Cheap-O

I’ve scoured all my expenses and cut everything that’s unnecessary.  Again: no gym membership, no cable, no cell phone bill.  But now: I cut Rhapsody the online jukebox that cost me $13 a month.  I charge everything that I can on my 2% cash back Schwab credit card.  I refinanced my mortgage to $1900 a month.  Who can beat that?  And I’m going to get a waterfall of a tax refund in a few weeks.

I did increase my automatic monthly deduction to my church.  I believe in karma 🙂  No but really. The Catholic Church has always been there for me.  God provides.

I’m one week into my two week sobriety plan.  I am saving so much money.  It’s actually scary thinking how much I’ve spent all these years getting drunk.  I feel so stupid about my alcoholism I’m considering making sobriety permanent.  I really am.

But here’s the zinger.  After Christmas, I bought a cute navy blue form-fitting sweater from BCBG.  It was 50% off and it still cost $120.  Anyhow, I lost it.  I don’t know where.  I just tore my place up yesterday looking for it.  Ran to my Honda Civic, searched under the seats, in the trunk.  Looked in my gym bag.  Nothing.  I thought of all the places I’d worn it.  Had I worn it to Therese’s last time I spent the night?  I wore it on a date.  I remember it coming off.  I remember washing it since then, wearing it since then.  It was gone.  The hardest thing for me to swallow is that I practically never lose anything.  Probably only a handful of times in my life have I lost something and not recovered it.  It’s gone.  I don’t know where it is.

I woke up this morning wanting to replace it, but of course, nothing that expensive.  So I went to the Crossroads second-hand store on Fillmore and Bush in Lower Pac Heights.  I went in looking for a sweater and came out with 6 sweaters, 1 blouse, and a pair of jeans.  Mind you, these were not cheap-looking items.  All the sweaters were cashmere or some mixture of silk and cashmere.  The blouse was 100% silk.  And the jeans were Seven–one of the most expensive brands.  Plus, they were my size.  Extra small.  Perfect fit.  How much did these 8 items cost me?  A grand total of $106 including tax! That’s less than my stupid lost BCBG sweater.  Never again.  Never again am I buying expensive things.  I am going cheapo from here on out.