Suddenly Frugal Blog

A couple of years ago I stopped food shopping at the nearby supermarket for a two reasons. I wasn’t convinced that it offered me the best prices, and I knew that its produce was less than perfect. So many times I would come home from grocery shopping, and a day later the cucumbers were mush, the cantaloupe smlled like a skunk, and the strawberries had mold growing on them.

I started driving 20 minutes out of my way to another supermarket where I felt the prices weere fair but, more importantly, I never had to toss produce in the trash.

Now that we’re living our suddenly frugal lifestyle, I’ve started to question the value of driving 20 minutes to grocery shop–especially when gas is about $3 a gallon. Last week, when the shopping circulars came out in the mail, I did a cost comparison of four grocery stores, based on what was on sale, and the old supermarket came out on top. Thinking convenience and about savings, I decided to shop there. Big mistake.

The watermelon I brought home, “fresh” out of the barrel, was crumbling in the middle when I went to cut it up yesterday afternoon. There went $5.99 in the trash. This morning, I cut up a cantaloupe (2 for $3.49) for my daughter, and there was that familiar skunk smell again. So into the trash that went. I noticed that the bread ($1.99 a loaf) I made for toast seemed a bit stale, too, though its expiration date isn’t until next week.

This was all a painful (in the wallet) reminder that while it’s important to save money, you aren’t actually saving any money when you a) have to throw out what you’ve already paid for but can’t use and b) have to go back out to replace whatever it was that you had to toss.

This doesn’t just happen with food, of course. My friend Allie recently decided to buy herself a new pair of prescription sunglasses, and since she fancies frames from an expensive, European-inspired store, she figured she would save a few bucks and get her sunglasses from one of those mall glasses chains. Sure, Allie saved hundreds this way, but the minimum wage workers employed there didn’t seem to understand the subtleties of lenses for people with an astigmatism (which Allie has) and so she’s had to go back to the shop twice now to have her lenses redone because they still can’t get it right. No, Allie hasn’t had to pay more money for these fixes but she’s spent plenty in the amount of time she’s had to devote to this inexpensive pair of sunglasses.

Bottom line: I’m all for saving money. But sometimes it’s worth it to pay a bit more. Now excuse me while I go to the grocery store I trust for a new watermelon and cantaloupe, and maybe a loaf of bread.