I bought some groceries this morning and happened to notice one brand of shampoo on sale. I happened to also have a $1 off coupon- lucky day! However, as I proceeded through checkout, when I handed the coupon over to the cashier, he stared at it like, What. The. Heck? and then sort of stood there like he didn't know what to do. I said, half-jokingly, "It's a coupon."

"I know," he said, slowly. He finally scanned it and, bloop, off came another dollar from my total bill. But he still looked, well, confused.

"Is anything wrong?" I offered.

"No. But, like, that shampoo was already on sale," he said. Like is that a problem??? He then looked at me closely, scrutinizing my face....and if I could place a bet, I'd say he was trying to guesstimate my age. Because, as has happened in the past, cashiers have joked with me about being so young, yet already *into* coupon clipping. I typically joked back that to them to give me a break, I'm a starving student/grad student.

But now I'm a working professional. Sure, I can afford to pay full price for the shampoo. But why not shop for bargains- at any age? It's just the smart thing to do!