Thursday, April 17, 2008

My cheap and dishonest tendencies

I try to fight it but my parents raised an honest girl. And according to multiple friends, those who dare to say it, a cheap girl too. Not to be confused with a cheap date, I guarantee you that is not the case.

Anyhow, after my free coupon-prompted trip to Victoria's Secret, Rebecca commented again on Monday that I'm cheap. Actually, she said "frugal" but let's be real, it's the same thing. Apparently taking advantage of the free underwear coupon and going into the dreaded store on a Friday to purchase other items makes me cheap. Or further demonstrates that I am frugal.

I'm teased because I know how much everyone should contribute to the dinner tab, rarely ever take cabs and I manage and budget my finances like a huge corporation. I agree that I might be a bit...unforgiving about money and hoard it like cattle, but it's with good reason. I have a few friends who are...not the best with money and while they are very generous, they also have bad credit and credit card debt. I know these two things are not mutually exclusive but I don't have any trouble paying my bills on a monthly basis. And if I lend money, it's at a 20 percent monthly interest rate. It's not personal, it's business. Plus when you don't grow up with a lot and spend every free moment working to stay afloat, you can't help being sensitive about money.

So leading into the dishonest part, today I bought lunch (don't get excited, it's expensible) and noticed when I got back to my desk that I was incorrectly rung up by the cashier. He only charged me $2.25 instead of $8.50. I thought for a moment about calling or going back down there with my food to clarify, but decided against it and enjoyed my lunch and the newspaper online. Dishonest? Maybe, but considering I'm honest 99 percent of the time, I'll hang on to the 1 percent right now. Bad to the bone.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

Call the police! :P

Anonymous said...

No worries on being frugal. It's good management and prepares you for success.

I was the same way. My first real estate purchase was a four bedroom condo in the Gold Coast. I invited 3 friends to rent the other rooms -- they had a great deal and I was able to more than cover my mortgage, monthly assessments, parking and taxes.

After a couple years, I built up tremendous equity and began purchasing more property throughout the city. It all started with good management.

Maintaining a budget and the discipline behind it is the same whether the budget is $100 or $100,000,000. The only difference is the added zeroes.

Save your money and buy cute shoes.