Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Becoming Cheap!

I don't know what pushes me to set up and write in a blog. How come am I attempting such a laborious task? Anyway, I'll let you know once I find it out.

For those who don't know me, I should say I'm an accountant. I wrestle with numbers. Whenever I disclose my profession to somebody I met first, I see their serious expression on their faces. That's their initial reaction giving me the message they think I do a boring job. What surprises me is that they usually say in return: "Oh! It should be very interesting!" Yeah...but not for you!

People tend to forget about the fact that life is actually part of accounting. I'm not talking about tax returns you get once every year.

If you have kids and if they want to go to movies, what is the first thing coming to your mind? Name of the movie? Or what movie theatre you should go to? Or pop corns? Maybe all! However I know some people who rush to calculate the sum of the total ticket costs and other extras for the event. They decide according to the calculated cost and they might say to their children:

"Sorry kids! It was really a tough week. I feel so exhausted...Maybe, we can find something to watch on TV, huh?"

More examples can be brought up...

Now say...Have you ever thought how much credit left in your card? Or, have you ever thought of buying a high quality no-name silk neck-tie instead of a Burberry?

Don't we bear a cheap side deep inside that shows up once our budget pinches us into a corner?

If we are not somewhat "cheap", who are those sleeping overnight in Black Friday lines? Aliens? Or, who are those called "Door-Crashers?"

When you hear somebody starting his/her words like "I don't mean to be cheap, but...", chances are, you are facing a 100 % purebred "cheap fellow".

Who knows? Maybe those who we call "cheap" are great accountants.

It would help us to figure it out to ask a simple question. Do economic crises correlate to individual behavior patterns? Who trigger the crises most? The "Cheap People" or the "Others"? Some identify the "Others" as "The Reckless".

If you already placed yourself within the "Others", I can imagine your face turned soured and scared now. Actually, if you really are one of those "Others", you have a good reason to be worried about.

On the other hand, I feel Jack Handy (*) has a point when he said:

"I can't stand cheap people. It makes me real mad when someone says something like, "Hey, when are you going to pay me that $100 you owe me?" or "Do you have that $50 you borrowed?" Man, quit being so cheap!"

It goes without saying that there are levels of being cheap. The following experience makes up the highest level ever. In other words, it's an "irrational level of cheapness".

Below is quoted from a web site where I read recently. It's a kind of forum an a lady recounts her experience there:

"An old friend of mine used to tell me stories about this guy she met in college several years ago. She said that he was a really nice guy and they became fairly good friends, but he was about the cheapest person she had ever met. I guess he admitted to her one day after he had drank too much that he would wear his underwear for two days in a row. The first day he would wear them right-side out, then he would turn them inside out come the second day. When she told him how gross she thought that was, he responded with, "hey, I'm a college student on a budget. I need to worry about tuition and book fees, not how much it's going to cost me at the laundromat."

Again, she goes on telling about the same guy:

"One day she went to visit him in his dorm and had brought a bag of McDonald's with food for both of them. After they had finished their food and she tried to throw the bag in the trash, he yelled at her not to throw the bag away because it had ketchup packets in it. He dug the ketchup packets out of the trash, and my friend proceeded to watch as he opened each individual packet to transfer them to a ketchup bottle he kept in his mini-fridge. He told her that you never knew when you'd run out of ketchup, so whenever he was in a fast-food restaurant he always grabbed handfuls, just in case.

She told me that he was also guilty of buying two-ply paper towels and toilet paper, so he could get twice the use out of them when he separated them. Whenever he stayed in hotels he would take not only the complimentary soaps and shampoos, but the towels and pillows as well. Whenever he started getting low on milk, he would add some water to it, to make it stretch longer. He said it didn't taste much different from skim milk."

Wow, Man! What the heck...

No, this level is not the one we are talking about...Actually it's a mental problem.

Maybe, I need to cut it short here.

Oh! By the way, you can share any idea or comments with me here. If you want to get a response from me, I don't mean to be "cheap"; but, I'll charge you with a small fee

(*)- Jack Handy quotes (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

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