i think i want to start a new feature on the blog. i will call it, ¨you know you are thrifty(cheap) when....¨ based on the old ¨you might be a redneck if....¨ jokes of the 90´s. as self-mockery seems to be what i am good at, or at the very least what so many people find amusing, i will examples from my own life down here. of course, forget the fact that i make a paltry sum when you actually convert my pesos salary into dollars. if you think in your own daily life terms it will be much funnier. besides, does anyone know the conversion for pesos to dollars off the top of their heads besides me? it is roughly 10 to 1, which makes things really easy, but put that knowledge aside and enjoy my lack of spendthrift qualities.

i paid 4 dollars yesterday for a haircut and complained because last time i went to the same woman, seven months ago, i was only charged $3.50.

when the fare to juchitan (nearby city, or the closest actual city) went from 90 to cents to 1 dollar in january, i vowed to go to juchitan less.

i ask for a teacher´s discount when i buy just about anything- this includes the one time i bought a shirt (ok, another teacher asked for the discount, but i was all for it)- and i now ask for a discount when i take the bus.

on vacations, on all buses there is a 25% discount for teachers and 50% discount for students. i merely hand over my teacher i.d. to the clerk who normally looks at me, does not read the id where it plainly says ¨maestro¨ (which means teacher with a master´s degree) and gives me the 50% discount. if asked if i am student or maestro, i reply that i do not speak spanish very well and, ¨could you speak slower and more simply, please¨ to which i have never been answered but marked as student.

one day on the morning bus i gave 30 cents for the 25cent fare because i did not have proper change. when the woman did not give me my proper change, i approached her and asked for my 50 centavos (this is like a nickel).

i argue over the price of fuit and vegetables when it rises over 1 dollar.

at the supermarket (and really, there is a wealth of samples that i could tap into here) i buy a cheaper brand of milk to save 1.5 cents. yes. one penny and one half of a cent.

i have 4 pairs of pants. i have 7 collared shirts. i think that says a lot.

on the rare occasions that i do not make my own meal, i complain if we go to the restaurant that charges $3.00 and includes dessert over the usual restuarant that charges $2.00 and offers food of a poorer flavor and no dessert.

i was annoyed when my roommate did not buy more soap for washing dishes and i had to buy it twice in a row (we buy it once ever 2.5 months or so). the price of soap is 70 cents. this probably points to another issue of mine, but we are strictly dealing with my thriftiness at the moment.

part of the reason i walk home every night and do not take the bus is to save 25 cents each day. i do like the exercise and chatting with other profs, but i would be lying if saving the money were not a bonus i consciously considered from the start.

i despise wal-mart and what they stand for. when they first came to juchitan 5 months ago i vowed never to go there. i told my students how evil it was. i admonished my roommate and all my friends for shopping there. i downloaded articles off the internet to use in my english classes to instruct them on the destructive powers of wal-mart and all its subsidiaries. i shop at wal-mart once a week.

i could probably pay $3.00 to have my computer fixed. i am waiting on one of my students to do it for free.

after a long trip in march i arrived in juchitan at 3:30am. instead of taking a taxi back to my apt (8 dollars) i tried to sleep in plastic chairs for 3 hours until the buses (1 dollar) started running.

there are lots more, but as i usually do not think of this kind of behavior as strange, i have to think about the subject for a spell first. there will probably be more. enjoy your weekend!