No Coupons

“What Nicholas Sparks book did you want?” Tom asked as we walked into Barnes and Noble last week.

“It’s called The Best of Me,” I replied. “If you’re planning on getting it for me as a Christmas gift, Amazon has it cheaper.”

It was like Tom didn’t hear me. He headed for the new release section, found the book and picked it up.

“It’s a sweet gesture,” I tried again. “But it’s like 13.99 on Amazon.”

Tom pointed to the book. “It shows here it’s 30% off.”

“Yes, from the cover price so the total will probably be 18. On Amazon it’s—”

“Great. Sounds like a deal,” Tom cut me off. He doesn’t comprehend saving money. I once handed him a coupon and he was like, “What’s this for?” He figures if he can find something he might as well pick it up then.

This pains me. While it’s sweet that he wants to buy me stuff I so wish he’d bargain shop and compare prices like I do. If he sees something he thinks I’ll like, he buys it and doesn’t bother checking to see if he can find it cheaper elsewhere.

At the grocery store he tosses whatever he wants in the cart to the point where my brow starts to sweat. This is why he rarely goes grocery shopping with me. He tends to get irritated when I’m flipping through my coupons to see what product I can save on.

“Does it matter? Let’s just get this brand of ketchup.”

“But I have a coupon for Heinz for 50 cents off,” I’ll explain.

So Tom will dig around in his pocket, produce 50 cents, hand it to me and toss the other ketchup in the cart. “There. That’s settled. We can go now.”

*Sighs*

I told him I wanted the entire season of Friends for Christmas but explained that he should check Amazon daily as the prices like to drop. The other day they had the entire set for 89 and I hinted it to Tom.

“Okay,” he said but I don’t think he got it because I made the mistake of checking the Amazon credit card and saw a charge for 199. It might be for the DVD set which means he bought it another day WHEN IT WASN’T ON SALE! How does that not bother him? He could have saved ONE HUNDRED dollars!

Still.

I try not to think about it. At least he gets me stuff.

And I’ll enjoy my overpriced Nicholas Sparks book.