How to Become a Hoarder

When I was growing up in Boston I remember that my mother was an avid coupon user. If she found a coupon and recognized the product, she would cut it out and take it with her on the next Saturday we went shopping. If there was no picture, she would ask me if it was something we used. (She barely spoke English and could only understand a very limited amount of written English.) There was a time when we had maybe six or seven boxes of detergent next to our washing machine in the basement. We used the expensive detergent, ever since my mother had been tempted to use one of the cheapest on the market and I had gotten a rash every day when my skin touched clean clothes. She justified buying the detergent whenever it was on sale (and better with an added coupon) by saying that we wouldn't need to buy it at full price if we ran out of it. A penny saved was a penny earned. 

For years afterwards I thought she had been exaggerating a bit. Until I started doing the same thing. It began with dishwashing detergent. Trying to cut down on costs, I bought a bottle of the cheaper kind. If the expensive detergent lasted me three weeks, this one lasted me one week. It wasn't worth it. So I have kept buying the expensive kind, but only when there's a two-for-one sale or an in-store discount. Unfortunately, coupons are not common here. Sometimes a manufacturer will attach one to a product, but normally coupons are acquired through a store fidelity card. I have three. I check my coupons every month to see where it's cheaper to buy something. If it means stocking up on something non-perishable I use with regularity, so be it. I have a shelf in the back room with green bottles lined up in a soldierly fashion, waiting to be used. It began with dishwashing detergent and has progressed to kitty litter.

I use the expensive kitty litter because our house is small and with four cats, the smell could get out of hand. So I'm always on the lookout for some kind of discount. One of the stores with a fidelity card had a discount a couple of weeks ago. The second box of the litter was at half price, with twenty percent of the price added to the card to use against a future purchase. In addition, the manufacturer added a coupon of two euros to each box. Total, I saved ten euros that week. This week when I returned to the store, the discount was still on. I did my regular shopping, took it to the car, and debated. I returned to the store and got two more boxes. The person at the checkout counter was the same one as the week before and she remembered my having bought litter that past week. She laughed when she saw me with another two boxes. I explained that it all began with my mother and the search to save a penny. Now I have three and a half boxes of kitty litter that will last me to the end of next month. 

And I saved twenty euros. Thanks, Ma!