my frugality has made me socially inept

[rafala]

I went to the beach with some friends this weekend with the intent of 1) having a kid free weekend and 2) doing some shopping. well the kid free part was great but the shopping was awful. we were in a little beachy/resort type of town so we walk into these stores and they have sweaters for $300!!!! now that is insane to me so we all go in and i look at the items and 5 minutes later i am out of the store. my friends actually stop and look in the clearance racks! like a $300 sweater is going to be marked down to $5(i would probably have to debate over it at that price even) so we spent half a day doing this, me going in and out of stores and them spending 15 minutes or more in these tiny little places actually looking at items. then we moved on to the outlet stores. which are convenient for having a whole bunch of stores together in one place so you dont have to do a bunch of running around. but i saw a pair of pants that i bought my son at target, not on sale mind you, for $9 and they had them for $16 at the outlets. exact same pants!!!

now i do have my shopping for the holidays mostly done, and what i dont have done i dont know what i am getting them so going to the stores doesnt help. but after spending 2 hours looking in these horrible overpriced stores these outlets didnt do anything for me and i couldnt enjoy myself while shopping with friends. I know some of the people, who i only met for the first time this weekend, thought i was snobby or a loser for not shopping with them but there was seriously no enjoyment in looking at overpriced clothes and toys. and these folks were so getting into it picking through the clothes and holding them up and trying to find a match it was taking forever. i was ready to keel over after 6 hours of shopping.

help!!!!!

karen the frugal shopping addict (or snobby loser to those that dont know me)

[Jennifer M.]

There is nothing wrong with being frugal and if your friends cannot accept that then that's their problem not yours Just remember that while they are paying $300 for that sweater, you are paying less for the same thing somewhere else!

[pandybat]

You're not a snobby loser, Karen. I am the same exact way. My sister drives me nuts when we go shopping. She does the same thing that you described your friends doing. I honestly don't know why some people spend so much money on things you can find cheaper somewhere else.
I keep telling my friends that if I were to ever win the lottery, I would be just the same as I am now. I wouldn't buy a mansion or a Mercedes or $300 sweaters. I would take trips but that would be about the only luxury I could justify spending so much money on. But I would still be looking online for ways to get there cheaper...lol
I don't need fancy cars, as long as the one I have gets me to where I am going, I am happy. I don't need $100 sunglasses, the ones I have now from WalMart do the job. I don't need a $200 purse to showcase all the stuff I have in my $12 one.
VH1 has this show on called "It's Good To Be..." and they show the shopping trips, houses, cars and demands of celebrities. I am floored by what some of them buy. $200 shampoo or $1000 for a pair of panties. Millions of dollars for their homes that are too big to even mess with, IMO. My gosh, I could do some much more with all that money!

[Tracir]

Your post reminded me of a story my MIL told me once- her friends were that way and kinda kept her out of shopping trips because they knew she was frugal. Then some hard times hit a couple of these friends and they both went to my MIL and asked her to teach them how she does it.

My siblings think I am a nut but my brother recently moved into an apartment at school. He stopped by and I stocked him up with enough supplies to last the whole year. He laughed at my linen closet- DH calls it my army ration store- I have about 25 tubes of toothpaste right now. But my brother was very appreciated and impressed with all my goods. And giving it to him didn't even put a dent in my stock!

[sblme28]

Me too Tracy! My family all kind of giggles, but when I give them free stuff, they stop...lol. My mom keeps asking me to teach her how to do it, but she doesn't seem to have the patience required...doesn't want to sit down and learn. So...until she does...I guess she'll just keep taking my free toothpaste.

[rafala]

thanks guys, i appreciate the kind words. I knew my frugal friends here at dod would understand

karen

[SaraP]

Hang in there! You're the one with the extra dollars.

Sara

[SweetPotato]

Who would want to pay 20.00 dollars for something if you can get it for 7.00? Maybe they had too much so they had to throw it away. I could think of a lot of funner things to spend money on than 300.00 dollar sweaters. Like a good garage sale or flea market where you feel great after your purchase because you know you got it for almost nothing. One of my mottos is cheap is good and free is better. Keep being frugal. its a fun adventure. Happy shopping.

[juliet57]

Many years go, when Edge shave gel was first introduced, there were numerous coupons, rebates, store specials to get you to try the new product. I did try it and dh loved it so I kept buying whenever I could get it for almost nothing. One day I was organizing things on the new shelves dh put up for me. He took a look at the cache of shaving gel and proclaimed "And to think there are people in China who can't shave!"

If anyone didn't get the remark it is a reference to the many times when we were children that our mothers told us, if we didn't finish our dinner, that there were children in China without enough to eat.

[verwon]

You all should see my cupboards, I am a definite hoarder and stockpiler. Whenever I get something cheap or free, I buy as much as I can so I don't have to waste money later.

There is nothing wrong with saving money, I have gone shopping with friends many times and watched while they wasted their money. I know I can get the same stuff cheaper elsewhere.