Did you get any great deals during the recent holiday shopping?

This year, I tried to buy things that were on sale. Which I did for the most part, except for some toys for kids. For other shopping, I tried to take advantage of either discounted prices or gift cards.  Including in this “other” shopping category is stuff I bought for me. Yes, I did a little bit of holiday shopping for myself!

You just know you’ll find the items I purchased to be incredibly exciting. I mean, who couldn’t get excited over a purchase of socks? OK, it’s not too exciting, I agree. Admittedly, I didn’t exactly go overboard shopping for myself this holiday season. That was it for self indulgence – absolutely everything else was for others, which is probably how it should be anyway.

That being said, this ended up being my best bargain purchase, and I think it qualifies as another example of Squirreling Gone Wild.

Here’s what happened. I needed to buy some new socks, so while doing some gift shopping before Christmas I came across a nice pack of 3 socks on sale. These were high quality and of a very good brand, and the regular price was $26. Yeah, not cheap. However, they were on sale at 65% off, pack of 3 for $9.10. Does that sound better? It did to me.

It was a good deal, but I just picked up one pack since my hands were full with gifts anyway.  Then, I took all my items to the nearest register, to make my purchase. As I did, there was a line awaiting me. Additionally, the associate behind the counter seemed to be somewhat disinterested in fast service.

Well, after waiting for my turn, I finally got up to the register to pay for my items.  As the associate rang up each item, I watched each price. It’s a habit I have, which I don’t always do but seem to do more often than not. Basically, the benefit is making sure that I’m being charged the right price.

When he got through the other items, and came to the socks, I noticed a price of $2.27 coming up. I then did a double take and asked him what the $2.27 was for, since nothing I bought was at that price. He told me that it was for the socks.

Don’t ask me why, but I actually asked if that was the price per pair of socks. It just came to my mind right way. He looked at me kind of funny (understandably, I’ll admit) and told me that no, that was actually the price for the 3-pack.

Again, I clarified: “$2.27 for the 3-pack?”

“Yes”, he said.

At that point, I felt a wave of excitement. “YES!” I thought, it’s a small shopping victory. Then I felt kind of bad, and told the guy that I thought they were actually priced on sale, 65% off, at $9.10.  I don’t know, it just seemed like the right thing to do.  Nevertheless, the guy again told me that the price was $2.27, since that’s what it was showing up at.

Then, my guilt evaporated and I got excited about taking advantage of this. I asked the guy if he could hold on for just 30 seconds, as I wanted to go run over to the aisle where those socks were, and get some more. There were a few people in line behind me, that did not seem too patient. I felt bad, but I zipped over to that aisle and picked up 2 more 3-packs. Then, I quickly proceeded back to the register, where the guy was patiently waiting and the other customers were seemed slightly restless.

I added the two more socks there, and did the math: $78.00 regular retail price, but I paid $6.81. That’s over 90% off!

As I finished my purchase, the associate and I traded holiday wishes, and I turned and walked away. I flashed a quick, friendly smile at the lady who was patiently waiting behind me in line. Kind of a “happy holidays” type of smile. She didn’t flinch, and didn’t smile back at all.  I guess that extra 30 seconds I took annoyed her.  I wouldn’t have cared if the shoe was on the other foot (or sock, Ha Ha!). Ah, well….what can you do? I hope she had a nice rest of the day at least.

As for me, I got a great deal on things that I actually needed anyway. All while getting a greater than 90% discount. I was pleased:)

My Questions for You

Did you get any great shopping deals this past holiday season?

Have you ever encountered a situation where you thought you might have been undercharged? Did you silently take advantage of it, or did you bring it to their attention?

What would you have done in my situation?

Integrity is priceless. Most of us value ours, and choose to deal with others who also have it. This extends beyond personal relationships into business dealings as well.

This edition of the Squirreling Gone Wild series covers a time when promises were made about an upcoming bonus at work.  A number of folks got excited about it! However, things didn’t go quite as planned – for the employees who were so excited. This included me.

Background

This occurred at a job I had in the 90′s. It was at a job not long after college, where I started in an entry-level position. The company was probably not a household name, but it was fairly prominent within it’s market.

Anyway, a group of us entry level people had been working a ton of extra hours. Now, we knew that there would be a period of time where this would be expected, but we were asked to work extra days and longer hours for more time that originally communicated to us.  Mandatory Saturdays made for 6 day weeks for some time, and it wasn’t fun. We were getting paid very little, but I was of course committed to working hard and getting whatever experience I could out of it.

Met some good friends there too. That tends to happen when you’re in an entry-level position with a number of peers at about your age.  We got through it with a lot of joking around about the circumstances.

The Carrot

After this period of mandatory Saturdays and extra workload dragged on longer than we expected, there came word of a potential bonus in the works.  We had worked really hard, so this was a nice incentive for a group of younger, hungry people out of college.  This bonus was the proverbial carrot dangled in front of us, as an incentive to continue working hard.

So, we were happy and proceeded to get that extra boost in motivation. We were under the impression that there would be a bonus, but there was no specific date given. Just words indicating that it was being worked on, the exact timing isn’t certain yet, etc.  Yet we just assumed that of course, it would happen.

