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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The insecurity tax in action

I almost never buy birthday cards, preferring to let the kids make them instead. It saves me money, and it’s a homeschool art project for them. But I needed to send gift cards out to a couple of nephews on a tight deadline yesterday. (Though one was several weeks late, the other stood an outside chance on arriving on the actual birthday.) Under the circumstances, I decided to cave in and buy a couple of cards.

I found a couple of workable 50-cent cards at Walmart. Then doubt set in. I don’t see these boys as often as my sister’s kids, and they don’t have much opportunity to view my frugality in the context of what I hope to be my other finer points. If several months go by and their only reminder of me is a cheap gift or birthday card, what impression do they form?

The reality, of course, is that they go for the gift card inside without giving the card a glance.  But I couldn‘t help taking a look at the midrange cards, just to compare. I wound up with a pair of “nephew” cards, one with a wisecrack about the kid being cooler than his dorky parents, and the other with a picture of a cute dog on the cover. I spent $5.00 on the cards -- a $4 insecurity tax for not sticking to my principles.

And the stupid thing is, in retrospect, I think one of the cheap cards would’ve actually been a better fit.

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