For those of you who missed it last time, I’m experimenting with having a regular mailbag around here, so I don’t always have to come up with my own ideas for posts. The first feature is “Great Moments in Cheapery,” which is exactly what it sounds like: you send in your best stories about the lengths you’ll go to save money, and I’ll judge you.
Our first correspondent is Emily, a stylish girl with a dark secret:
Hate to admit this, but my favorite jeans are usually priced around $175-$200…So to get around that, I try them on at Saks, and then go on eBay and find them for $20-$30 new or gently worn. Great shopping secret, although not sure how proud I am of that.
The jeans I’m wearing right now cost me $17 at Target, so the idea of paying $200 for a pair is mind-boggling to me. But let’s be honest: when it comes to jeans, expectations are different for men and women. Watch any commercial for men’s jeans, and they go out of their way to avoid any mention of high fashion; instead it’s all “rugged” and “relaxed fit” and “Brett Favre playing football in his backyard.” If these commercials are to be believed, men’s jeans are designed for wrestling cattle and pitchforking bales of hay, or whatever it is they do out west of 495. They’re pants for the working man, and priced accordingly.
Women, on the other hand, are practically expected to spend hundreds in search of “the perfect pair” – I saw an article a few years ago about a pair of women’s jeans that cost thousands of dollars because they supposedly made your ass look perfect (presumably determined after rigorous testing by the nation’s preeminent ass scientists). So while a guy who spends more than $40 on jeans is violating some unwritten rule of masculinity (where do you think the term “fancy pants” comes from?), women like Emily are made to feel guilty for spending a reasonable amount of money on a very basic article of clothing.
So I salute you, Emily, for breaking through the denim ceiling that forces women to spend half their paychecks on pants. As long as they pass the smell test, I wholeheartedly endorse the jeans-on-eBay strategy.
Next up is Samantha, who buys her beer by the gallon:
I live in Southie and my roommates and I threw a big party last weekend for St. Patty’s Day. We went to order the keg and were faced with some options. It came down to the Natty keg for $50 or the Bud Light keg for $90. We decided to go with Natty but planned on telling everyone it was Bud Light. The funny part is nobody asked nor did they seem to care. Cheapery paid off… way to go, Natty.
As an occasional beer snob I like to say that Bud, Natty, and all the other cheap beers taste alike; but as a recent college graduate, the truth is that I have my preferences. PBR is probably the best (and I liked it before it became cool with all the hipsters, which I realize is exactly the kind of thing a hipster would say), followed by Miller Lite, which is a tiny step above Bud, which is a bit better than Coors, which is a few steps ahead of Natty, which somehow manages to be significantly better than Milwaukee’s Best.
But this is all an academic exercise, and the truth is that I probably couldn’t tell the difference in a blind taste test – which is to say that any slight difference that may exist between Bud Light and Natty was certainly not worth $40. Good call, Sam.
Our final letter comes from Kenny, who has a taste for the finer things in life:
Good Sir, I submit to you a photo of…
Hot Dog Fried Rice
Recipe: Not important, except for the fact that I bought the 8 pack of the cheapest hot dogs I could find at the Comm. Ave Shaw’s. I think it was less than two bucks.
I ate all of it. I haven’t cooked it since.
This one brought back memories. When I moved out of my parents’ house and had to start cooking my own meals, one of the first “dishes” I prepared was hot dog fettuccine alfredo. It was positively appalling. Hot dogs are great on their own, but there’s a reason they’ve never been the secret ingredient on Iron Chef.
Anyway, Kenny’s email gave me an idea: why not start featuring a budget-friendly recipe at the end of every blog? I’ve got a few of my own that I can offer, but I’d much rather hear some of yours, since my repertoire is still pretty limited. So send in your cheap-but-tasty recipes to onein3tips@gmail.com and I’ll post the best ones in this space. And keep sending in your cheapery stories to the same address, and I’ll keep posting ‘em.
Finally, thanks to everyone who sent in stories. I’ll see you next week.
