LaraLove (or possibly LaraLoco)

The Wonder Women have been knocking it out of the park lately with their Wonders. This week’s topic (thank you, super jane) is no exception. I think it goes without saying that we are a quartet of Frugal Fannies—a proud tradition that pre-dates the Great Recession by roughly two decades. Three, in my particular case, as I’m pretty sure I started getting an allowance when my age was in the single digits and simultaneously started my life as a miser.

 Sometimes we sisters are interchangeable on a topic and this is such a one. Like super jane, I’m happy to scour any and all available storefronts (literal and cyber) in order to ensure the biggest bargain. Like Wicked M, my favorite conversations revolve around chortling to friends about how little I paid for some cute piece of my wardrobe. Like G Love … well, she hasn’t written her post yet but I know how much she shares our thrifty tendencies.

If I’m clothes-shopping, I won’t buy anything that’s not on the sale rack, a well-documented phenomenon. I price-compare just about everything else I buy, and when I find something I like that’s on sale, I stock up. Which brings me to my answer to super jane’s question.

In my pantry, right this minute, are no fewer than 60 Lärabars. They were only 99¢ each! And they were my favorite flavors! (Yes, either The Boy or I have tried them all … except the brand-new flavor, cappuccino. I just found out about that flavor when doing my research for this post. I'll let you know what I think about it but I'm pretty sure I'll love it!) 99¢ each is a better deal than you can get when you buy the 18-bar box at Costco! I’m so excited! And we’ve been eating them for three weeks already, so who knows how many I bought to begin with?

To clarify: I did not buy all those Lärabars at once. When they went on sale at my favorite grocery store, I simply took all current available display boxes off the shelf and checked out. I didn’t even count them. I decided that I would just stop at the store on the way home from wherever (this happened on the weekend, too) every day of the sale and if there were a box of our top three flavors replenished by the stockpersons, then it was meant to be—I should buy more. And more and more and more. The last day of the sale, there were no more Lärabars out on the shelf in my flavors … and that was that. I went cold turkey with no problem.

Now begins the actual rationing. Maybe by the time we polish off the last of our stash, they’ll be on sale again.