Do I Look Like An Idiot? and I'm Going Frugal

Image by kiki99 via Flickr

I know that sometimes the "polite" Israelis ask me if I am Maya's grandmother, so I am getting used to it. I was given all kind of "helpful" advice from "know it all mothers", I got bullied by tele-marketers and once the sales person from New Pharm gave the evil eye because I wasn't interested in the discountsthey offered.
I know now that Israelis pride themselves on being aggresive and assertive and I try to ignore their lack of manners. But sometimes they get on my nerves... Like when they try to trick you on buying low quality stuff or when they lie to you in the face. Like I have written all over my forehead "idiot". But let me exemplify.
As you know from reading one of my previous posts I got fascinated by the Montessori method of education and rather obsessive over findind a geoboard for Maya. Mission Impossible. But today, surprise! I found one (plastic, yuck) in a very shabby store in our neighbourhood. The problem was that the geoboard had several pegs missing (being made of plastic they are not very sturdy). When I pointed that to the shopkeeper, she told me they were "removed" intentionally, because that the way the board should be...Come on, I said, you can see they broke, that there was no "pattern" in the way they were missing from the board or something, and you could also see the place were the peg was, as they broke unevenly...
Do you think I convinced her? Oh, no! I was the village's idiot and she was the sage.
I got so frustrated and boiling with rage...What is wrong with you, people? I wanted to ask. Money, money, money that's all that is on their mind, I think...I hate cheaters and liars very much and that is I am receiving these days...And then I remembered that here in Israel they invented the co-operative living (in kibbutz) you know, where all people were equal. What happened to that dream? I think it sunk in the stormy waters of the capitalist world. I am a communist girl al heart, what do you want, I was born in Romania during the communist regime and I was 23 years old when Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator, fell, together with the communist regime. Anyway, I've decided I'm going trifty and frugal and living old style (by the way, there is a great forum on money saving and old ways here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?s=88a9b4cf547abfee1f58c88f07c54854&f=33) and I won't let any leeches suck my blood. Ditto!