The Weary Traveller Returns

By a very strange series of circumstances I recently found myself in California for almost a whole month.  I was actually there for Thanksgiving, too, which was great because it was the first time in five years that I’ve been able to spend that holiday with my family.

But now I’m home in Texas and things are settling down to normal, which means I am back to being lazy, back to blogging, and back to being cheap.  All three of those things are hard to do when you’re out in the big wide world, living, as it were, the High Life.

Still, me being me, I nevertheless had moments when Frugality reared its lovely head.  For instance, I managed to do the bulk of my Christmas shopping while I was out there.  Usually I buy everything here then spend a lot of money shipping it to various nephews and nieces and California.  This year I saved a lot on shipping.  I wrapped everything and left it with my brother, who will kindly take everything to my sister’s house where everyone will gather for Christmas.

My brother introduced me to the Frugal delights of the Mattel Factory Store.  On the one hand, I don’t think the prices are all that fabulous as compared to retail outlets, though when I later visited a Major Retail Toy Store  I could see that the prices at the Mattel store were slightly better (of course, the selection at the Major Retail Toy Store is much better).   However…on the day we were there they were having two especially great deals: Buy One Get One Free on most Barbie and Matchbox items.  This worked out pretty well for me, as I have young children on my list.

Local sales tax in Southern California is insane, though, so this had the effect of making my good deals not so good.  But still, I come out ahead with not having to pay to ship stuff.  In some cities, the sales tax is now as high as 10.25%! Yes, you read that correctly.  I was pretty shocked, but the recession has hit California very hard, and so cities are trying to make up for lost revenues by raising sales taxes.  Poor California!

It’s great to be back, but I had a fabulous time in ol’ Cali, too.  I certainly feel as if my Frugal Batteries have been recharged (so to speak).  This is mainly because I spent so much money in that very expensive state that I’m highly motivated to retrench.  But I also spent a lot of  time around some very cheap people (like my dad), so that was very inspiring.  My dad said I was “a cheap off the old block” which made me feel quite proud.