The Cookbook Sale

Every year a major Canadian cookbook company headquartered in my city has their annual Scratch and Dent sale. This is pretty much as close as we get to Black Friday. All their cookbooks are at least 65% off, but most are more in the 80% off range. This is good news for all cheapaholics who also enjoy collecting cookbooks.

I was new to the city last year and had driven past the warehouse the week before the sale and seen the sign out on the road. I didn't know at all what it was about and decided to go with the boys as Way Cooler was working that particular Saturday.

It almost killed me.

My first indication that this might be bigger than I had originally thought was the lack of parking in a three block radius. This might deter lesser individuals with an 8 month old and a 2 year old, but it was either go to the sale or go sit at home alone with them and we do that a lot anyway.

We parked, I loaded the boys in the stroller of death and off I trudged through a foot of snow, visions of cheap cookbooks dancing through my head.

I do know however that God loves me as Sprout fell asleep just before we arrived at the sale and slept through the whole ordeal.

Upon arriving at the warehouse I realized that I may not know much about the sale but the rest of the 800 000 or so people living in my city did, and they all were there.

So here I was, with the world's largest double stroller and a two year old who was hollering every 30 seconds or so for "more (s)nacks" amidst several hundred woman all trying to get the same books.

Good times.

I grabbed 5 or 6 books, managing to only elbow a few people in the process. (None on purpose of course - well, except maybe the old lady who kept telling me this wasn't the best place to bring my kids.) I got into a large line and began cursing my stroller, the sale, Way Cooler's work schedule and Spud's never-ending appetite in my head when a marvelous thing happened.

They rang up my purchases.

They were soooo cheap. I had new cookbooks for me, tons of gifts for my gift book and I hadn't spent $50.

It's amazing how saving gobs of money will put the spring back in my step. (It's also a little pathetic, but I never confessed to being cool.)

I manhandled the stroller back out the door, through the snow and went home to tell whomever I might come into contact with about my marvelous score.

I went back to the sale this morning. Spud and Sprout were not invited. I may be a geek, I may be a hardcore cheapo but I am not clinically insane and that is what I would have to be to ever go there again with kids.