Years ago I was sitting in the living room looking out the window thinking.  Miguel enters the room and informs me that he is going to turn the TV on.  I asked him not to because “I’m thinking.”  He asked me what I was thinking about. So I told him I was just thinking about stuff.  “I know what you’re thinking about,” he said.  “You do?”
“Yep, I do.”
“What am I thinking about?”
“Cake.”  Mmm..food for thought.
“No, I am not thinking about cake.”
“What is it then? Are you thinking about your next date with mom? ”  Oh boy.
“Miguel, why don’t you just turn the TV on.”

In spite of the surgical insight of my 11 year old, I wasn’t thinking about cake or dates with his mom.  I was thinking about saving money.  At some point over the course of my life the concept of saving money was redefined.  Early on I was taught that saving money was when I took a few dollars from my paycheck and stored it for the future.  The problem with my understanding of saving money is that it is in direct conflict with the culture of consumerism.  Most forms of media encourage me to spend now and enjoy now.  My perception of the underlying message is that saving money is for dullards.  In a move of what only can be described as pure genius the concept of saving money was redefined.  Saving money now means spending less money for the very same thing that cost more yesterday.  The retail industry calls this a “sale.”  For example, the normal price of an item is $100, but right now and for a limited time I can obtain this item for $50.  That’s an incredible “savings” of $50.  Do you see what’s happened here? I can now have the best of both worlds.  I can spend $50 now while at the same time I can save $50.  This is truly diabolical or amazing depending on your point of view.  Saving money is now not the money I have set aside for the future but the money I did not have to spend on an item because I bought it now during the limited time the lower price was available.  It could be that lowering the price of an item or service enhances its value but how much money was really saved? Zero, none, nil, absolutely no money was saved.  If you don’t believe me, perform this exercise.  Add up all the money you ever “saved” buying stuff.  If you can’t recall all the good deals you got that’s okay.  There’s a memory loss safety net for this exercise. For all the money you “saved” and forgot about just add an additional $500,000 to the amount of money you can recall.  Now that you have arrived at your final answer of all the money that was saved, take that money and try to buy groceries with it.  

I have to stop now because my favorite critics tell me my posts are too long and besides Miguel is saying something about the TV.  Now I’m going to think about something else like….cake or dates with Miguel’s mom.