Frugal Finds Have Their Quirks

Posted on December 7, 2009
Filed Under Daily, Life in L.A., The Boss | 11 Comments

When The Boss and I walked into our L.A. apartment for the first time together, it was essentially empty. The week before I arrived, he was on a business trip, but still managed to get us a bed, a lamp, a fan, and a small dinette with two chairs for the kitchen. We ordered pizza the night I got in, and had our first meal together in what truly felt like ages.

The following week was filled with lists of things we’d need — everything from hand soap to a microwave — though we had a little bit of a challenge ahead of us now. For the first time in our married life, we’d have to be ultra frugal as The Boss got his feet wet in his new company, and I re-entered the job hunt. In my quest to find the best deal, I started scavenging for all the 20 percent off Bed Bath & Beyond coupons that our neighbors would toss in the recycling bin, and when I told my mom about what I was doing hoping she’d be filled with pride she said, “This is what happened? My daughter moved to L.A., and has started digging through other people’s trash?”

Well, actually, Mom, it’s a community trash so it’s a little different.

Sometimes it’s hard to communicate tone through a computer screen, but if you read what my mom said again, you’ll see that there is a little, teeny, tiny, minuscule beam of pride in there somewhere.

Maybe.
I think.

The Boss and I relished in the fact that we collected so many coupons, and sometimes, when we found a whole bunch, we’d high five each other, run back to our place, and take pictures to mark the auspicious occasion.

What? You thought I was kidding?

We ended up saving close to $200 at Bed Bath & Beyond over the course of a few weeks, and we were able to utilize lots of gift cards we still had to various stores left over from our wedding. But with me still looking for work, and droplets of freelance money came in, we had to find a store that better fit our financial needs.

We were at Target one afternoon in the One Dollar Spot, discussing how we could turn a children’s sand bucket into a trash can, when a woman pushing her 14 month old baby in a store cart approached us.

“You know, there’s a 99 cent store just down the street.”

NINETY-NINE CENTS! THAT’S ONE WHOLE PENNY LESS THAN WHAT WE’D BE SPENDING AT TARGET!

“We got a lot of stuff when we first moved here. You guys should check it out.”

We ended up getting tons of stuff including bread (yes, the kind you eat, and no, it wasn’t that bad), dress socks for The Boss, kitchen towels, dish soap, and lots of generic cleaning products that had names like, “Awesome Cleaner,” “So Clean Spray,” and “Window-X.”

And while most normal people buy their kitchen appliances at places that specialize in…I dunno…SELLING KITCHEN APPLIANCES, I guess you could say we like to go out on a limb from time to time.

Enter: The toaster that does not like to be used.

The toaster we got was nothing fancy. It didn’t have an oven, it didn’t have any blinking lights. Just two slots for bread, or maybe even a bagel if you really jammed it in there. But this toaster is different from even the fanciest contraptions on the market because it doesn’t like to be used. No matter what you put in there, it runs a quick cycle, and then spits up like a baby projectile vomits milk unexpectedly. I once put waffles in there, went to the bathroom, and when I came back, they were no where to be found. I later picked one up off the stove, and one off the kitchen floor.

I present to you, Exhibit A:

This was half a Pop-Tart, and next time, I think I’ll put a plate next to the toaster for it to land on. That way, we can hang a sign over the toaster that says “Full Service,” and put a jar for tips off to the side.

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