My name is Rachel, and I have an addiction

Ok, so I diss on the Dirt Cheap a lot and how I fear I will get the swine flu or pink eye every time I go there and how I need to wear a SARS mask to enter then bathe myself with germ-ex when I get in my car.

Well since we are all friends here I feel I can admit to you all that I am secretly addicted to Dirt Cheap. They say the first step is admitting you have a problem, so maybe that is progress? It may come to the point of intervention before this baby gets here. I may be risking this baby's life with the filthy shelves and sitting on the floor constructing devices to make sure all the pieces are there before I buy it for mere pennies, but I love it. I love getting something for nothing, I love getting crap I don't need but may find handy one day, I love it when old ladies come and look in my basket like I'd found gold and say "Oh! Where did you find that?!?"

For those of you that are not living in the Land of Koz and aren't privy to what I am speaking of you see - around these parts they have this place that gets stuff from stores like Target, Lands End, Gap, Wal-Mart, Polo, Liz Claiborne, K-Mart, etc etc. It's either stuff that has been returned, stuff that they have too much of, stuff that is last season, stuff that may even be broken. I think it also gets stuff from like metropolitan dumpsters and even landfills. No matter what angle you look at it, it's just stuff. If you don't have a visual yet, it pretty much looks like a tornado came to this store and threw up a bunch of "stuff" that you don't need, but there is a jewel in there somewhere....you just have to find it. And when you find it it will be no less than 50% off and up to 90% off. Clothes they are either $3, $5 or 60% off.

I fall into a time warp when I get into Dirt Cheap. It's like the world around me doesn't exist and it is just me and all this stuff piled sloppy on the shelves and on the floor and in bins and on racks. It's an OCD persons nightmare.

In the past month, I have been there more times than I'd like to share with you all. I've spent more money than I care to disclose to you (or my husband) I've contracted a rash there is no cure for (just kidding) - -but I have found some great stuff and I'm not ashamed. Today I have received 2 compliments on my linen shirt from Lands End and the day hasn't even begun. Guess what pumpkin......Dirt Cheap $3. What's that? You want a hamburger off of my husbands new Weber portable gas grill as you drink on that Toddy in the Grove? Sure thing, $20 at the Dirt Cheap.

Chip has dubbed me the "Dirty Cheap Hoochie"........well, he didn't use the word Hoochie, but I improvised for the sake of my readers. Let's just say it starts with a Wh and ends with a ore.

My name is Rachel.........and I'm addicted to Dirt Cheap.