Over the past several years it seems as though we were all enjoying a very profitable time. Convenience products were popping up everywhere. I must admit, I do love a good gadget. And I have bought many! And at the time it seemed worth it for that convenience. Take for example the disposable toilet scrubbies, you know the ones with the cleanser built in; you pop it on, scrub your toilet and then pop them right into the trash, no mess, no hassle. I love these things!
But now is not a time for easy spending, almost everywhere I look life has become about being frugal and thrifty, and Green I might add. On one hand I feel as though we need to spend money to make money, on the other hand I feel like I can’t freely spend money if there is no income replacing the spent money. I think we must want better to have better. I think this stems from a couple of things. Having so many siblings I often had hand me downs, my mother often shopped (and still does) at the thrift shop. I was used to second hand items. For my husband, he grew up in a divorced household and his mother was the main provider. When he became old enough he went to work to be able to afford the nicer things that the other kids had. Indeed, the first thing my husband ever bought for me was a pair of tennis shoes! And so began our lives of mass consumerism. There is no doubt that we were doing our part to stimulate the economy!
As I said in a previous post, tough times have not only reached our doorstep, but they invited themselves in and are trying to get cozy. My patience with them is wearing thin, but they haven’t quite worn out their welcome just yet, unfortunately. In the mean time, I find myself returning to those thrifty roots. Whether I like it or not, it’s something that must be done.
Ironically, as I am writing this my mother just called me. We talked of course about the economy and the issues with my family right now. And she tells me 101 ways to fix potatoes! Mom, I love you!!! There’s nothing like talking to someone who has raised eight children and 22 grandchildren and I’ve lost count of the great-grandchildren. But my mom says to me “hey you grew up eating leftovers, you can figure out how to use them!” Yes, I am ashamed to admit the amount of food my family has wasted over the years because we refused to eat leftovers. Now I am in a position where I must learn to use leftovers.
Now where was I, I think I was talking about toilets? Yes, I went to the store to buy some scrubbies to clean the toilets; first off, I looked at the label to see where the product was made, next I looked at the price tag. Goodness, 3.50 just did not seem like that much three months ago; now it seems like a small fortune. So I dug deep and remembered when I was growing up and early in my marriage before I began to rely on so many convenience items, I used to clean the bathroom with good old Ajax, or Comet, whichever was on sale; and here was the economy sized can of Comet for 98 cents! 3.50 vs. .98, now I did need to take into account the fact that I would have to also buy a toilet scrub brush as well, but then I looked at the package and realized I could only clean my toilet 6 times with the scrubbies (and I have three toilets in my house!) and countless times with the Comet, so in the end the Comet won.
So here I am now with a can of Comet and my scrub brush ready to clean my toilet the frugal way. And it’s not near as painful as I thought it might be. Well, it’s a bit painful to my ego, but in the end, literally and figuratively, when the toilet is flushed does anyone really care how it got clean? Probably not.