As time went on, we started to wonder when the bonus would come.  We had poured our energies into our work, thinking that we were going to be appreciated and rewarded for our efforts – especially since we were told so. There was a spike up in motivation that they got from the group as a result of the expectation of the bonus. Yet where was the bonus? After a while a sick feeling began to take hold that we weren’t going to get one. It seemed unfathomable.

Finally, we got an email which addressed the topic. It had been months, but we were also separately told a date: November 1st. What a magical date, that November 1st would be!

The aforementioned email had a reassuring  comment that we have not been forgotten.

The Squirreling

November 1st came and went without a bonus. At this point, it was exasperating.

Now, keep in mind that we weren’t making much money, so the bonus wasn’t going to really be all that much money anyway. But at the time, it was kind of a big deal, and even if irrational – people thought they were going to get this money.

One guy who had quit had talked about demanding receipt of his bonus.  It caused some laughter among those hearing about it. Another guy, who was really nice guy but a hard luck person, kept on saying that they’ll probably give it to us. He seemed to think that these things just take time in some cases.

Wishful thinking. We never got the bonus.

Yes, it never happened! In fact, they never gave us a detailed explanation. Again, all kinds of rumors floated about the bonus ended. Whatever the case, substantiated or not, these rumors just fueled the disappointment people had.

Now, I can admit that actually did get some very good experience there, and worked with some pretty cool people. A group of us that were friends would constantly joke around about the bonus. Have to say, we handled it pretty well at the time. What else could you do, but laugh? And leave, which we all did. We could still get in touch on November 1st and crack a joke asking if they got their bonus today.

Might as well laugh about it, right?

My Questions for You:

Have you ever been misled or burned, expecting money but never receiving it?

Have you heard of situations where people didn’t get paid for a service or product?

While this example happened some years ago, how would you handle it if it happened today?

Pets can be expensive, no question about it.  When budgeting for household expenses, it’s often necessary to include a fair amount allocated for pet needs.  While many people naturally accept and factor pets into the budget, some others resist and even resent the amount they can cost.

The annoyance at pet expenses makes you wonder why some of those people bought a pet in the first place, but hey, to each their own, right?  Well, a recent story I saw on vet costs reminded me of a discussuion I had with guy I worked with some years ago. He was irritated about how much money he had to spend on pets for his family. Yeah, I know…on the surface he sounds like a reach charmer of a guy:) I almost can’t believe I forgot about this, so I’ve got to share it here as the 29th edition of Squirreling Gone Wild.

Backstory

As a backdrop, the guy was a cost-conscious co-worker.  I was younger, so I didn’t quite get his hangups then, but I totally understand now how he’d be watching expenses as he had a family.  That part I get, and think was perfectly reasonable.

Anyway, at lunch one day – with a group of us – he was complaining about the costs of taking his dog to the vet, and how these bills really added up. He didn’t want the dog at all in the first place, since he felt that they’re expensive and he would have rather saved the money instead since he had a family to care for. Again, I totally get that. I know some hard-core dog lovers might not, but I do understand.

Now, I have never owned a dog. With allergies in the family, we didn’t buy a dog when I was growing up – and I haven’t purchased on since. So, I was just curious how expensive the dog really was for him. He continued on about vet costs, but also talked about how the dog added wear and tear to their home, consumed a lot of expensive dog food, and so on. Fair enough, I got the picture. Even though it was a small and older dog (don’t remember what breed), it was costly. He also made it sound like he was pretty much made to buy the pet by his wife. The words I still remember his saying were “That damn dog”.

Bottom line: he couldn’t stop thinking about how much money that dog was costing him.

The Scheme

He then proceeded to talk about how his kids wanted to buy a parakeet. As he mentioned that, I recall an eye roll. Obviously, he had enough of spending money on pets.

Then, he smirked as he told us what he would do if he was forced to buy this pet as well: buy an old bird.

His reasoning was that if he got an older parakeet, it would die sooner and he would have to spend less money on it over it’s lifetime. A baby parakeet would mean a longer life, more seed, upkeep, etc. I don’t know if he realized that parakeets aren’t exactly a big source of vet bills!

Anyway, we were all chuckling and shaking our heads, saying things to the effect of “Come on, man!”

Now, when I was a young child, we did have a couple of parakeets as pets at home, so I remembered how to tell an younger bird from an older one. The way I was told is to look at the forehead of the bird, and see if it has bars (lines). If it has bars, it’s a younger bird that’s just a few months old. If it has no bars, and has a solid color, it’s a more mature bird. Maybe not old, but at probably older than a 3 months old.

With that knowledge, I actually shared that information with him and the group. At first, I could tell his reaction was mild amusement as he looked at me: “This guy had a parakeet when he was a kid. Who knew?”

Then, I could see the lightbulb turn on. His eyes got bigger, and he pointed at me saying “That’s it!. If I have to get a bird, I’ll get one with no lines on it’s head, so at least there’s a chance that it’s old!” He laughed as he said it.

Get the picture? He was talking about buying the kids an old pet that would die soon so that he wouldn’t have to spend too much on it for too long.

To be fair, I have no idea if he actually bought an old bird or bought any bird at all. I never heard about the topic again, and never asked. Maybe it was all hot air.

