Frugality Gone Bad
Back in May I told you how I was stocking up on protein shakes because I had a killer coupon. I don’t know how many I actually ended up buying, but right now I’d say we are about two thirds of the way through our stash.
Things had been going really well. We had two big stacks of shakes in spare bedroom closet and we’ve been working our way through them. They don’t expire til March 2012 so I really thought we had a great deal going.
Until about 6 weeks ago.
I started to notice that the shakes were starting to separate. You had to shake them really really well, and then maybe still stir them with a spoon to get the right consistency. They kinda developed these little globs of goo. I mean, they are still fine to drink. They taste the exact same. But knowing about the little goo globs is not appetizing. I wasn’t quite as excited about drinking them.
Then I went to the Financial Bloggers Conference. I was gone for 5 days and I obviously couldn’t bring any shakes with me, so I went without. Then immediately upon my return home my kids had a week off school. So our routine was off kilter and I wasn’t excited about my gloppy shakes so I don’t think I drank even one.
Did I mention why I drink these shakes? It’s because when I don’t get enough protein I pass out.
So the Monday the kids went back to school, after I hadn’t had a shake in almost two weeks, I fainted. Which the doctors do not like. I mean, I know fainting isn’t exactly the world’s worst symptom. Of all the things to be sick with I’ll take the occasional passing out. The only real dangers are getting hurt when you fall down. But still, it tends to freak the doctors out.
They sent me for tests. And tests I did, to the tune of $240 out-of-pocket. I still have one more appointment which will be another $20. I think that should be it. I don’t think anything is wrong, the extra protein was working to keep me conscious for a year and a half, so I think they will just send me on my merry way. But I still will have spent $260 on doctor bills because I was trying to save $180 on protein shakes.
And I still have two months worth of gross shakes to get through!
Do you have any frugality gone bad stories? Leave a comment below, or if you’ve blogged about it, feel free to leave a link!
Ashley
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Comments
I bought some almond milk a while ago when it was on sale and I failed to use it by the expiration date. This never normally happens but we have been away a lot and so we weren’t home to use it up.
I’ve bought some jeans online (never again) and upon trying them on and realizing they don’t fit, I’m too overwhelmed with the return procedure to jump through all the hoops. Lame, I suppose, but we were overseas at the time and it was a serious headache.
Sorry those shakes are not working out so well, and look after yourself.
Sorry it is not working well for you Ashley, hope you look after yourself (at the expense of the shake).
We had some salsa disaster recently. Instead of sticking with our regular brand we bought an unknown (at least to us) brand, a mega big jar because it was almost the same price of our regular brand small jar. Oh boy, what a mistake, it tasted horrible. My poor husband finished it slowly because he didn’t want to throw it and waste it.
I have had to learn this the hard way. Killer discounts have to be looked at carefully. I have learned to look for import dates, packaging dates, use by dates for food stuff. Very often manufacturers come up with something new in a segment, and it turns out awful. In order to get rid of inventory, they advertise it heavily and then put it on a killer discount at the stores. Damaged durables are another example. While some dealers are open about the discounted price and the condition of the product. Many others even go to the extent of covering up the defect and then pushing it through a sale. It takes a day or three before you discover what is wrong.
I purchased knockoff designer shoes from China once. Yep, they ended up costing way more and one pair they sent was the wrong one, did I mention most didn’t fit in the size advertised? Stupid of me to even try that and have since learned my lesson!
I’ve destroyed a couple of pieces of electronic equipment over the years by trying to fix it myself when something minor went wrong versus taking it into a repair shop. The replacement costs were much higher than had I just taken it in the first place.