Can't say I ever really understood that saying, but I think it's starting to make sense to me.

Why?

I shall explain.

I go to great lengths to find bargains.

Will I buy a box of cereal that's slightly outdated at a reduced price?

Darn tootin' I will.

How about a can of Pringle's that sounds like a maraca when you shake it (because it's mostly crumbs)-for less than half of its normal price?

Sure.

Dented can of name-brand tuna for 50 cents?

Absolutely!

But I think my frugality is being under-minded by my kids.

Case in point-The other day, I bought a HUGE bag of generic "Fruit Loops" for a dollar.

Good deal, right?

I get them home and sure enough, the kids dive right in.

I had estimated that at two bowls per day (if that much), per child, this bag of cereal would last at least two weeks.

Yeah, me!

But after their first bowl, I noticed they had lost interest in actually "eating" the cereal.

I was finding "Fruit Toots" (sounds like some kind of gastronomical condition you get after eating too much watermelon) in the floor, the couch cushions, lined up along the kitchen counter, floating in the toilet (refer to above-mentioned "Fruit Toots"), outside on the carport, in the floorboard of the vehicle, slid over tiny dolls' hands as bracelets, etc.

Perhaps the best use of the "Fruit Toots" I witnessed was when one of the kids came walking through the house with a bucket.

"What's in the bucket?" I asked my youngest son, Drake.

"Cereal," he said.

"The cereal I just bought?" I asked. "Why?"

"Well…" he stammered. "You gotta have something in a bucket if you're going to carry it around."

Oh.

Basically, my bombastic, bargain bag of cereal lasted two days.

But get this…

Wifey purchased a "name-brand" cereal at full price from the grocery store.

Not only have the kids eaten it (and rationed it as if it was war time), but I have not seen one, single piece of errant "high price" cereal anywhere in the house, or surrounding property.

So, now there's "my" cereal, and "their" cereal.

I figure I can buy two, maybe three bags or boxes of my cereal to only one box of theirs.

And I'm OK with that.