But it was a crazy and shameful idea on how save money!

Note: I’m sure you realize this, but I don’t condone intentionally tricking family members or that guy’s plan. Just in case you’re new here:)

My Questions for You:

Have you ever let the cost of a pet deter you or influence your purchasing decision?

If you do have pets, how much do they cost you?

Amusement parks can be fun for kids and families! What a classic way to spend a summer day. Of course, a day at the park can be expensive for the family as well.

This edition of the Squirreling Gone Wild series will share a story of a friend of mine who discovered a way to maximize the return on his investment of time and money at the park. Just keep this in mind: don’t shoot the messenger who’s sharing this story, this wasn’t me:)

Anyway, first of all, let’s talk about the friend. He’s someone who likes to save a buck or two. I’ve known him a long time, but don’t see him as often in recent years since we’re both busier. Anyway, he’s a good guy – let’s establish that up front.

We were on the phone the recently catching up, and he started to tell me about his visit to a major amusement park earlier this year. I haven’t been there since I was a kid, but would like to take my own kids sometime in the future. So, I asked him what it costs to visit these days. He proceeded to tell me how expensive the park is, counting tickets, food, etc. Plus, they stayed multiple days as they made a  vacation out of it. Needless to say, he shelled out a fair amount of money for this trip.

Then, he started laughing as he told me that he found a workaround for visiting the park that could save time and money, if someone had the guts to do it. The idea is to complain to customer service in order to board rides immediately.

The Problem

Here’s how he figured this out. First, they had arranged for something called a fastpass, which apparently allows you to “reserve” a time window during the day in which you can visit a certain ride and stand in an express line. The way he described it, you could get fastpass at say, 11:00am for a certain ride. The fastpass will have a window of 1 hour later in the day, say 2:00pm to 3:00pm, where you could go back and have a shorter wait. For comparison, he indicated that if a ride’s normal line might be 45 minutes, the fastpass line might be 15 minutes. So, you end up saving time by scheduling your ride ahead of time.

So, they went to that ride at their allotted time, and got into the fastpass lane. They were excited to have a relatively short wait in this express line! Well, unfortunately as they got in line the ride wasn’t working. They didn’t get to go on that ride, even though they had planned around it with their fastpass scheduled time. Bummer, right?

The Customer Service Response

Well, he wasn’t happy about it. His next move was to go to see customer service and complain about it. Not something I would have even thought about, actually, but he went and did it. Lo and behold, they gave him some kind of special pass for immediate boarding on one other ride! So he got something for his family’s inconvenience, after all.

He went to another ride and bypassed the long line and boarded immediately with his new, special pass. He mentioned that it was great walking right on, bypassing not only the massive wait in the regular line, but also the shorter wait in the fastpass line. Essentially, he didn’t wait at all!

The Scheme

Then, he had a thought come immediately to his mind. Apparently, he liked the convnenience of immediate boarding so much that he went to complain to customer service again, saying that he was unable to board a ride. Now, this wasn’t exactly the case. He just wanted to board another ride without waiting.

So, he got the special immediate boarding pass and went to another ride. Later in the day, he did it again. Complain to customer service, then get immediate boarding on your next ride – that was his formula.

Then, the money saving aspect came into the conversation. He assessed that yes, one could cut out an extra day of visiting by compressing more rides into one day. Then, there’s no need to stay an extra day because you’ve experienced all the rides. You just have to complain a bunch of times, get immediate boarding passes, and get it all done in less time. That means one day less in the park, which means less money spent overall – including hotel, food, etc.

Savings by complaining: Hundreds of dollars and a day of your life!

The Post-Mortem

So, would he do it again? No. The reality is that he only complained those few times I had mentioned above, and that’s it. He felt guilty about it, and didn’t think it set the best example for anyone. Plus, seeing everyone standing in the other two lines (regular long line and fastpass line) while he boarded immediately made him feel bad. He just got carried away in his enthusiasm. He just had the lightbulb go off in his head, got fired up, and took advantage. But he has a conscience and won’t do it again. Like I said, good guy.

That didn’t stop us from laughing about it though, and talking about the money savings opportunity that it presented:)

Two takeaways I had from this story:

1. It seems like the park’s customer service might be pretty good. Kudos to them.
2. Don’t actually do this. Rather, be honest.

My Questions for You:

Have you (or anyone you know) ever schemed to save money at some kind of entertainment venue, be it a theme park, concert, sporting event, movie, etc?

Ever do something along these lines that seemed funny at the time, but you might not do again?

Do you ever use any customer loyalty cards, at restaurants or other businesses?

I’m usually not too involved with such cards, but I do keep a few around. When I visit a place, and see one, I’ll pick it up as long as I think there’s an opportunity to go back again.

Recently, I found what an old friend of mine liked to call an “arbitrage opportunity”.  This story will be the 27th edition of the Squirreling Gone Wild series.

Background

I found a place in the area which offered a customer loyalty card that awarded a free sandwich after 7 purchases.  The place itself offered a quality, quick lunch,  and was close enough to where I’ve been working.  So, since I figured I’d go there again, I took the loyalty card that was offered to me.

