The Dollar Lampshade and Missed Opportunity

Let me tell you a story about a lampshade and a missed opportunity.

Several years ago I was out and about with my mother. We had somewhere specific we were going but in going there we passed through a major department store that we shopped in now and again.

We weren’t going to buy anything and instead had another destination in mind. As we were passing through this big department store there was a table in the middle of the store with discounted items on it.

Good items, really good in fact.

But we weren’t out to shop and instead had somewhere to go.

I happened to spy to high quality, simple, but elegant lampshades on said table. There were two of them and they were so lovely I picked them looking them over an over.

Now I forgot to mention that this was mid-morning when most shoppers are at work or tending to other things. I was in between foster children and just running a morning errand with my mother.

As I looked at those lampshades I thought to myself, “These are sure lovely but I don’t have a need for them.”

Now isn’t that wise of me! I was not going to spend money I did not need to.

Oh! Did I forget to mention that the price tag on each of those lamp shades was $1? Well it was. $1.  So I put those lampshades down and went on my merry way. My mother and I feeling good that we had avoided spending $2.

Later that day I was on the phone with my sister and mentioned the lampshades. There was silence. You see my sister had two very nice quality lamps in her home that she and her husband had bought in the first year of their marriage. This was about 15  years earlier at the time and while the lamps were (and are) lovely the shades had bit the dust long ago. These were not tiny lamps either they were larger, more expensive lamps that needed larger, more expensive shades. Shades that they were not in a position to buy at the time and lampshades about the size and quality I had passed up earlier that day.

I was mortified.

I promised my sister I would go back the next day and see if they were still there. What was I thinking ?! Why wasn’t I thinking?!

So I went back the next day and of course the table and the lamp shades were long gone.

I never saw an opportunity like that again.

That was about 10 years ago and I still regret it to this day. In being so wonderful frugal I neglected to think of others. I missed an opportunity. An opportunity to be a blessing to my own sister who could have really used something that would have cost me so little.

So now whenever I’m presented with something that seems to be a great deal but I personally don’t feel I have the need for it I try and stop and think of others.