Why I shouldn't be cheap

I'm cheap.  *GASP* Really? I'm sure this comes as a shock to everyone.  For awhile there I was getting better at not being cheap, but then I thought about how Brandon graduates in a year and I really want to buy a house right when he's done, so I started being frugal again.  I've been eyeing this really nice camera lens for awhile, but I was always too cheap to fork out $500 for it.  Last week it went on sale for $400, and while I was tempted, I was STILL TOO CHEAP.  I gave myself the same party-pooping lecture about being frugal.

Well, yesterday we went to my mom's house for Easter dinner.  She throws a great party.  And during this party, she had an adults-only easter egg hunt where she warned us that there may or may not be cash in some of the eggs and one of them had a BIG prize.  But as part of the game, during the hunt she would ring a bell every so often and when that happened, you would have to trade one of your eggs with someone else.  Although I may be cheap, I'm not generally greedy.  But for some reason, I got REALLY into this game and I thought, "I don't care how bad this looks; I am getting as much cash as I can!"  I devised a strategy of hoarding all of the light eggs and giving away all of the heavy ones, because I assumed they just had candy in them.  Well, after awhile I got sick of being cheap and greedy and decided to just let myself have fun.  I stopped hoarding eggs and traded whatever ones I happened to pick up. 

The game ended and the moment of truth arrived-- we all opened our eggs.  One had candy.  Two each had $1 inside.  And the heaviest one-- the one I would have easily given away-- had A HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL! 

I want you to look long and hard at this face.  This is the face of pure greed.  Oh man, I loved every minute of it. And just for the record, Mom said my reaction was worth every penny.

And here's a picture where I look slightly less like the devil.

After the excitement died down, Mom asked me what I was going to do with my money.  I told her that I was going to buy that lens.  $500 was way too much, but $400 was reasonable, and the cash would have brought it down to $300.  I was so excited. Brandon told me that he was glad I won, because I seemed so thrilled about it.  Shamelessly, I smiled and admitted that I was glad I won, too.

And the next morning, I wake up and find that the price on the lens has gone up exactly $100.  And I thought, Why do I have to be so cheap? I should have bought that freaking lens!