This passage is from O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" 1. "Bulldoze" is to haggle (until the merchants lowered the price) This is how Della was able to save the one or two pennies at at a time. 2. "Burning cheeks" is a poetic way of saying blushing cheeks 3. "Close dealing" is face-to-face negotiation

Where is this quote from? I'm a native English speaker, and I found this to be awkwardly worded and strangely put. But in a general sense, the way I understand this is that "bulldozing" implies hurting or overwhehming the butcher, grocer, etc, by being so cheap (parsimonious) and that that requires haggling with them to save money and makes the relationships with them overly involved, close, and contentious.