo.

Well 3 days later, I got a call from the radio station.  Apparently they raffled off a $1,000 gift certificate to the store Roster (located at Natick Collection, Legacy Place & Faneuil Hall).  Who won?  Me.  They specialize in Boston area sports team apparel.  No Yankees t-shirts to be had there.  I'll be honest - I could not fathom spending $1,000 at a "non-necessity" store.  Overwhelmed doesn't even describe the feeling I felt. 




So we went off to Natick.  We hit up the Roster there where I picked up a t-shirt and hat.  Total:  $64.99.  The cashier informed me that another store in the mall was owned by them and my gift certificate could be used there too.  The store is All-Stars.  And I was excited to see that a 10% coupon printed on my receipt for All-Stars. 

So we went down to All-Stars.  I had this bright idea to make up a gift basket to donate to my son's school to be raffled off.  My budget for this was about $200.  Even in the grand scheme of things - even with $200 donated, I still have to spend $800 - which again is not really registering in my head because it's just a lot of money to spend on Red Sox crap - oh I mean stuff.

I got a bunch of items and the total was $208.  I had so much stuff and the kids were acting a fool that I was just trying to hurry up and I DIDN'T EVEN GIVE THE CASHIER THAT 10% COUPON!!!!  I remembered it when I got in the car (and I am not crazy enough to go back in and see if they would have honored it).  Now granted, I shouldn't care because it's not even my money - but it seriously bothered me for a few days.  I mean 10% would have been $20.80 - which would have been another hat or a kid's t-shirt for my gift basket!  I think this is my true "cheap" side coming out.  I'm trying to tell myself it's not really that I'm greedy and I WANT that extra $20 in this store (because heaven knows, it pains me every time I have to make a Red Sox purchase) - but the fact that I didn't maximize the value of that purchase really kills. 

So yeah.  Call me greedy. Call me cheap.  I don't care.  The fact that I forgot that coupon will linger in my mind for a little while longer because I can be a little psychotic like that. 

With another trip to the Dedham store a day later, I ended up spending $220.87 on a donation that will be raffled off at my son's school starting this week.  Here's the final product:

I'm not sure the details of how they are going to raffle it off - the school has it.  They can do whatever they want with it. They are selling tickets all this week and will be announcing a winner next Sunday at a softball tournament.  My personal goal is to hope the school raises $500 in ticket sales for it.  No reason then I hope to maximize the $220 spent on something good that the school could use.  I'm sure the principal will tell me what the final verdict - I just hope it's nothing pathetic like $30.  That would kind of suck. 

Speaking of "doing good stuff" - I'm going to be posting about a great Giveaway I'll be hosting here in a few days.  Pretty much - if you had a free $50 to "do good" with - what would you do?  So start brainstorming and more details will follow soon!  Woohoo!