As I took it, I was a bit preoccupied, so I didn’t really pay attention to what the guy behind the counter was saying about getting me “started” with stamp on the card.  Later, when I looked at the card, I realized what he meant was that he was giving me a card with a stamp on it already and he followed up by adding a stamp for my purchase. So, that was 2 stamps for one visit, on the first visit.  Nice. But, I didn’t think much about it after that.

The next visit, I was in line as he made that same offer to the customer ahead of me. I barely noticed, and wasn’t preoccupied with this loyalty card, but just remembered that I had the same experience. So, I remembered to pull out the loyalty card when I ordered.

First, he asked if I would like a loyalty card, and I said no thanks – I already had one. So, after I paid, he stamped the card.

The Discovery

As I was eating my sandwich, the thought entered my mind: had I not said anything, I would’ve gotten a new pre-stamped card plus another stamp for the purchase. That would have been 2 stamps for this transaction as well. Instead, I spoke up and said I already had a card, and got only one stamp out of this transaction.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 2 visits and 3 stamps thus far.

After I figured this out, I made a few more visits. The next time, I walked in and made sure I stood in line with the same guy there. Fortunately, he was working. Not sure if he even recognized me, but he again asked me if I wanted a loyalty card.

This time, I said “Yes”.  I repeated that same thing the next time I was in as well.  He never asked me I had a card, just if I wanted a loyalty card.

The Result

At this point, after those four visits, I was ready to try out my plan.  I walked in, and didn’t see that same guy there. No worries, let’s give this a try.

So, I ordered my lunch, and wasn’t even asked about the lunch card. No big deal, as I didn’t care. Rather, I pulled out the 3 cards that I had collected. Remember:

• Card #1 = 3 stamps from Visits 1 and 2.
• Card #2 = 2 stamps from Visit 3
• Card #3 = 2 stamps from visit 4

Total stamps: 7.  This is what was needed for a free lunch. Unfortunately, the stamps were on different cards.

Never mind that. I asked the lady if I could combine the 3 separate cards since there were 7 stamps in total.

She paused, thought about it, and said “yeah, sure”. And just like that, my sandwich was free!

The Benefit

Normally, 7 visits equaled 7 stamps. That’s what it should have taken to get the free sandwich.

With the stamp-happy guy, it would have been 6 visits for the 7 stamps. 2 stamps the first visit, one for each subsequent visit.

With the plan I hatched, it turned out to be 4 visits for 7 stamps.

Net result: 2 fewer visits for a sandwich. All due to some creative thinking.

OK, OK.  This isn’t a big accomplishment. In fact, I probably didn’t act my age in this one instance, and was perhaps scheming like a broke college kid here:) I know that.  Maybe it’s even along the lines of the guy I know who used delight in saving pennies at the gas station. 

It’s all good though, and in fun. The bottom line is, it’s just the thrill of using your brain to creatively think of ways to save, while simply asking for the discount.  It’s fun! Again, it never hurts to ask. 

My Questions for You:

Do you ever think of creative ways to save, such as the plan above.

Do you ever get a thrill out of small savings opportunities, even if minor such as this example?

In the Squirreling Gone Wild series, there have been stories about all kinds of characters trying to save money. Some friends, coworkers, strangers, extractors….and even me:)

In this 26th edition of the series, we’ll share a quick story about a kid that’s apparently learning to be a squirreler. She’s learning from someone who’s got years of experience at it.

First off, the “mentor” in this case wasn’t me – it was a friend. In fact, it’s the same friend who was the source of the story in the very first edition of Squirreling Gone Wild. Yes, he’s the guy who years ago, as a college student, tried to save money on gas by deliberately buying an amount one penny over a whole dollar amount.  He would pocket the difference from the “take a penny” dish at the register.

Here’s what happened:

We were catching up on things, talking about kids a bit, when he told me about a stunt his 6 year old daughter pulled.   Apparently, my friend’s wife was making their daughter’s bed, when she found a piece of paper underneath the child’s pillow. Curious, she took a look.

As she looked the paper, she saw writing on it. What she read surprised her. In a 6 year old’s handwriting, actually misspelled a bit but clear nonetheless, was a note saying:

“Tooth Accidentally Swallowed”

When my friend shared this with me, I instantly came to the same conclusion that he and his wife did. That is, that the kid wanted to try to get some money for herself, so she wrote a note to get it from the tooth fairy. She never lost a tooth, but wanted to fool the tooth fairy by claiming that she accidentally swallowed the tooth.

That’s something else, for a 6 year old! My 7 year old is a really bright kid in my opinion, but I couldn’t imagine her thinking up something like this. It takes a natural extreme squirreler to do something like that.

My friend was asking me in jest “Now, who do you think she got that from?”

I didn’t even have to answer. My laughs answered for him.

We both know that in this case, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. To my friend’s credit, he doesn’t engage in such antics these days. He stated that maybe there’s some genetic basis for such wacky behavior, as he tries not to model such behavior around his kids. Maybe he’s on to something there!

He then made the comment that he wasn’t sure whether or not he should be proud of her ingenuity or totally alarmed at it. I didn’t say much to that, but if that happened to me, I’d first find it funny then get alarmed pretty quickly!

