But I’m Not a Housewife!
Domestic Bliss, EventuallyArchive for September, 2008
Personal Finance and Frugality
As if figuring out how to do the housekeeping at age 30 isn’t enough, the hubby and I are really, really broke these days.
The funny thing is, since we’ve gotten back from a month long trip to a Navajo Reservation in Arizona, we haven’t been able to get my car to start. This is funny because I’m not spending any money on gas but we are still way in the hole. (The other funny thing is – we take road trips – long road trips, across the country. With gas prices these days, that is definitely not frugal.)
And we are not big materialists. Both of our CRT TVs were so old this year that the color had gone wonky. All green and yellow for the one upstairs, and all red and blue for the one down. Conveniently, when we moved into this old house in June I bought an awesome TV for $30 at a garage sale – much better color – still not a flat screen.
Furthermore, we, like my best friend and her boyfriend almost never buy new clothes. She says they just realized that in nearly every photo for the past three years they are wearing the same outfits. That sounds familiar.
Mostly we spend a lot of money on food and wine. My husband is a big foodie. We don’t have cable anymore right now and we borrow old episodes of Julia & Jacques and Two Fat Ladies from the library, since we can’t watch the food network. So we are saving on cable but still indulging in food and wine. Way too much.
(If you’ve never actually watched Two Fat Ladies, check out this article: The Two Fat Ladies…and Why We Love Them, by Mecca Ibrahim or watch this video clip.)
But we’ve been really diligent about eating at home this month, so I hope that if we keep it up, we’ll start seeing a difference. I’ll post more about that in the future.
For the time being, I had no idea that there was a genre of blogs about personal finance. How weird is that? They’re actually very educational, and hence fit in well with my goal to overhaul my house and my life this year.
Get Rich Slowly’s post for today scares the heck out of me, but I’ll have to face this issue sooner or later.
(I discovered this blog via Paranoid Asteroid, which is pretty entertaining, and slightly educating.)
Anyway, that’s enough of the issue of finances for the day. I’m going to go veg for awhile and think about nothing until my job interview tomorrow morning.
Awh, This Kills Me
What is your most obsessive thought?
via Common Ties, 2008-09-30
Sometimes I love my twelve year old dog, Casey, so much I don’t know what to do!
And just think – soon it will be children. How do you parents do it?
I want to provide a happy home for my familiars and someday for my children.
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
This is the type of thing I don’t want to represent my life anymore.
Did you figure it out?
There is a smoke alarm sitting on my bookshelf with its battery removed. Did you know that smoke alarms don’t work without batteries? Also, isn’t it illegal or something to take down the smoke alarm in a rented home?
And what’s more – it took us like three days for us to address this problem. We live in a row house and the neighbor in the middle house caught me in the backyard before work to ask me if I had noticed a beeping sound “like every 15 seconds.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I think it’s probably our smoke alarm or something.”
“Yeah…I’ve been hearing it when I’m in this room working and it’s kind of distracting.”
“Oh, sure, sure. Well, my husband and I are home today so we’ll investigate this and get it solved.”
I followed the sound and within five minutes, found the offending smoke alarm – after three days. It was in the basement and echoed right up through the floor into my neighbors house.
So I quickly solved the problem. I removed the battery. And there it sits. It could sit there for a year before my husband and I either find a battery for it or go out and buy new ones.
This is the story of my life.
Well, not anymore. I’ll update you when we get the battery in and put it back up. Let’s see how many days it will take….
Day One
I’m staging an intervention for myself. I’ve just turned 30 and I’m still so domestically challenged that I often just give up. I’m one of those leave it for weeks until the in-laws are coming types of people.
And I don’t want to be like this anymore.
Who isn’t happier when she has a clean, fresh home?
My husband and I don’t own a home yet and we don’t yet have children. We plan to change both of those things within the next 5 years. I’m lucky to have a husband who enjoys cooking – when I’m trying my darnedest to learn to enjoy it. I want to give back to my family.
And one more thing: I am the child of a compulsive hoarder. You may have seen the episodes about this phenomenon on Oprah. It’s just as bad as it looks. Thus, I have my work cut out for me!
I want to learn to keep my house clean, fresh, inviting, and cozy.
I’m 30 years old and I vow to change my domestic ways.
It is obvious to me that if I can do this anyone can!
So join me on my journey. Offer me encouragement. Ask me to post photos of my house so that I am accountable. Learn from my mistakes and share your best tips with me.
As I turn over a new leaf, I vow to make journey more fun than chore – if that is even possible!
But I'm Not a Housewife! 