The expense of being cheap

It started with a conversation with my dad.

"Dad, do you like the new Nook you got for Christmas?"

"Yeah, I do. But I really like the I-Pad I got."

"You got an I-Pad? Why?"

"I bought it for $12."

[I dropped the phone.]

My dad went on to explain to me that he accidentally found a website called Quibids and bid on the I-Pad. When it was all said and done, he was the winner.

Here's the thing, if it had been anyone but my dad telling me this, I would have thought it was a scam. But my dad is a penny-saved-is-a-penny-earned kinda guy. The kind of guy that likes to spit out cliches like "There's no such thing as a free lunch," and "You get what you pay for." So, it adds a lot to his street cred for me when he tells me about a place where I can get an I-Pad for $12.

Quibids is a penny auction site with lots and lots of things to bid on. Each bid costs you $.60 and you buy your bids in bulk. I've seen blenders, I-Pads, MacBook Pros, gift cards, golf clubs, toys, etc. The auctions go almost like a real auction; after you bid, someone else has a chance to outbid you - either in 20, 15, or 10 second increments.

My first time out of the box, I won a $25 gift card to Walmart for $.02.  Then again, I also spent an ungodly amount of money on bids, and that was the only thing I won. That time.

Cheap gift cards are my kryptonite!

Actually, it's the only thing I've won at all. They have this feature called "Buy it now" where you can purchase what you've bid on for the purchase price, minus what you spent on bids on it. For example, I bid on another $25 gift card (because hey, it worked so well before). After spending almost $22 on bids, I lost the auction. So they gave me an option to buy my gift card for $3, not having my $22 in bids go to waste. So I did it. I mean, after all, I have to have SOMETHING to show for it.

So what's the problem? Well, I'm cheap. I don't like to pay full-price for anything. Here's a website that shows $200 gift cards being sold for $.08. It's like coupon-mom crack. Couple that with an apparently budding addictive personality, and it's bad news. Especially since it can save your credit card number on your account. (Not that I need to do that because I have mine memorized, but that's an entirely different post.)

I have spent too much money being cheap this week. Way too much. It pains me to think what else I could have bought with the money. And yet, I just saw a $100 Home Depot gift card go for $1.04. It's taunting my cheapness.

Luckily, a friend of mine is just as cheap as I am and I sent him an invite to join. I received notification this morning that his wife joined, thanks to me, and that's 25 free bids in my pocket.

They're already gone.

Friday night, I disabled the credit card saving thing on my Quibids account. I haven't spent one red cent since.

It's like it's part couponing, part gambling, and part blind luck all rolled into one.

And I'm no good at the last two.

But hey, if you'd like to support my habit, let me know and I'll send you an invite, too. Because we're going to need more than one person to start the support group.