Today it was cereal.
For those not adept at counting cereal boxes in photographs, that's 14 boxes of cereal. Jared and I bought them this evening.
I can explain.
First, I was deprived as a child. I grew up the oldest of nine kids in a home where good food rarely lasted more than a day, and treats (e.g., ice cream, cookies, brownies etc.) never more than an hour. Any effort by my parents to alter that shelf life (e.g., hiding things, threatening to cancel Christmas, etc.) only made us more resourceful.
This meant cold cereal rarely found its way to our home--it just didn't last long enough to justify buying. Occassionally we got generic corn flakes or toasted oats, but mostly it was peanut butter toast, oatmeal, or Cream of Wheat. Those fancier cold cereals were things we could only dream about, and which we usually only saw at Christmas time.
So essentially, my purchase tonight was making up for lost time.
Second, Michelle wasn't with me. She wasn't there to whisper that 14 boxes of cereal might be a few too many (it was almost 15, but somehow I found strength to resist buying a $2 box of Cinnamon Life). She might've stopped things at the outset, but she chose instead to be sick and stay at home. I think there were forces at work bigger than all of us tonight that wanted this to happen.
Third, we allocate money in our budget each month now to food storage, which tonight I interpreted as license to buy crazy amounts of non-perishable food when I feel like it. Again, Michelle wasn't there to say otherwise.
Fourth, and most importantly, it was all on sale*. And not just on regular sale either--super sale.
Jared and I went to Target first and found the generic cereals on sale for $1.50 a box. How could I say "no" to knock of Golden Grahams at $1.50 a box? In my mind I couldn't, so I got four boxes.
We then went to Ralph's, which was offering "Buy 10 boxes of Post Cereal for $20 and get a $10 rebate." I bought 10 boxes. I knew full well that I'd just bought 4 boxes of cereal, but I could hardly be expected to pass up name brand cereal at $1 a box. And what's more, I had a $1 coupon, bringing that price down to .90 a box. Even the most tight fisted miser can't pass that up.
So now Jared and I have 14 boxes of cereal stored up in his bedroom closet. What adds more to our joy is that many of these cereals are kinds Michelle won't touch (e.g., Fruity Pebbles). That was mostly on purpose.
After all, I want these cereals to last at least a week.
*I can count on one hand the number of times I have bought cereal when not on sale--it's just one of those things you don't pay full price for except in emergencies.
2 comments:
If you have too many boxes of cereal, you can send some over to us -- there are only three good types of cereal here.
Reminds me of a time on my mission, when Oreo cookies had just been introduced to Brazil, but they didn't catch on very well. The local grocery store was clearing them out for some ridiculously low price. My companion and I bought something like 20 or 30 packages. They came in a long square cardboard box, which we later spent a P-day turning into a sculpture of Moroni, which we entitled "Who's That Angel?" Guess you had to be there.
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