Yes, I'm calling you cheap!

I heard a story the other day about someone who bought a Groupon (an Internet coupon that they sell to multiple people for things like "$20 in gift certificates to McDonalds for $10) and wanted to use it with a friend.  This person 'charged' their friend half the price of the coupon to join them for lunch.  

I get that the coupon cost money, but if I decided I wanted to eat at McDonalds under this half price thing and wanted you to join me, you can bet your Bippus that I wouldn't be charging you to join me.  I might not share my coupon but if I did it would be my treat. 

It would be a different story if there was a discussion about the coupon before the purchase.  The "do you want to go in together on this" is different than "I bought it, you owe me $5."

It reminds me of a former college roommate I had who totally flipped out over how the bills were divided.  Believe me it was not simple math to divide the phone bill into what was fair for the three of us - identify the long distance charges, the taxes on those charges, the costs of local service and the taxes on the local service.  I tell you this so you're aware that we were on so much of a budget that there would be arguments over who dialed directory service.  (This was before the Internet.)

Inevitably there was a penny difference when dividing utility bills and this roommate bitched one month that she "always paid the extra penny" on the power bill.  In my memory of how this conversation went down I believe I gave her a quarter and told her to leave me alone for the next two years.  I'm pretty sure that isn't exactly what happened, but I do recall coming home from my silly job at the deli one night to find hate notes all over the apartment.  "You Suck", "You're a Whore", "BITCH"... on and on taped to windows, the fridge, my bedroom door.  So I may have done something negative to irritate her at some point, I can't be sure.

For the record, this story is NOT about Becky, whom I did live with in college, but who never EVER called me a bitch or a whore.  I think the "you suck" emerged from her lips but it might have been after I made her pee her pants during an uncontrollable laughing fit. 

The "you're a whore" roommate and I lost touch after we stopped living together that semester.  It's possible she might have been a tiny bit unstable.  I'm sure I'm not the easiest person to live with, but she must have been really mad to use 16 sheets of expensive notebook paper to tell me off.

I will admit that the cheapo sickness infects me from time to time...but I try to put things in perspective.  TRY is the operative word. I did lose it at the Starbucks in our hotel in Las Vegas over their prices...but that night spending $150 on dinner didn't phase me at all.  In fact, we thought we got a deal.

Perspective is what we need.  Perspective, and a really good comeback about a quarter.