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我的生活信条是“锱铢必较!”我会驱车几公里，为的是买菜省几毛钱;我会把买了的杂货退回去，为的是到打折季再买便宜的。金融危机对我来说可不是什么坏事儿，因为我终于能昂首挺胸，大大方方地过我的小抠儿日子了! My grandmother had a saying: “People are funny when it comes to money.” She could have been talking about me. I’ve always been insanely frugal,[2] no matter what my financial situation. It’s not just that I bring my own bag of candy to the movies. I also drive miles out of my way to save 70 cents on tomatoes and patronize drugstores only where I have a frequent shopper’s card, and I have been known to return grocery items with the intention of buying them again when they go on sale.[3] When I first started dating Ben (who is now my husband) and he noticed that I was reusing paper napkins, he asked, “Uhhh, did you grow up in the Depression or something?”[4] I remember blushing, crumpling up my two-week-old napkin, and throwing it away.[5] (Sob. Good-bye, old friend!) I understood that my coupon-clipping[6] ways weren’t cool and tried to keep them safely hidden from view. But then the financial world collapsed and everything changed. The beauty of the total global economic meltdown―for me, anyway―is that now everyone is freaking out about money.[7] I’m not alone anymore! Like never before, I’m free to obsess about my quest for bargains and freer still to worry openly about money―a habit that’s a fundamental part of my identity.[8] I’m in recession heaven. | 
