I have two cats. Their favorite cat litter is Fresh Step, which offers a "Paw Points" coupon on every box.  It's always been an ambition of mine to collect the Paw Points and exchange them for items in the Fresh Step catalog--like a fancy "fountain" water dish, for instance.
    Unfortunately, the Coupon Clipping gene is not in my DNA.  (I was made aware of my deficiency in coupon-clipping during a recent genetic screening--but I always suspected I wasn't cut out for it.)  Nevertheless, I do have a pile of cardboard Paw Points coupons sitting on the shelf, clipped during sporadic attempts to rebel against my DNA programming.   But usually, I just toss the whole empty box into the recycling bin.  
    My sweet felines are now seventeen years old.  I just realized that had I saved up all those Paw Points, by now I could've gotten them one of those carpeted, multi-tiered cat condos . . . in Miami Beach.
    It's times like this when one must seek comfort in well-worn platitudes.  
    Neither a spendthrift nor a wastrel be?
    But I can't help it--woe is me.
    I'll have to change my reality
    From 'woe is me' to 'c'est la vie