I’m in Australia, so I’m wondering what is Costco?

I love that being frugal can also help one the be more environmentally friendly and healthy!

I was at the age for the cpk when they came out the 1st time. I didn’t want one. I thought they were ugly and they stunk. I still think that today. They don’t smell like babies.

Anyways, have a simillar story with the xbox360. Working for a US company at their online call centre. That day, the store below us had a fire, and the xboxes were to be released for sale at 2pm ET. Our site was closed because of the fire, but there were so many people calling in for the xboxes they crashed the phone system. Those who got the 1st batch seemed to have nothing but problems with the systems, so sometimes it pays to wait. Especially with Microsoft.

The sugar analogy is great, I have done that with all sorts of things, most noticably with shampoo! When i first get it, I use big blobs and sometimes even wash twice, then as the bottle gets closer to the end, I carefully measure and apply JUST enough to get my hair clean. It’s the same shampoo, it’s the same hair, it’s just the feeling of scarcity that is the difference.

When in college and trying keep body and soul together on a squeaky-tight budget I was a penny pincher to the extreme, EVERYTHING had the scarcity scare attached to it. I had meal planning down to the maximum nutritional value per calorie per dollar figured out! Now that money is more regular (and plentiful) I hear myself thinking, hey what’s another $5? And it makes me a little disapointed in myself in some ways…. then again I sure have more fun than I did in those lean years!

WOW i haven’t seen a TV like that one in someones house for ages.

Now the TV works fine I hadn’t thought it was that old having bought it like 5 years ago I suppose but I know TVs are huge now flat screen but also $2500 for the average one that is a decent brand that’s not going to pack up in 12 months.
So yes she may be OLD but she still works fine and she will do us fine for a while yet.

The hundreds of Patches arrived on Monday December 12th – a date I will never forget. I spent the whole day in the shipping and receiving department sorting them out and attaching the orders to the correct dolls and the next day I phoned all the parents. We were open every night until 10 so my boss decided that we should tell the parents to come in at 9:30 on Wednesday and that we would start processing them at that time. His way of trying to avoid a stampede. Funnily enough he took the night off.

Unfortunately the cart loads of dolls were sitting just inside the doors of the shipping department and at around 7 o’clock one employee went through the doors and did not make sure that they swung shut behind him. A shopper saw the dolls and ran in grabbing as many as she could. Someone saw her and before you knew it we were swarmed. Like a crazy bush telegraph the news that we had the Patches spread like wildfire throughout the shopping center.

People were yelling and grabbing and hanging on for dear life while others were trying to rip the dolls out of their arms. Two men actually started a shoving and hitting fight and one woman threw herself on top of a box that had fallen on to the floor in a flying tackle that would have done any football player proud. It all happened so fast that we, the staff, just stood by with our mouths open, completely mesmerized. I eventually shook myself awake and called for security. They finally got things under control until they told us not to ring through any payments and started trying to get the dolls back. They got pretty beat up until the store manager arrived. He took one look at the chaos and told us to start taking payments for the dolls. He could see by the fanatical look in the eyes of the parents that they were not leaving without the dolls.

At 9:30 the parents who had ordered the dolls way back in October started arriving. The store manager had them gathered together into the cafeteria and told them what had happened. Only one man laughed. The rest were furious.

I have never before or since experienced a mob mentality like this although I have seen similar things on the news when a food aid truck arrives in a war torn refugee camp and that I can understand. The incident of the dolls was both terrifying and hysterically funny. It was also kind of tragic that these parents were so desperate for such an ugly toy. Of course it wasn’t the toy, it was the fear of disappointing their children. We did manage to find some Patches before Christmas – enough to fill about a third of the orders (but not the specific dolls the parents had desired) and the store manager gave the parents who lost out a voucher to get the dolls for free in January when we were expecting the next shipment. In January and February we got so many dolls we ended up putting them on sale. I bought two for my god-daughters for Easter. They were happy enough but not as excited as I was expecting. Old news I guess. I should have stuck with a chocolate bunny. At least I always got a chunk of an ear.

Now I’m a professional and making more money than I could have ever dreamed of as a kid and it still doesn’t seems to be enough (perception wise). My husband is the stay at home parent so we are living on one income. If he were to be working too I’m sure we would percieve it be still not be quite enough.

Funny how that it is.

I went to Costco the other day with $60 and guess what I spent $58, if I had gone in with $400 I’m sure I would have spent it. The jars forces me to figure out that “that” is enough and for that I am grateful.

What a mind bender though going into Costco and only spending $60. Thank you Gail, I read your blog everyday and catch your shows when I can… thank you for making me think again. Its been 2 months on the jars and its been hard and wonderfull all at the same time!

Also, I am a psych major and it is amazing to watch people react to so many different ploys out there. What’s fun is learning the techniques and using them to YOUR advantage, it gives me a rush, and I almost feel like I’m cheating by knowing what I’m doing to people.

Thanks again, Gail!

The biggest change I notice is even if it’s scarce, I may walk by it and want it, but I know right away I just can’t have it. By the time it’s next week and I have money for it, I don’t want it anymore. I find the jar mentality is great for combatting scarcity or the next best thing.

Now, my husband and I feel like we don’t need to be so strict with the money we make. I know this is not the case if we want to pay off all our debt and create an emergency fund.

I agree with Jolie that is hard to deal with a deprived mentality. As soon as I think about cutting back I feel like I need to spend. I hate the thought of what I had dealt with in school, but it wouldn’t be that bad. We can pay the bills and deal with variable expences easily, but we spend too.

BUT I have started to take the steps required to take care of the debt…I find cash disappears too quickly in our home and having the money in the bank I can allocate it too the bills. I have set budgets for groceries and focus on buying sales and stocking up our pantry instead of just purchasing what we will eat in a week. I saw my mother do this as I grew up. I remember a time when my father had waited 6 months to receive EI and we survived on my mother’s small income. Because of the stocked cupboard and freezer, she only spent $120 over the six months on groceries. I don’t remember ever feeling deprived as a child. I don’t know how she did it, but Christmas and birthdays were within those 6 months as well. I call her when I need money advise. We talk about this blog daily. Thank you Gail.