Sam's Club

OK, let me preface this with the fact that I really hate to shop. And I hate malls. Yes, true. I do.

However.... I am addicted to Sam's Club. I have often said that I should be banned from going there. But they are not going to ban me.. they love people like me. I don't know what it is about going there that causes me to buy things that I don't really need, or that I could just as easily get a smaller quantity of them somewhere else, but something happens to me when I go there.

To begin with, the very first place I go when I walk in the door is the computer isle. This is probably why we have 3 computers. Because when they get low quantities and they are not planning to re-stock an item, then mark them down considerably and you can get some really good deals! I don't know how I didn't end up with 4 computers when a few weeks ago I was merely walking by the computer display and a Sam's associate walked up and changed the price tag on one of them - marking it down about $500! When I asked why.. he said that they were the last ones of them and they were replacing them with a newer model (with Vista on it) so they were trying to get rid of them. I stood there and contemplated the new price, trying to talk myself out of putting one in my cart.

I finally walked away and called Jeff.

"Tell me that I really don't need a new computer and that there is no reason in the world, not even a really good buy, for me to buy one now."

"Why, what's going on?"

So, I tell him. And of course I didn't buy it. He didn't really talk me out of it, I just kinda talked myself out of it while talking to him. Because I really do hate spending money. But I love getting good deals.

So.. this brings me around to my most recent visit to Sam's club - yesterday I went during my lunch hour because we needed a few things. I actually made a list so that I wouldn't forget anything, and there were 5 items on my list: Toilet paper (we really don't want to run out of this!), toilet bowl cleaner (I had used the last of what was in my bathroom over the weekend), sugar, foundation for Allie (she added it to my list and I'm not buying it without her present), and straws. I figured that I would get the straws at either a grocery store or a dollar store, I didn't really expect to find them at Sam's. So, a total of 3 things that I needed to get there.

I walked out with a total of 23 items (convenient how they total them on the receipt!). That is 20 more than I went in for! And among those items? Yes, you guessed it. I got a case of straws. 3000 straws. No, that is not a typo. I have, sitting in my garage, three-thousand straws. My rational? Well, at the dollar store I would probably pay $1 for 20-50 straws... and this entire case was only $10. That is a good deal. Never mind that it will take me 8.2 years to use all these straws if I use one every day. I just paid $10 bucks for 8 years of straws!! yay!

I've lost my mind I do believe. Jeff has yet to discover the straws, but I think I am safe since he doesn't really read my blog and I don't think he will notice this one additional box out there on the top shelf... :)

Oh, and the other 19 extra items were all needed items. I just remembered I needed them when I got to the store! (Milk, eggs, Orange Juice, Mt. Dew, stuff like that.. nothing out of the ordinary.. just food stuff.)

Is there an 12 step program for Sam's Club Shoppers yet? They have them for everything else it seems....