The Pennies. Saving the pennies is actually one of…
By: Natalie Enn
Tags: Funny, Money, Saving, Food, Thoughts

Saving the pennies is actually one of my true passions and this has become evident over the past few years. I’m intentionally frugal nowadays. Not tight, frugal. Again, intentionally so.

Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash

Not stingy either; another word I despise and would never like to be accused of. I give gladly, especially my tithe and I’m grateful for the ability to do so.

Don’t get me wrong, this saving life takes balance. It can go overboard and I sometimes struggle to let go.

At times we’ll be out dining at a relatively nice restaurant and I just can’t help it. I must, have to, just NEED to mentally calculate the actual contents of my plate. I try to stop myself as I inevitably conclude that the food is being sold to us at a 20,000% markup and I feel the irritation rising within me.

Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash

Whenever this happens, I hear the still, small voice telling me to just enjoy every last morsel of my seafood platter and get over it. (And at that cost, eat the shells and use the complimentary bread to mop up every last drop of gravy from the plate).

Whilst I continue to enjoy the meal and of course the company, in the back of my mind I’m wondering why I didn’t just google the recipe and do a DIY job at home.

Photo by Ryan Franco on Unsplash

On occasion I’ll try to replicate the meals we’ve eaten at restaurants. It’s more cost-effective and, whilst time-consuming and with the guarantee that the presentation won’t be as aesthetically pleasing as the pros, if I really concentrate, it can usually match up in terms of taste. Dining out is great and of course, convenient, but the rumbling belly usually follows within a few hours and we usually find ourselves doing the very thing we wished to avoid; standing in the kitchen, rustling something up.

I liken it to the Chinese proverb of ‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’ However, my proverbs goes something like this; ‘buy a meal outdoors and it will feed you for lunch, cook a meal at home and you’ll have enough leftovers for 3 more dinners as well to take for work packed lunches.’

Photo by Wilfred Wong on Unsplash

It may not have the same ring or melody to it, but it makes sense and I’ll hear nothing to the contrary.

Then there are the unnecessary purchases. Yes, I too have previously lived a life of reckless abandon and would buy a new pair of expensive shoes every month, for no reason. Years later, these shoes remain exactly as they arrived, like a delicate artefact in the retail cardboard box, untouched by the human hand or, more appropriately, foot.

I placed a few pairs of these shoes on a popular social networking site once, in an attempt to sell them. However, I was left slightly disturbed when one individual was adamant that they would only purchase a pair of the shoes if photos were sent WITH MY FEET IN THEM.

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash

Needless to say, conversations stopped abruptly and the block function was utilised.

Worse still, (maybe not worse than the foot pic request), I went through an extensive stage of purchasing ‘buy it now, to wear when I’m slim’ clothes. I have boxes upon boxes of unworn, tagged clothes in my loft as this weight seems to be going nowhere anytime soon.

Yes, I plan to eBay most of this stuff, but it’s a mission and I need time to build up to the process.

And events. Events! Tell me that you want to propose to your partner on a budget, and give me a day to sort it. I’ll get you a Michelin star restaurant for a couple of pence above a Nandos and they may even throw in the ring for free. I’m not exaggerating.

And don’t tell me that there’s a supermarket voucher I’ve missed out on. I’ll have a sleepless night.

It’s not an obsession but, on the cusp. It’s a debate as to whether intervention is now required or if extreme couponing lies within my destiny.

Time will tell.