Famously Cheap

My family is very, very, deeply cheap. No, we're not Jewish, we're just trashy, too-many-kids Irish. Growing up, I thought Target was a fancy department store. My mother used to buy our toys pre-broken at yard sales, to save us the trouble of breaking them, and she has never owned a wristwatch worth more than ten dollars. Whenever it was back-to-school time, my dad would peel off a fresh $20 bill and say- knock yourself out. My father's wedding gift to me was a box set of CD's that he had burned for me.
My baby sister Emily is finally making it all pay off on her No Trust Fund blog, and now has an article in USA Today about living on freebies. If only my mother would pony up for high-speed internet, she'd be so proud!

POSTSCRIPT: My mother has announced that she has signed onto highspeed and has resumed her monitoring of badinia.com, and that I should stop making fun of her, and also that I should stop talking so dirty.