an ode to saving money

Reading Becca's post reminded me of my own mid adventures in the money saving arena. I could fill a few books with times I have tried to save a buck at a much greater expense. One of my family's favorites to bring up at family parties is the time I decided to start taking the bus from Provo to SLC.

I was living with my brother Sam in SLC--again to save money--and commuting to BYU. In the great age of public transportation, I figured it wouldn't be too bad. There was an express bus that picked up at Southtown mall and went to campus. Perfect. About two days into my adventure; I realized that I could perhaps shave even another dollar off of my budget by taking the "regular" bus rather than the express. And so on a rainy Tuesday afternoon I boarded the UTA 19 and sat back happily thinking of my mansions on high.

The next stop, there were about 23, netted 7 or 8 mentally handicapped individuals. They had quite obviously ridden this bus before what later become obvious was that they were actually the only people in the greater slc/utah valley to take the 19 to and from SLC everyday. They knew every stop and the which businesses were off each spot.

It really wasn't all that bad, I learned some interesting facts, until somewhere in Lehi when we got close to a Smiths. One of my fellow travelers started to get worked up about the Smith's and their umbrella policy, remember it was raining, and this fellow was not sure if they could take umbrellas into the grocery store. This in turn got the other 7 passengers worked up about Smith's and the safety of their beloved umbrellas. Would Smith's have a bucket to place umbrellas, would they make patrons fold their umbrellas up, could anyone take an umbrella from the bucket, was i.d. involved? Things started to get ugly, some of the less seasoned 19 riders were in tears about the possibility of loosing their umbrellas to the wiles of society, some were yelling that they weren't going to fold their umbrellas up. I will be honest I was slightly nervous that I and the seemingly unconcerned bus driver were in way over our heads.

On we plodded and on the fight went. It may well have been the the slowest time to make it over the point of the mountain ever recorded. The fight eventually turned to other pressing matters namely who was ordering what the the Chinese restaurant they were headed to and the umbrella frenzy only came up five or six more times.

I made it off the Bus 2 hours later than I had expected and 1 dollar richer. Let's just say it was the last time I took the 19.

The other one that Jenny has been good enough not to bring up at every family gathering is the time I decided to dye my own hair. It was a Saturday and after going over our budget the night before I had decided that I too could give to the cause and clipped the coupon from the paper for bombshell blond hair. I called my sister and she came to help administer my five dollar dye. About 20 minutes into to fiasco we realized that my hair was more of an orange than blond. She remembered something about hair going orange before it went blond, so we decided that we just needed more bleach. Somehow we got a hold of some concoction from the local Sally's and started anew. This time my hair went the most interesting shade of glowing green/yellow I had ever seen. Not ideal for the teacher of a bunch of twelve year olds--or for anyone who might actually be seen by others.

It only took Jenny about 5 hours and six different colors to come bring back my old color. She made me promise not to EVER do it again--and I am proud to say I have kept my word (mostly)!

Lesli