It’s that time of year again: SALE TIME! I can’t resist a Sale. Now starts the customary inner tug-of-war: you don’t need any more books – don’t go.
Yes but: there are such bargains.
No: your credit card has smoke gushing out of it after the annual Christmas splurge.
Yes but: I can buy wonderful bargain books in preparation for Christmas 2011 and save money. This would be a good thing, wouldn’t it ? A responsible and thrifty thing to do. Of course it would.
And so the battle rages, as I surreptitiously mark the day & time of the Loyalty Members Only Pre-Sale Opportunity into my diary. I tell myself that I’ll just go and look; I won’t actually buy anything, not unless its marked down to R10 and its a book I’ve waited for all my life.
Yeah – right. Who are you kidding?
No, really. This year I mean it. I will be strong. I will resist temptation. Look how I keep a slab of chocolate in the cupboard and only have one square approximately every six week – see ? If that isn’t willpower, I don’t know what is. I can be strong. And how about last year – I never even went to the November sale. I ignored it completely.
Yes but : only because you were on crutches after undergoing major surgery!
I contemplate leaving my credit cards at home and going to the sale. No: I’m stronger than that. I will take them with me. What if I have some unforeseen emergency? I seldom carry cash. It would be foolish to venture forth, card-less. It will be fine. I will not succumb.
LATER ……
This year I did rather well, I thought. I completely ignored the novels. I know I can access them via the Library, my Book Club and friend’s bookshelves. Travel guides, cookery books, art and decor books were fun to flip through but I resolutely put them back onto the piles. Self-help, religion, politics, biography :NWOV (not wanted on voyage) .
My resolve wavered when I found a fat paperback that I’d been dying to read and my Book Club had rejected. It was only R40-00; if that wasn’t a bargain what was? My good resolutions crumbled when I found a solid hardcover BBC book from the TV series Around the World in 80 Gardens – unbelievable price at R80-00. And then there was the oversized format Bizarre Buildings with gorgeous colour photos on every page – I mean, at R75-00 it would have been a crime not to buy it. I bought two books as gifts for friends – I just know they’ll love them. Plus I did have that helpful R20 discount coupon, thoughtfully mailed to me by the bookstore prior to the January sale, so all in all, it was an economical outing. I managed to coax R198 out of my credit card, and gleefully carted my bargain purchases home.
Let me see: five books for under R200-00. Personally I think that was a triumph, don’t you?
