Boo yah

Our society has a strange mindset when it comes to money. Western culture, and indeed most cultures it seems, admires people who are able to spend a lot of money. However, lately we have also started to admire people who are able to save as much money as possible even when buying things. Sure, we're impressed when someone has enough money to cover their toilet in 24 carat gold, but we're even more impressed when they find a $50 shop vac at a home improvement store for $10. Does this mean that they not only have money to spend, but are also cunning enough to navigate the commercial world and find the deal that works best for them?

I just had a similar experience. I have been considering getting a menstrual cup for some time (a topic for another post) and primarily started looking on Amazon.com. I did some outside research to find reviews as well as visual comparisons between different cups until I narrowed it down to one I liked best. It was $39.99. I started to go through with the order until I remembered that there is such a thing as shipping and handling charges, so now my total rose to $45.90. Sure, that isn't too much of a chunk taken out of my wallet but I had just decided to go with the more expensive of the two cups I was considering and was already smarting from that $10 difference.

So I took a leap of faith: I Googled other possible vendors for the cup I wanted and found a maternity store which also sold menstrual products. The cup was the same price, however by a hint of luck they were having a free shipping promotion for Independence Day. This time I really was paying $39.99. Then I decided to test my luck one more time: I looked for an online coupon. Surprisingly, I found a valid promotion code which took 10% off of my order, dropping my total to about $35.

So why do we value saving money while spending it? I don't know. However, I rather enjoy the process. Although I am somewhat of a consumerist *hangs head*, if something is too expensive I tend not to buy it until I find a better price. Maybe looking for a better deal registers in my mind as working harder for the product, telling myself that I deserve it because I found such a good price. In fact, I have even had those moments when I told myself it would be a bad thing if I didn't buy something on a sale price. Although I am reveling in this victory, I know that I am feeding my own problem. I just spent half of a day's wages on a menstrual product I'm not sure will even fit. However, at least I didn't pay nearly $50 for it!

(image from here)