Wednesday, January 11, 2006

The Pope On The Cheap

This past week I noticed somebody in our little family had bought some books from Border's as the tell-tale plastic bag was on our kitchen table. It was number one son Greg and that surprised me some because I know that fresh out of college he's still counting pennies, or should be, with the normal debts of college alumni these days.

So I pulled a book out of the bag. "Selecting The Pope", the title read. "What the . . . ?" I thought, blasphemously. Now, Greg visits church only occasionally and I've never heard him quote scripture. I'm sure becoming Pope is not among his ambitions. So why the book, I asked him.

"It only cost two dollars," he responded.

That wasn't the answer I was looking for, obviously. I can be a fan of cheap books and am easily lured into used or second hand book stores. I love those places. But I know that books require more storage space than most impulse purchases. If I bought every two-dollar hardbound book that I ran across, my house today would look like an annex of the Library of Congress.

I am a big preacher of frugality, so maybe I should again give another lesson to my sons. Here's one. Last week, my wife and I were browsing the clearance rack at the local Meijer's department store. What do I find but a clearance priced Halloween decoration--one of those yellow tapes like that police use to cordon off crime scenes, but this one said "Caution: Entering Haunted Area."

Coincidentally, I needed one of those for my Halloween yard display as my old yellow tape had come apart over the years. Cost? Twenty cents! Now there's frugality!! And something I needed too. Heck, I pick up dimes every week on the street. This cost me nothing.

Now my example of cheap spending should trump my son's . . . I guess. Unless maybe I arrive at the gates of St. Peter and one question to me is, "Other than the Bible, have you bought in your lifetime any book that discussed the Christian faith?"

"Ummmmm, no. But my son did."

9 Comments:

Blogger OldHorsetailSnake said...

Nah, my take on it is that you'll be rejected for too often wearing the "Devil" costume at Halloween.

9:37 AM  
Blogger Babette said...

Is Greg the SPARTAN?
Are SPARTANS voracious readers?
Is the Pope Catholic?

4:27 PM  
Blogger Deb said...

That's pretty frugal, Dave. Once I bought $60 worth of groceries for $40 after coupons. That was one of my proudest moments. *sniff*
LOL

5:44 PM  
Blogger the many Bs said...

Well if you have space to store the tape and he has space to store the book, I suppose it's okay in both cases. Maybe you can borrow his book and read it! Then you will have something to tell St. Peter.

11:50 PM  
Blogger Fred said...

Well, at least if you read the book, you might get credit for a "yes" answer. Better yet, buy it from Greg for twenty cents. Then, you're definitely covered.

9:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"No, but my son did." That might work. God should be all for sons doing stuff in their fathers' names and all that. I wouldn't worry too much.

9:29 PM  
Blogger Peter said...

It's hard to resist what we perceive to be a bargain, but I guess "will I ever use/read it should come into the equasion.

1:26 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

My husband and I are bookworms too, and everyday I don't know why it became a habit to us browsing through Amazon.com even if we didn't want to buy.

New here, am I welcome? *wink

11:27 AM  
Blogger poopie said...

Yeah, I'm thinking you'll get by on his reading the book. If he makes it through the boredom of it!! No wonder it was two bucks.

1:23 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home