I wish him well during the teenage years. Best of luck there, buddy!

By the way, they ultimately never left any money under the pillow and didn’t play the role of tooth fairy. The extreme squirreling wasn’t rewarded:)

My Questions for You:

• If you were the parent in this case, would be laughing this off and marveling at your kid’s quick thinking, or would you be alarmed at what could be next?
• Did you ever come up with any crazy schemes for money (or toys, etc) as a kid?

You have to love the enthusiasm some grandmas have for their grandchildren. When it comes to a special kind of love and affection, kids can often get it from good ole grandma.  Nothing is too good for her sweet little munchkins. Hello to hugs, kisses, and freshly baked cookies!

Oh, I almost forgot. You can pay her for her time via cash, check, or PayPal.

This 25th edition of Squirreling Gone Wild shares the story about a grandmother who seemingly went from a friendly volunteer to a shrewd businesswoman in a short period of time. Give this grandma an inch, and she’ll take a mile.

Meet Grandma

Grandma is the mother-in-law of one of my friends. She’s apparently been a fairly nice in-law, and a decent low-maintenance grandmother. She loves the kids, but doesn’t get excessively involved. In short, she’s been good to my friend since he’s known her.

The one comment my buddy has made, however, is that in the past she never volunteered to watch the kids or help out too much. If she’s asked to help, she might do so once in a while, though other times she and Grandpa will have excuses as to why they’re busy. They only live 5 minutes away, and Grandma is retired.

Nevertheless, it’s all been good overall. Family relations have been fine.

The Daycare Situation

My friend and his wife (we’ll call them James and Caroline here) are both working full-time, and have two young kids. Until last year, they’ve sent the kids to daycare. However, with the oldest being in school and having a few extracurricular activities now, the situation has changed in terms of logistics. Plus, money has gotten a bit tighter for them. Therefore, they wanted to find a way to cut back on expenses.

Enter Grandma. She volunteered to pick the oldest kid up from school, and care for her in between school getting out and when her daughter – the kids’ mother, Caroline - got home from work. Essentially, that’s about 2:30pm to 5:30pm. It wasn’t directly discussed, but it was assumed that the younger child would remain in daycare.

So, James thought it would work out well for all if they did this. He and Caroline would save some money on after school care for their oldest, and Grandma would get a chance to spend some quality time with one of her grandchildren.

It seemed like a win-win.

Grandma’s Surprise

After they all agreed on Grandma picking up the oldest kid and spending a few hours with her, James did the math and determined that it would be around 15 hours a week that his mother-in-law be helping out. That would clearly save James and Caroline some money. Or so they thought.

After a few days of “helping out”, Grandma informed her daughter Caroline that she thought $15 per hour was a good fee for the part-time nanny work she was doing. Caroline was surprised, but couldn’t tell her mother anything negative about it. She just didn’t have the strength to do so. Plus, her parents lived on a fixed-income, so maybe some extra money could help them.

When James found out, he was floored and upset. He wondered how Grandma could act like she was helping out, then spring it on them later that she expected to get paid? Caroline agreed, but it was her mother, and she wanted to keep the peace. So, James grudgingly went along with it. He didn’t like how his mother-in-law set this up, as he felt it was a bait and switch. However, the bottom line to him was that he didn’t want to upset his wife. They agreed to pay the $15 per hour.

Grandma Ups the Ante

After agreeing to pay her, my friend realized he was going to be paying $225 per week for this “after school care”. At this price, he could have sent his oldest kid to some form of daycare for the entire day. They had spent a pretty penny on daycare for her, but this amount wasn’t too far off the previous all-day expenditure according to him.  As he described this to me over the phone, it was clear that he had gotten more annoyed by this as a few days elapsed.

After 2 weeks or so, my friend and his wife paid Grandma. A few days later, Grandma called Caroline and complained that she was really hoping for more hours than this with the kids. Apparently, she was hoping to replace some of her income from when she was working a few years prior. At least that was her logic.

Caroline proceeded to tell James that Grandma was willing to drive both kids to their respective destinations in the morning, as well as take the oldest to late afternoon/early evening extrcurriculars a few days a week. This amounted to an extra 10 hours per week, according to her calculations.

James wasn’t buying any of it, as he thought it didn’t take an extra 10 hours to do such things. Plus, this put the weekly hours for Grandma at 25, and her pay at $375.  My friend got his wife to get her mother to agree to a lower rate – if I recall correctly, I believe it was $330. Regardless, the “help” from Grandma turned out to be really expensive.

Grandma’s Nickel-and-Diming

After that point, my friend had picked up the story with me a few weeks later in a subsequent call. At this point, he was mad. He was frustrated to the point of getting worked up on the phone, and didn’t share dollar amounts anymore.

James was furious at that point. His view, one that many might share, is that grandchildren shouldn’t be money-making opportunities for grandparents. Frankly, I totally agree with him. My parents have helped out quite a bit, and have never asked for anything other than an acknowledgement of their work, and appreciation. If I ever tried to pay them, they would turn it down immediately with no further discussion. They do it not out of obligation, but because they want to be helpful. Grandparents that don’t want to are fully within their rights, of course.

