Poorgeoisie
I am
conflicted.
I was raised as a missionary
kid with the mantra: "waste not, go to hell not." I hate to waste money.
Sometimes I'll drive an extra 10 minutes to find an ATM that does not charge the
extortionist $1.50. (you know it costs the bank less when you use an ATM rather
than a teller and they surcharge you?) I probably burn $1.50 in gas doing it
and of course time... the single most precious commodity these days. The other
rule I was given as a result of being asian was "never pay retail." I would
probably delay getting married until I could get at least half off retail on a
diamond. (don't buy diamonds, see earlier post) So basically that's me.. I
don't mind spending money, I just hate to waste
it.
On the other hand... I have another
philosophy, "do it cheap or do it right, the middle ground is death." What that
means is you either get the generic bike from kmart for $100 or you get the
$1400 carbon fiber cannondale. (if cannondale even makes a carbon fiber bike, I
dunno). You do it cheap you don't lose a lot of money, you do it right, you
keep it for the rest of your life. What's not good is the $600 bike that you
like but don't love cause eventually you quit using it and that's a waste. I'm
also a tireless researcher, I hate to buy anything till I've looked at EVERY
possibility and really want the best fit for me and if possible best of class.
Maybe that explains why I'm not
married...
So moving into a house has
given me lots of opportunities to be
neurotic.
Here's an
example.
I need a vacuum cleaner. Looks like
the best in class are Dysons. (or best hyped) Dysons are $500. eek. Toby Mac
has a dyson. However, if you go to amazon.com you can get Dyson's refurbed for
about $300. woo hoo! I have hardwood floors. My solution: I use Shaun's old
vacuum cleaner that doesn't work and I spent an hour unclogging it because I'm
so cheap. I couldn't breathe for 18 hours afterwards it was so full of cat
hair. I have a chatham and wells mattress. (or stearns and foster, I don't
remember, when it's an upper class product, they put an & in the middle,
which typically goes between snobby & rich). It's a $2500 mattress that
feels like a cloud. However, I asked around till a friend's brother who deals
in discount mattresses found one for me for so much less that he'd probably be
mad at me if I told you how much it was. If you need a discount mattress....
email me....So I find I have this conflict between wanting the best in class and
wanting it cheap. I have coined a word for it, since a number of my friends are
this way.
We are the Poorgeoisie.
(rhymes with Bourgeoisie)
I was painting
our front room (cheap me again) and I was looking for my painting jeans which
are spattered with white paint (I didn't say I was a good painter). I put on my
paint spattered jeans and got down to business and then realized that I was
actually wearing my designer paint spattered $180 jeans from the photo shoot.
Sorry for the scattered quality of this
post,
I've been so busy lately I haven't had a
moment to think.
If anyone knows how to
fix dishwashers, let me know, our frigidiaire dishwasher flooded because our
disposal was locked up and I fixed the disposal but now the dishwasher won't
turn on. sigh.
Posted: Thu - June 1, 2006 at 01:27 PM
