Beating the Odds

I mentioned in a post about the grocery delivery program not actually being honest about their products and therefore needing to cancel the service. It was a bummer, for sure, but thankfully we discovered some of their hidden tactics and poor selling schemes before it was too late. The bonus is that part of their tactic is to get you to schedule a meeting with them and if you do, you get a bunch of free meat, just for listening. So, that was a nice perk and helped relieve some of our frustration of wasted time dealing with them.

THEN, the dreaded "we are canceling" phone call had to happen. We sent in the "cancel my order" paperwork as required by law to get our refund, and tried to go about it the passive way. No such luck though. Of course, since it was dealing with food/groceries they had MY phone number. They called me to welcome me to the program the next day and I had to say, "thank you, but we're actually canceling." Which was followed by a series of reasons for why canceling was a bad idea. (Remember I told you earlier, I don't have a problem saying no to high pressured people when I don't really want what they are offering...this conversation will give you some insight into how these things go for me!) So, I kept saying, "NO!" in a very nice, polite, politically correct way. She (the sales representative) was not giving up so easily and thought she could convince me to see the "light" if she discredited what I was spending for our family grocery budget. Uhm...she didn't have a leg to stand on! She just got me that much more riled up and determined to get my money back and say no to their program. It went something like this...first she's telling me that I'm probably not actually sticking to the budget amount I was telling her. Oh yes I am! She challenged me again, telling me that if I added up my receipts it would probably be more then what I thought. Try again, girlfriend, cash budget doesn't lie--I can tell you to the penny how much I spend each month just by looking in my envelope. (Can you tell I'm getting riled?) So then she tried to tell me that statically it's practically impossible for me to be feeding my family on that budget--and here's the stinger--unless I'm only feeding them rice and beans. Uhmm...I'm really getting ticked now. So, I as politely as I could, explained to her that as a matter of fact we are actually eating extremely well these days. We're eating hormone free, antibiotic meats fresh from the local farmers, all local and fresh produce straight from our garden or area farmers, our dairy is also coming from a local farmer who has raised their cows free of hormones and antibiotics as well and our eggs are from free range, local farms too. Does that sound like a junk food or rice and beans diet to you? (I didn't ask her that...I was polite, remember?) As a matter of fact, the only meal we've had with beans in the last two months was the chili I made a couple weeks ago and was DELICIOUS! Yes, I was extremely irritated and insulted. Then her next question goes like this, "so you mean to tell me that you're feeding a family of four for about $2/day per person?" "Yes, ma'am, that's what I'm telling you." (I hadn't done the math, but it sounded good to me, so I just went with that) "Well, that's statistically impossible, we have been researching for years how families can eat of less and we've developed a program that saves people money. I'm not sure how you're able to do this and still eat high quality food." Apparently she wasn't listening to the great foods I just listed off to her. Anyway, yep, that part of the conversation is where today's title comes from. After taking a moment to calm myself down from this completely irritating and insulting conversation, I saw it from a whole different perspective. Rather than being offended by her obvious insults on my ability to do math, my ability to feed my family anything other then rice and beans on a tight budget and my inability to see the savings in their program (which wasn't going to be so for us, since we don't fit the "norm" & I've gotten a handle on how much I'm spending on everything thanks to the cash budget), I chose to see the compliments.

I know this might sound a bit proud and I don't mean for it to be so. I'm really just looking at it from a different angle and it's exciting. Here is how I'm choosing to see it: She was so taken back by my ability to consistently stick to the small budget we have set and be able to buy fresh, local and great quality food that she had no choice but to try to make it sound impossible. Quite frankly, a lot of people don't do what we're doing so I'm sure it was out of the norm for her. My favorite part was when she tried to tell me it was statistically impossible. That just makes me all the more proud, knowing that we are doing it and apparently beating all the odds too! :) How cool is that, to be working so hard at something and doing so well that you're even surpassing all the "norms", "averages" and "stats"! I was also glad to know that I'm only spending about $2/day per person on food...thanks to her quick math skills she figured it out for me! ;) Since then I did figure it out and it comes to $2.20 per person per day. That's awesome!! :) All of this just makes me more motivated to see how far I can push that limit. Can I lower my budget by $15/month and still do it?!?! or maybe I should try $30 less per month?

As you can gather, her methods did nothing to help her cause, but rather got me more motivated to see how many more odds I can beat.

Are you beating the odds in your life? What are you doing that to others appears to be ridiculous and impossible to make your goals happen? Stretch your limits today and see how far you can excel above "average"!