However, it wasn’t over yet. He told me something new that was quite amusing. After doing her additional driving, Grandma informed Caroline that she thinks that she should be compensated for her driving by getting a small gas allowance – particularly since prices have gone up.  Additionally, she took the oldest granddaughter out for food a few times, and thought she should be reimbursed for that. The food was of the fast-food variety (which my friend hates as well, since he doesn’t want his kids eating junk food).

The Final Outcome

James is not a happy camper about all of it. However, he just deals with it at this point.   Maybe there was some miscommunication at the beginning of all this, if you give the mother-in-law the benfefit of the doubt. He does like the in-laws well enough otherwise, and doesn’t want fights with his wife.  That’s also another problem – what if he gets so fed up with this, or doesn’t like some things about the care his kids are getting? Maybe he would prefer a different solution anyway.  At this point it would be very uncomfortable to ultimately ‘fire’ his mother-in-law.  He feels trapped. 

Additionally, James is spending more than he wants to and he really doesn’t like the idea of spending money on his inlaws anyway. He considers their finances to be their problem and not his.

Believe it or not, I’ve seen a crazier situation than this.  However, this one struck me as interesting because of how it’s perceived that Grandma just chiseled away at them over time, and there some gray areas as well.

Again, this is something that might not be a big deal to some, and might seem totally fine to others. All depends on what role one sees with grandparents and their grandchildren. To me, it seems strange to pay your parents to watch your kids – and have your parents not only take the money but ask for it too.  They’re certainly not obligated to spend their time this way, and absolutely shouldn’t be taken advantage of – but the idea of grandkids as a moneymaking opportunity is a bit different to me. The gas adjustment and food compensation really seemed over the top for me.  I’m biased, but I can understand how James is uncomfortable with all of this.

My Questions For You

• How would you have handled the situation if you were James and/or Caroline?
• Do you think Grandma was being over the top, or do you think she should expect to be compensated for her all her time and incremental expenses?

I welcome all viewpoints, whether you agree or disagree on my take. I’m sure there are logical views all around.

When someone comes over to your home for dinner, don’t you want to treat them with hospitality? Conversely, when you visit someone else’s home – don’t you want to treat them with generosity by bringing something along with you?

For most of us, I’m guessing the answer is yes on both counts.

For some, the idea of social graces is simply a foreign concept. Perhaps we can write such people off as not having life experiences that provided them with good examples. Personally, I know very few people close to me that fit this description, which is fine by me. Maybe I’m fortunate that way.

For a select, small group of others, graciousness is not a foreign concept – yet they deliberately try to take the cheap, sneaky approach in pretending to be gracious. This 24th edition of Squirreling Gone Wild dives further into the depths of The Extractor and her family, who were introduced in the Squirreling Gone Wild #18 story.

As a brief review, recall that The Extractor was good at trying to get free stuff from companies, and her husband was skilled at avoiding sharing the bill at restaurants. I eventually concluded that crafting these tactics was practically like a form of art to them.  They are true outliers, unlike anyone else I have known when it comes to squeezing free stuff out of people. On the one hand it’s comical, yet ultimately it’s distasteful when they pull stunts on you!

Now, there are some times in life when you have to offer up some food or gifts to people, and that’s where the cheapness came out in a different way for them. Despite the otherwise innocuous behaviors they had, their cheapness would shine through in situations where people visited their home, or when they visited yours.

Cheap Hosts

One example of their cheapness was when we visited their house once. After sitting down, they politely asked if we wanted anything to drink. In this regard, they followed norms of behavior. It’s when food was involved, they apparently get freaky.  This visit was the classic case, as after getting my drink (I just asked for water), The Extractor asked me if I wanted something to eat. I politely refused (I was hungry though), at which point she played the game by responding with an offer of a snack.

Now, the snack you might expect at someone’s house might be mixed nuts, chips, pretzels, or something of the like. You get the idea. Instead, she offered me an ice cream cone.  Wow, I thought, that sounds pretty good!

Excited like a kid, I responded: “Sure, whatever flavor you have sounds great!”

She paused and said, “Oh, I don’t have ice cream – I have cones”

“You mean actual cones without the ice cream?” I said.

“Yes” she responded.

Now, these people weren’t hurting for money. Not wealthy, but middle class. I try not to be overly picky, but this seemed odd. I was beginning to question why I interacted with them in the first place. In statistical terms, they would be several standard deviations from the norm.

It was made clear soon after, by her husband, why they offered plain ice cream cones. The guy told me that they got the cones from a friend of theirs who owned an ice cream shop, and was getting rid of excess cones.  I took that as meaning old, stale cones, but it doesn’t really matter. They were hoping to serve me, a guest, sugar cones without the ice cream – because they got them free. They were basically trash to the original business owner.

I guess the mixed nuts or chips were too highbrow for me in their eyes

What was interesting was the way The Extractor’s face froze a bit, as she briefly shut her eyes, when her husband freely shared the source of the cones. It was one of those looks that screamed “I can’t believe he said that!” This, of course, confirmed to me that she knew she was super cheap.

