The only newspaper I receive is the one delivered on Sunday. This morning I found myself
wondering why I was reading the ads, such as they are now that the internet and
Amazon have pretty much taken over the marketplace. For that matter, I barely
read the actual news unless it’s something that catches my eye and doesn’t make
me cringe. I still read my favorite columns; but really, it’s actually a waste
of time, time I could use elsewhere.
I can’t remember how old I was when
I first began reading the Sunday paper, but I know it was the comics. My
parents would spend Sunday morning going through the paper, reading and talking
about a variety of topics. My mom liked football just as much as my dad, so
they even talked about the sports news.
Mom also went through all the sale
papers and noted what was on sale. She always had a very tight budget so if at
all possible, she would buy whatever we needed when it was on sale. As I got
older, I too, began to look through all those pages, mostly to see the current
or upcoming fashions even though I knew I’d never be able to shop at The Bon
Marche or Nordstrom. Still, all those pictures gave me an idea of what kind of
look to aim for. A boy I dated briefly after high school told me he knew my
clothes weren’t expensive, but I always looked very well put together, so I
guess I achieved my goal.
Once I had my own money to
spend, I continued to look in the paper for bargains and rarely paid full price
for anything. After marriage and the acquisition of a house that actually echoed
it was so empty, it was even more important to look for needed items on sale. And,
when we invested in things like furniture or appliances, we always saved to buy
quality. Over the course of my 53-year marriage, it was a rare event when I
actually paid full price for something we needed.
My family increased with the
birth of first one son and then a second ten years later. The desire and need
to count our pennies became even greater because neither my husband nor I
wanted to put our children in day care or have them become latch key kids.
Working for himself, my husband was able to do mornings and made sure the kids
were up, fed and out the door on time for school. He even spent one year as the
only father participating in a preschool program…he loved it because he was the
only rooster among all the chickens.
I, on the other hand, am not a
morning person, so it was easier for me to get up, get ready and leave the
mornings to him. Instead, working part-time, I was able to be home in the
afternoons when they came home from school as well as be a room mother, assist
in classes and go on field trips. There were even a couple of times other
neighborhood parents relied on me to have their children after school.
As you must be able to tell, a
big fat paycheck or expensive trips were not at the top of our must have list.
Rather, we wanted our children to be able to rely on us whenever they needed us.
We did such a good job of this that it didn’t matter who responded when one of
them yelled for dad or mom…whoever showed up was fine and able to deal with
whatever was happening.
Of course, this made reviewing
all those sale papers extremely important. Yes, we wanted our sons to have
the latest fashions from the most popular stores and learned early we had
created at least one monster. He needed basketball shoes and my husband
purchased them at K-Mart. He refused to wear them while his cousin was delighted
to receive a brand-new pair of shoes…we used to laugh about this one. At the
same time, this child had one saving grace…he walked to the beat of his own
drummer, so what was highly fashionable wasn’t necessarily what he wanted.
Even so, reading those sale
pages for clothes, shoes, stuff for the house and food was essential in order
to make our budget stretch as far as possible. At one time, when I did the
weekly grocery shopping, I visited at least three neighborhood stores plus one
of those warehouses depending on what was on sale and on the list.
I am at a point in my life
where I have everything I need. Of course, there are things I would like to
have only because they would be new and different, and I would like them
better. Case in point: my everyday dishes are Fiesta ware in very muted
shades of blue, green and pink. I’ve had them for decades. There are no missing
or broken pieces, but I would love to have a new set in the neon colors now
available. That’s all, just a change to bright, beautiful colors, but certainly
not worth an investment of hundreds or thousands of dollars. The same can be
said for practically everything in this house.
I guess what I’m trying to say
here is that I have everything I need to last me for the remainder of my life. As
I’ve blogged about in past posts, I plan to have a huge garage sale and then
sell the house at some point in time. Depending on what’s left after the garage
sale, then maybe I’ll have a need for some new stuff for my new place wherever
it may be. The idea of a new little place with new stuff does make my heart
beat just a tad faster.
Perhaps it’s time to
discontinue the hard copy of the Sunday paper. Perhaps it’s time to turn my
attention to the internet and look at properties for sale, little houses for
sale for that property. I’m certainly not going to find those in the Sunday
paper. Or, perhaps I should use the time wasted on the newspaper, forget
about internet research and just celebrate the fact I've already got it
"all."
