Cheapness Exemplified

My boss recently had a day off and upon his return to the office I asked him how his day was. “Good and bad,” he said.

“Oh?” I asked. He explained that he had spent the day at the museum and during the course of his visit had slipped his watch into his pocket. Or so he thought. It turns out his watch wasn’t in his pocket – he’d lost it.

“It’s no big deal, I paid $8 for it at a dollar store near my house,” he continued. “Still, I really liked it.”

I had to smirk, here he was bemoaning the loss of a cheap watch he got for under ten dollars when he can easily afford a much pricier one.

The following day he approached my work space with a big grin on his face. “Guess what?” he asked.

“What?” I replied, wondering what had made him so happy. He pulled his sleeve back to reveal, you guessed it, his $8 watch. “Well that’s good news, then.”

“Yeah, it turns out it was on the floor in the room I change in. I guess it just blended in well with the carpet.” He was smiling that big awkward geeky smile of his. You’d think someone had handed him a cheque for thousands of dollars.

It really boggles my mind when I think about it. Here’s a man who is very well educated, owns a home in a pretty swanky area and has a well paying job. Yet he does things like buy watches at dollar stores and hauls away free wood for his fireplace all to save a few bucks.

I have to stick to a budget and I rarely, if ever skimp out on anything. I don’t think I live beyond my means, but I’m not counting every penny and always looking for a discount, either.

I guess we all play a little differently with the cards we’re dealt. And some of us get our cards at the local dollar store.