While I like to poke fun at trailer trash or ghetto fabulous
places, I do embrace the former trailer park girl within me. It’s made me
low-maintenance (at least in some ways) and super innovatively thrifty. Truth
be told, just today, I ran to Arby’s for lunch (drive through, of course),
swung into the dollar store for dog biscuits, shopped at the Salvation Army (I
think the staff is beginning to recognize me) and to top it all off, browsed
WalMart to make the day complete.
I like fast food, at times. But feel that getting it via
drive-through, and then eating it in the privacy of my own car is the only way
to go. While eating it within the walls of the place that just handed me the
bag of delicious deep fried succulent delights feels unsavory – stuffing a
burrito in my pie hole, while driving a stick shift on the interstate is sheer
delight. Is this white trash? I think it may be the reason for US obesity. Like
picking your nose while driving – and the perceived stealth-like safety our car
provides. The eating might be the same mentality.
And I love the dollar store – or Dollar Tree, as it were.
Where else can you find so many goodies for so little? My dogs love the pooch
treats they sell. Why fork out 7-10 bucks for snausages or some other product
full of preservatives and artificial colors – when nirvana is just 100 pennies
away? Besides, you can get some great crap there. My favorite finds are:
- Shower curtain liner
- Bright yellow kitchen towel
- Baby tee shirt
- Volumizing shampoo
- Allergy medication
- Big, butterfly stickers
- Giant bottle of hair gel for boy
- While didn’t buy them, today they
had lace, thong underpants
What a country.
Being thrifty takes time. You must frequent resale stores – but you get to save money in
the process. I bought my first pair of ‘new’ jeans a year or so ago, and
promptly got two holes in the buggers. I don’t think I’ll do that again.
Besides, I can find a haul of nearly-new, already shrunk quality pairs on the
cheap. We’re talking Gap, Todd Oldham & my favorite pair ever – the Lucky
jeans I got for 7 bucks.
Money saved=the ability to keep me in delicious beer…which
leads me to the world of: ‘my sushi taste on a fish stick budget’. My trailer
roots keep me frugal, while my life experience has taught me that I really,
really like tasty food, aromatherapy bath products and refined beauty.
Who says you can’t have it all?
