Cheapskate Stags

With discussion on "the budget" all over the news lately, it made me think about our budget as well. Around the same time, I just finished a great book called "The Cheapskate Next Door" by Jeff Yeager. The book talks about different people's points of view on how to spend and save money. There are extreme cases in the book as well. Jeff Yeager mentioned a guy who would go on his business trips carrying burned out light bulbs and swap them with good light bulbs in his hotel room....REALLY! This same guy stole pool towels and toilet paper rolls too. Other cheapskates mentioned were dumpster divers (aka "Freegans"). Finally, some cheapskates consider underwear a luxury--- I'm not making this up.

As I was reading it I realized that I live with a cheapskate. Some common characteristics among non-extreme cheapskates sound very familiar: They HATE HATE HATE debt. This doesn't necessarily mean they don't have any. They hate the idea of it and try to get rid of it as soon as possible. They are not interested in keeping up with the Joneses, the Smiths, the Leungs, the Papadopulouses, or anyone else for that matter. Their homes are modest (small according to modern standards). They drive their cars until the cars cry out in pain asking to be put down (1992 Saturn)... or they use bikes and public transportation. They wear out their clothes before they buy new ones (from Costco!). And they do incessant research and price comparisons before a big-ticket purchase. ("Amazon vs. Best Buy... Ohhhh but I have coupon from Slick Deals...")

I think the most striking thing I learned about cheapskates is that they are not insulted by being called cheapskates. It's a badge of honor. They live well below their means and speed up their retirements, or they donate their extra cash to charities, or they find that they don't need to work so much to live simply and comfortably that they can spend more time with their friends and families... There might be a lesson here for all of us.

Is a dozen purses to much?

Stubborn Stag

Today I volunteered to hang up art work at Lucas' school. They are setting up an art gallery of sorts in the school lobby to show off the students' work. It seemed simple enough. Put some tape on the back of art pieces and stick them to the wall.

When I got to school, I met the art teacher Teresa who seemed really relieved that SOMEONE had signed up to help. Instead of papers to hang up, she started pulling out large boxes of what looked like recycling... soda bottles, milk jugs, straws, yogurt cups. I thought for a second that there was a miscommunication. I did not sign up for clean up crew.

Then Teresa pulled the pieces out of the boxes and told me that the students had worked on "found object" art. They had made birds of all different shapes, sizes, and species out of objects that would have been recycled anyway. Some of them looked exactly like birds and some looked like robot birds. The students found creative ways to use foil and doilies for wings and feathers. They used the spiral binding from a notebook to form talons... it was pretty cool.



The assignment was to hang the bird sculptures from the large wooden beams above the school lobby. Just when I was wondering which one of us was going to be climbing the ladder about 45 times to get the birds way, way up there, the school Principal appeared and introduced us to Steve. Because of a mix-up at the school district office, Steve showed up at our school as a substitute even though no had called for one. The Principal was nice enough to lend Steve to us to help. And he was really tall! Eureka!

While Teresa and I tried to get string around these intricate birds to get ready for hanging, Steve volunteered to do the climbing and the hanging. Teresa suggested that Steve secure the pins into the wood FIRST and then hang the birds after. I thought that was a good idea since it would make spacing the pins a lot easier. Steve said he could handle climbing the ladder, push pin in hand, with a bird sculpture hanging from the push pin, and securing the push pin into the dense wooden beam...all at the same time. Teresa and I trusted that he knew what he was doing.

CRASH! A bird fell down hard on the lobby floor. It came apart in 3 pieces.
"That one was way too heavy," commented Steve, calmly. I saw Teresa's eyes were wide with disbelief. I said nothing. But she replied just as calmly, "They are quite delicate too. It's okay. I can fix it." Accidents happen, I thought.

We continued with our roles: Teresa and I stringing the birds while Steve climbed and hung the birds. CRASH... a second bird fell down. This one miraculously survived the fall except one eye came off and had to be glued back. "That wooden beam is really hard. It's got several knots!" That was all Steve could explain. Teresa just muttered, "MmmHmmm." She is sooo nice. I would be pissed. After the third and fourth bird came down, Teresa once again suggested nicely that securing the push pins before hanging the birds might prevent more mishaps. Steve's response: "Ahhh, I'm alright!"

More crashes occured. So during the course of 3 hours, Teresa and I mended birds as well as strung them. 45 sculptures were finally hung up... some of them were hung up 3 or 4 times by Steve before they finally stayed. Where did they find this guy?