You know, I do try to be thankful for whatever food I have. Many parts of the world would love to have any food that provides sustenance.  Additionally, part of being a polite guest is not being a burden on the host. I don’t want people to do anything special for me, there’s no need to at all. I’m just plain ole me. But in the context of the abundance these people (and many others) have, this was an uber-cheapo maneuver.

Cheap Guests

These people also proved to be cheap guests when the opportunity presented itself. The one example I have here is when they and their youngest daughter visited our place. The daughter is an adult, so I view her as an independent person, but she’s still in the same family. Thus, she’s influenced by Mr. and Mrs. Extractor, and has probably received graduate-level instruction in extracting pennies.

So, there was a gathering at my home, and was asked if the daughter could come over too. Keep in mind, this was before I figured out what these characters were like. Naturally, not thinking anything unusual about it, I said sure she’s welcome. Why not, right?

Anyway, the cheapskates didn’t bring anything with them, which I noticed but didn’t really care about. The daughter arrived late, and brought a bottle of wine in a wine gift bag. The thing is, the bag looked like it had been used before. No big deal, right? I wouldn’t give a shoddy looking bag, but as you probably know, I can appreciate some frugal choices so that was no big deal to me.

Ultimately, after the gathering was over, the daughter took a very large amount of food home with her.  She really cleaned up. Later, when they were all gone, I took a look at the bottle she brought:  it was a Charles Shaw varietal, of Trader Joe’s fame. “Three Buck Chuck”.  

Then, it occurred to me that she came over, pigged out, AND took home a staggering amount of leftover food – all the while bringing a very cheap bottle of wine.

The best part was what I noticed upon an even closer look:

1. The bottle had a short personal note on it addressed to her. Apparently, she had been given this ‘exquisite’ bottle as a gift by someone else. She didn’t bother to care that the bottle she gave us had that note still on it. It was a blatantly regifted bottle of cheap wine.
2. The used wine bottle bag I mentioned earlier had a gift tag hanging from it, where she (Extractor’s daughter) had written on it words to the effect of:  “Uncle XYZ, Congratulations on…..”  Thus, from what I can tell, she gave some wine to an “Uncle”, and then got the bag back from him – only to reuse it in a ‘gift’ to me.

Maybe I’m a little off base on my interpretation of these two situations. I’m open to that concept. However, it was all very odd. I chuckled about it, not quite knowing who I was dealing with just yet. I found out later, as detailed in SGW#18, with the tricks they later revealed. This was just a precursor

My Question for You:

Have you ever dealt with anybody that has been a super cheap host, or ultra penny pinching guest?

Ah, the joys of being a first-time homebuyer.

The whole experience is exciting. Each step along the way can be exhilarating: deciding that you want to buy your own place, searching for the right neighborhood, touring homes for sale, making an offer on a home you like, and finding out that the offer was accepted.

Of course, when the offer is accepted, there are a few other details to go through. Among other things, you’ll want to get an inspection done and have a final walk-through before closing. By that point, there shouldn’t be any big surprises if you’ve gotten a good look, right?

Well, that’s what one couple apparently thought as they were in the process of closing a purchase of their first home. However, these first-time homebuyers were dealt a fun surprise, which I’ll share in this 23^rd installment of the Squirreling Gone Wild Series.

So, the homebuyers were a classic couple: single in their late 20’s, living in the city as young professionals, they met each other and fell in love. After a few years, they got engaged, and then they got married.  Soon after marriage, they decided to buy a home in the suburbs. I didn’t ask, but my guess was that this was in anticipation of starting a family.

Anyway, the wife wanted to live closer to her parents, and the guy agreed to it (or just dealt with it, which again wasn’t something I asked!).  They picked a subdivision in this suburb which was a bit older, and a few miles from her parents’ house. Naturally, the home was a bit older as well, but appeared to be in good shape. Surprisingly good shape. They did note that the sellers had interesting choices in furniture and placement of furniture, but wrote that off as unimportant, since as buyers they of course would be having their own furniture.

After having their offer accepted, the couple had an inspection done on the house.  The inspection revealed a few things that didn’t catch their eye originally, but could have if they looked carefully. I don’t recall what those were, from the original story, but I remember that it did make them wonder about the sellers. This was exacerbated by the sellers’ “nickel and dime” approach in dealing with the maintenance issues. However, the couple really liked the house, and they were so excited about it that they settled for what the sellers were willing to do. Besides, during these times, real estate had been steadily increasing in value.

Eventually, they were set to move in. They just had to go through the “formality” of the final walk-through before closing. Everything seemed taken care of, but it looked like the owners still hadn’t moved everything out. Some of the furniture was still in place, particularly in the family room. It was still in the same awkward layout that it had been before, though most of the rest of the house was empty. It seemed strange, but they were assured that it would be gone upon move in. They didn’t think anything more about it.

Then, they closed the sale, and got the keys. They got to their new home, their first home, and walked in to find…..a living room with massive stains all over the carpet.

The lightbulbs went on in their heads right away. These stains were the reason why the furniture was in such a strange layout, and was still present upon the home being sold.

Apparently, the stains were from pet urine. Lots of it.  TONS of it. 

