I hate to call them ‘beancounters’ but lunch on Wednesday was a pretty amusing lesson in frugality. So someone in our office is leaving and we decided to take him out to lunch. The Accounting team joined us and composed over 50% of the group.
We went to some yucky pan-Asian cuisine place.* There is an option for lunch that is about $17 per person which allows you a wide variety of dishes. Right off the bat, the accountants aren’t wild about that option. The girl next to me says that she can’t eat that much food and the guys are all saying they want what they want and don’t want to compromise. I’m in the latter boat and I know I can eat for much cheaper than $17.
Next thing, the girls are all clustered at one end of the table and we turn to a conversation about clothes and shopping. The departing employee’s wife works retail and he tells us about all the money people spend on clothes, with or without discounts. As the conversation continues, the girls all chime in with great places to get clothes around our area. I’m learning all kinds of new places to check out that are off the beaten path. Someone mentions that buying pants for $200.00 is crazy, but she might spend that much on a pair of jeans she will wear all the time. And another woman tells her that she’ll shoot her if she spends that much. We all laugh but I’m thinking that it’s nice to be around like-minded folks who shop for a bargain.
I tell the would-be shooter about the expensive suit I bought and her eyes popped out of her head. I tell her that I know it’s crazy and that I’ll never do it again, and she says fiercely in her foreign accent, ‘You better not!’
We talked about how the mom at the table looks really young but has 5 kids. She loves them all, but the main reason they stopped at 5 is that they can’t afford any more. She explained the family plan for paying for college for all 5 and it’s interesting. The oldest two will have their schooling paid for completely by their parents, but they are expected to help the younger three because there’s no way the parents can help all 5. The oldest are on board with this idea, which I think is pretty cool.
We ended up dividing the check evenly anyway and I pay more than $17, but that’s ok since I paid $20 with tax and tip included and cover my share of the guest of honor’s bill. I had a doggie bag too.
I guess it’s because I work with a cost-conscious group that I’m partly interested in personal finances. It’s nice to know that I am near people who don’t think it’s weird or cheap to be frugal or make compromises financially to have other things in life.
* I hate it there because everything tastes so generically Asian and comes off as bland to me. If I want crappy Asian cuisine, I’ll make my own at home. Throwing soy, garlic and ginger together doesn’t mean it’s going to be good.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I work with mix of like frugal types, and relative spendthrifts. For example, we have a coffee maker in the kitchen. I was brewing a pot, and one of the girls says, “that’s what I need to do. I should just drink the coffee here.” I’m not a big David Bach fan, but this is one person who needs to read his books.
Overall, many of us bring lunch, and eat together in the lunch room.
heheheh! Amen!–@ the pan-asian crappy tasting food. DC is full of them!
awwwwww@ the like-minded group of financial people (sniff) I don’t have a group like that… I want one
–CollegeGrad
at my old job i was the freak for even thinking about saving money. they all went out to lunch every day, showed off their $1,000 purses (which on our salary i have no idea how they could have justified) and went shopping so much that if one of them mentioned a piece of clothing they saw or bought at one store, all of them knew exactly what she was talking about. Weird!