3-12-09

My wife is doing dishes, the recession is officially here

Money is tighter than ever, now. We have been in a recession ever since Leigh and I moved to North Carolina.
I have talked about our life in Maryland before, and how we sold our house there right before the housing bubble burst and quickly switched to a buyer’s market.
We were building our house over the course of a year and a half. During this time, the recession kept creeping up on us and everyone else in America.
So far, we have made it through, but things are always tight. We have always tried to save and make things stretch as far as we can.
Eating out has been put on the back burner as well as taking trips up to Maryland to visit with our friends. Lights get turned off behind me by Leigh sometimes before I even make it out of the room I am leaving.
I give her a hard time, all in good fun, but she and I both know that she is the major reason that we are able to save money. This isn’t because I waste money, she just has a knack for making sure every dollar works as hard as it can.
A good example of this was when she heard about turning off items in the house that consume needless power. I think it was from an episode of a morning talk show or something. We tried to unplug all the appliances in the house that used power even while they were not in use. The TVs, DVD player, and home stereo. During that two month period, we were even turning off the hot water heater at night and during the day while we were at work.
After two months, we reviewed our electric bills, there was no savings that we could find.
We now live like normal people once again. We can just walk into the room and hit “Power” on the remote and see a show instantly instead of plugging in hard to reach cords and bringing our house back onto the Duplin County power grid.
Recently, I have been feeling like we had things under control in our household. We just make it through each month but we are not going hungry and every once in a while, we can squeeze in a family dinner out. I even get to have my “midnight snack” on the weekends.
My “snacking” consists of frozen food. I have a soft spot for frozen burritos, seasoned french fries, or chicken patties. Anything frozen, pre-cooked and has the potential to raise my cholesterol level, I love it.
A normal Saturday night for me, consists of me covering my trusty baking sheet with a layer of tin foil, throw a few snacks on for a 12 to 18 minute baking session. I, then, get my plate, fork and seat ready and tune the TV in for Saturday Night Live or the History Channel.
The great thing about frozen food, baking sheet and tin foil is that you can eat with your hands and when you are done, you just throw away the mess. There is nothing to clean.
A few nights ago, I was on my Saturday night auto pilot mode and Leigh told me to “Stop.”
“Just use the baking pan. Save the tin foil.” She instructed.
I quickly told her that “I don’t want to clean dishes. This is why I have always used tin foil.”
“We need to start saving a little more money,” Leigh informed.
“It is just a small piece of tin foil,” I interjected.
“But it adds up.”
“Not that much.”
“Yes it will.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“I will do the dishes.” Leigh finished and I am sure mentally stomped her foot. “Just cut back on the tin foil.”
I now sound like I’m struggling with a junk food addiction and need an intervention. Maybe I do, but that’s for a later story.
A side note: When Leigh and I first started dating, I went to visit her in Boston for the first time. I remember her having a mound of something under a kitchen towel in the extra small sink in her extra small North End apartment. Tucked in, was a pile of dishes that were supposed to be hidden so well that I would not notice that she absolutely hated doing dishes.
“Deal.” I agreed.
As I said, Leigh hates doing dishes. She hates doing dishes like I hate a broken arm. If she says that she will do dishes, then I can’t say anything to cutting back on foil. I don’t see where a Sam’s Club size box of tin foil that costs $11.98 and lasts us about... oh.... a year, will make that much difference.
I think this cutting back will do a lot of good, probably as much as taking our house off of the power grid, but part of me is wondering if our water bill will increase more than $11.98 over the course of... oh... a year?