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I Wasted $3 and a Half Hour

The checkout line got me -- again.

On Tuesday when I picked up my daughter from day care, I was handed a note stating she was out of diapers and formula, so my first stop before I headed home was Walmart. While standing in the checkout line, I was intrigued by a magazine cover that says it offers hundreds of ways to live on "nothing."

Well, I know I cannot live on nothing -- not without going off the grid, raising my own food, and making a plethora of lifestyle changes I'm not prepared to make, anyway -- but I figured it would at least feature some tips on how to get a few free items. So I dropped the magazine in the cart and shelled out an extra $2.99.

After a good 20 or 30 minutes spent trying to find the corresponding article, I gave up. No one article gives you tips on either living on nothing or getting anything for free. Sprinkled throughout the magazine, though, were tips on spending less. And even then, few of the tips -- if any -- were even useful to me. They were either actions I've already taken or didn't apply to me. For instance, one whole section was about how to spend less while traveling. We spend less by just not traveling. (Though we do visit my husband's distant relatives every few years.)

This is not the first time I've impulsively bought a magazine in the checkout line that I regretted later. You'd think I'd learn by now.

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