What can you buy for 3 dollars?
A fancy coffee drink? Almost a gallon of gas? A couple of shit-bomb burritos at Taco Bell?
Considering the fact that minimum wage continues to be 4 and a quarter, and that theoretically, the guv'mint expects us to spend three and take the bus home on a buck twenty-five, what can you buy with 3 dollars here in the U.S., the richest nation on the planet?
(Also interesting is the recent experiment by Senator Barbara Lee who embarked on the Food Stamp Diet to see if she could survive on just 3 smackers a day. The comparisons are dizzying and I feel a Long Rambling Aside coming on, but this entry is going to be long enough.)
So this week I went out to see what 3 bucks could do for my household in the secondary economy.
DAY ONE
I started the week at Savers, as Monday is their 99 cent day for certain color-tagged merchandise. On this particular day, the blue tags were 99 cents. I didn't find much. For a while, I waltzed around with this milk glass hurricane lamp in my cart (originally marked at $14.99! ha!) but then I realized I'd have to scrape off the crappy painted flowers on it and the metal work was GOLD and I hate gold.
So I put it back. And walked out. Nothing at Savers, 99 cents or otherwise, that my family needed, for less than 3 bucks or otherwise. A huge bummer. Usually Savers has lots of good stuff. Except, sometimes I wonder if the donation intake people are blind when it comes to furniture. I don't think actual cats would want some of the scratched-up, hacked-to-hell junk that the staff seems to think is saleable.
To Be Continued...
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