Winning at Finances: first hand account

I work in retail, and one of my clients was talking to me the other day about our rewards program. In this program, we offer points with each purchase, and when the consumer reaches a certain threshold, they can redeem the points as cash off their purchase. She was remarking how her point totals were not increasing radically. "Well, you know what it is?", she said, "I don't buy things I don't really need just to rack up more points". She added that she watches the sales carefully, and generally pays for her purchases with cash. "You know what?" she said later, "That's how I got to buy my beautiful car!". This 60-ish lady, of no great means, bought a 2011 Ford Edge (LOADED!) and paid for it primarily in cash. She was so proud of herself, and I was proud (and envious!) of her too. A truly great example of responsible financial living, and it allowed this middle class senior citizen to buy the tricked-out SUV she always wanted. AWESOME!