My friend Bethany's dad, Bill, was born shortly after the depression and exhibits the corresponding economic style. In fact, he is known in many circles as "Dollar Bill." In these perilous economic times, there are a few lessons that we can learn from him.
* If you walk past a pay phone, always check to see if someone forgot to take their change. If you find a dime or two, jubilantly click your heels together.
* If you are on vacation with your large family in Europe and want to experience fine dining, mysteriously disappear for hours at a time and enjoy a five course meal by yourself. The kids wouldn't appreciate it anyway.
* Make sure that you carefully calculate the sales tax on everything you buy. If you would save money by making purchases separately, do so. Don't be fazed by the weird looks you get by going through the Arby's drive through four times to purchase four milkshakes. The two cents you save is worth it.
* Dollar Bill even brought his trademark frugality into his wedding proposal. While he was out to dinner with his lady love, he casually remarked, "We should think about getting married this year....I need to do something about these taxes."
She replied, "Is that a proposal? Where is my ring?"
He stammered, "Oh, you wanted one of those? I don't really care about those things."
Incredulously she said, "It's not for you! It's for me!"
They did not speak for two years. Luckily fate interceded and they reunited eventually.
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My mother will collect the advertising circulars/coupons from the neighbors' driveways if she knows they're out of town. She got half a dozen for batteries once, one to a customer, so each of us had to go through a separate checkout line at the grocery store to take full advantage of the offer. Then we all got batteries for Christmas that year.
ReplyDeleteI know someone that will use a paper towel once, then hang it to dry and reuse it about 3 times before he will throw in away...OK it's Dollar Bill!!!
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother could give Bill a run for his money.
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