My favorite guy and his pooch chillin' together on the back steps. He's too modest to admit that he's the best bargain hunter in the world, so I'll do it for him.
I love a good bargain.
As winter came to an end a couple of years ago I found a killer sale on a pair of leather gloves. The original price was $30 and I picked them up for $5. I kept them in a safe place for months until I needed them, and they were the best gloves I’ve ever had, especially for driving.
Spring, summer and fall eventually followed and I kept an eye on those gloves. They were on a bookshelf in the downstairs foyer for quite some time and then, well, they weren’t.
I had nothing else to keep my hands warm so I went on a hunt. Ah, there they were but they didn’t look quite so spiffy anymore. Something was amiss. And, there was a tiny hole in the left one, in the palm area.
Turns out someone was carrying lumber from the deck to the basement and he couldn’t find his work gloves. Oh, he has some, but they’re all different and he could only find one of each. It would probably feel weird to wear mismatched work gloves, and with those nice-looking leather ones just sitting around it made perfect sense to put them to use.
When I freaked out a bit over the dusty exterior and the hole, I got this explanation: “I couldn’t find a whole pair of work gloves, and these worked great, and they saved me from getting a splinter. Were those yours?”
After I explained what a steal the gloves were, I think it must have sounded like, “Oh, they were only five bucks, no big deal.” But I was really thinking that a pair of $30 gloves just got a hole poked in them and now I’ll have to get new ones. I had a feeling I wouldn’t run into that kind of bargain ever again.
Boy, was I wrong.
Last Saturday there was an auction. Hours went by but eventually my husband and all the goodies he bought came home. We went through boxes of surprises, and I was thrilled at the good deals all over the kitchen. Then, we hit the mother lode.
“Oh,” he said. “Wow. Would you look at that? A pair of leather gloves.”
He put the like-new pair of brown leather gloves on the table. Then another, and another and another pair. Black ones, brown ones, white ones, red ones. All told there must have been almost 30 pairs of gloves, not all of them leather but most of them new. Cost of the entire box: $7. I had to sit down.
I think he knew I was going to be a pest when winter rolled around and I was going to hold him to his promise to replace my gloves. But neither of us knew just how many would replace that one pair.
I do love a good bargain. And this time I really believe we won’t run into a fantastic bargain like that again, but that’s OK. I think I’m set for a long, long while.
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