As I recall the story, they eventually pulled out the carpet and found that the pet urine had seeped under the carpet into the floor boards. It was all over the room, right where the furniture was awkwardly placed. Messes were even elsewhere in the house, though apparently it was covered up in a less obtrusively. Now, I’m allergic to dogs and cats, and probably have less tolerance for pet disasters than the average person – so to me, this sounded disgusting. At least it didn’t smell, but that indicates that the stains were probably quite old. Maybe years old.

The prior homeowners were so cheap, that they couldn’t even replace the carpet when they lived there. Rather, they covered it up and dealt with it. Not only did they just deal with it, they stayed cheap as they strategically positioned furniture in such a way that the buyers had no idea that there were big problems.

Can you imagine being that sneaky, that shameless, just to save a few bucks up front? It reminded me of the people from Squirreling Gone Wild #10 who saved a few bucks by serving spoiled food.

From what I remember, the buyers thought that the sellers were moving up to a newer, bigger, more expensive house. So presumably they had some money….they just didn’t want to spend it, and weren’t transparent with the sellers.

I have to admit that I think it would have been kind of funny to see the looks on the couple’s faces when they saw the carpet. I can only imagine the wife’s face when she saw those stains J

Still, I did feel really bad for them, as they were jerked around by the bad cheapskate owners. One can be a good cheapskate, but they were bad cheapskates for sure!

Lesson learned: If anything seems suspicious in a home sale, then be suspicious and do your due diligence.

My questions for you:

1. What would you have done in their situation?
2. If you’ve ever had a home inspection done, have you encountered one where there have been red flags? Maybe you’ve heard of such situations as well.

You can usually get a small discount at the drive-thru. No coupons needed, and nothing needs to be on sale. The discount usually doesn’t apply if you make a purchase inside the restaurant.

How can you get this modest discount?

Well, one of the earlier episodes of the Squirreling Gone Wild series focuses on the extreme frugality of a friend of mine from back in the old days. In this 22nd edition of the series, I share my own dive into the abyss – which was really for fun anyway.

So, in my quest to drop my previously excessive (in my opinion) caffeine habit, I decided to drop the usual suspects in my previous choices: soda and coffee.  To make that transition easier, I switched to one decaf coffee every few days in the month of January.  The strategy worked very well, as I’ll share in a future post. Anyway, I purchased the decaf coffee by making my way to the drive-thru.

The first time I did this, I ordered the coffee at the speaker, and was told the cost would be $1.07. As I pulled up to the window to pay, I noticed something bright and shiny on the ground. Looking closely, it appeared to be a coin!

While I had previously derided such behavior, when presented with the opportunity to pick up a coin, my instincts took over. The car door opened, I reached down to look at the coin, and saw that it was a dime.

Sweet!

I paid the $1.07, kept my shiny new dime, and drove off with my decaf coffee. It occurred to me that effectively, that was a nice little discount!

So, with that in my mind, I searched for change on the ground with purpose on my next trips. As I found change, I thought it would be fun to keep track of how much was picked up on each trip.

There have been 9 drive-thru decaf coffee purchases  in 2010.  Here are the results:

• Visit 1: $1.07 spent, $0.10 found
• Visit 2: $1.11 spent, $0.03 found
• Visit 3: $1.07 spent, $0.01 found
• Visit 4: $1.11 spent, $0.13 found
• Visit 5: $1.07 spent, $0.02 found
• Visit 6: $1.07 spent, $0.05 found
• Visit 7: $1.07 spent, $0.20 found
• Visit 8: $1.11 spent, $0.00 found
• Visit 9: $1.07 spent, $0.12 found

All told, the nine visits for coffee totaled $9.75 in expenses. The total money found totaled $0.66.  That’s a 6.8% discount.

Does this seem like a total cheapskate maneuver? Ok, I agree that it is. I became a real Squirreler here in 2011.

Maybe I enjoy these “arbitrage opportunities” (as a friend once called these) a bit too much. Why did I get a kick out of this gambit? I felt like Costanza on the Seinfeld series, with a scheme like this.

Doesn’t matter, it was all in fun. I felt like the ultimate cheapskate when I tried to pick up coin that was stuck to the ground in front of the drive-thru window on one of those visits. I looked up and saw a disapproving look by the lady taking the money at the window. Felt like I was being scolded by that look at hers.

“What a cheapskate!”, her eyes seemed to say, as I looked back up. I sheepishly handed over my $1.07, got my coffee, and drove off feeling busted.

I actually saw the same coin on a future visit, and opened the car door to grab it a second time, I’m almost ashamed to say. It was stuck to the ground. I wonder if it was there as a joke, like a coin that people glue to the ground so they can laugh at the misers that try to pick it up.

Before you wonder what I would do with that $0.66, here you go: I gave it away. Well, actually I gave away more, as  I walked back in the restaurant and dropped a $1.00 bill in a charity donation box. All the change was picked up at the restaurant’s drive-thru, so I thought I might as well throw the something in the box. Every little bit counts, right – even if donated?

Moral of the story:

It’s not that we should all rush to the drive-thru hunting for coins. Rather, it’s that it goes to show that literally and figuratively, sometimes there really is money just laying around, right there under your feet:)

What is the wackiest thing you have done to either save a few coins, or pick up loose change?