Yes, this is what I was recently told – and I considered it a compliment!
I popped into our local kosher supermarket for some chicken and vegetables on Thursday evening. I loaded up on turkey wings since they were .79 lb (that’s the kind of price I don’t often see!), and got a bunch of fresh vegetables for Shabbos salads (naturally the ones that were a good deal). I was in the checkout line following a friend who said she needed to be more frugal and could use my tips, so I laughed and pointed to my stuff on the conveyor belt, and said: “Here’s my frugal tip of the day – buy lots of what’s cheap!” 😆
The cashier heard us and then took a look at what I had, and started estimating out loud how much my order was before he even finished checking out my friend! When he finished ringing up my order, he looked at the total and said, “That’s awesome! It’s even less than I was guessing. You’re not a member of the (name of store) club!” So naturally I asked him what that meant.
He said that he’s noticed that shoppers fall into four categories: those who spend a) $100, b) $300, c) $700, and d) $1000 (though he said this usually only happens around major Jewish holidays) for each shopping trip. And since my full cart of food came out to less than $100, I’m not a member of the club. Boo hoo. 🙂 I told him that I infrequently top $100 and only can spend $300 at a time in that store before Pesach (Passover) (since it includes my hand matzos)- which may be a total joke to some people, but that’s my notably big shopping trip there.
Personally I was more interested in how frequently most people are shopping, because it’s less relevant how much you spend than each time than how long a time you’re buying for. When I do my monthly shopping, I spend a lot, basically my entire month’s budget in a day less $50 – 100. Even after shopping like this for so long, I still am taken aback when I come out of the stores and think about how much I just spent. Someone could look at me and think I’m a big spender and someone spending just $50 look like the frugal person, but I’m shopping for 4 – 6 weeks of supplies and if the $50 person is a typical shopper, they’re back in the store 2 – 3 times a week. And that would add up fast.
In case you were wondering, the turkey wings can be useful in a number of ways – roasted as is, stewed, chopped for turkey salad and pot pies – and you can use the bones and carcasses as a base for your stock as a nice bonus. They were very tasty for Shabbos lunch as turkey salad – I cooked a very large amount and then chopped it all into evenly diced pieces, then froze half so all I’ll need to do next week is defrost and add seasonings. I actually enjoy cooking with inexpensive ingredients so much more than expensive ingredients – it’s like buying clothes at a thrift store – you’re just not as invested if something goes wrong, and when something goes right, you’ve gotten way more value than what you paid.
Avivah
Leave a Reply