My husband needs new boxers and socks desperately. We’re way beyond the point of a casual need for replacement where a seam is starting to spread, or the material is thinning, or even a little hole in the pinky toe area. Let me make this as clear as I can, there is really little point of him even wearing the boxers at all, any purpose of the boxers and their separation of skin from pant is not currently happening with the exception of the elastic band and a few shreds of fabric hanging on for dear life.
Now, along with the majority of U.S. citizens, when I am in the need for new underpants and socks I go to a large box store and acquire something in the under $10 range. My husband, however, discovered premiere boxers and socks a long time ago and has grown accustomed to paying $30 for each of these items.
After some newlywed arguments I am in fact convinced that the value lies with his Patagonia boxers. The current remaining shreds of underwear are the last survivors of approximately 5 to 6 years of extensive wear. The same is true for his wool, wicking, outdoorsmen caliber socks. Let’s get this out of the way; he is right, I am wrong.
The debate. Buy affordable socks and underwear that won’t last long, or buy expensive counterparts that will at the time significantly stretch our budget but in the end save us a considerable amount of money as well as be the environmentally responsible thing to do.
The fact that this even warrants a serious discussion in our home makes me sad, but really, I think this very debate on varying levels is happening constantly across the country, and is really at the root of a lot of our bigger problems. We can’t afford the lifestyles we want, so we do things short term and put off the inevitable long term consequences. This is true for how we treat our credit, it’s true for how we treat our environment, and it’s true for our purchasing habits.
The cycle has to end.
I guess if we aren’t able to invest in mutual funds, at least we can start with underpants.
October 29, 2009
October 26, 2009
They say timing is everything
My husband and I were married a little over a year ago. In fact, we returned home from our honeymoon just in time for the Lehman Brothers to file bankruptcy and thus erupting a volcano of economic turmoil. In the three months before that event my husband had graduated from college and we purchased a “fixer-upper”. Great timing, huh? Obviously we had been living in the wedding haze reserved for young lovers, ready to tackle the world arm in arm, waiting for all of our dreams to come to us on the conveyor belt of life. Oppsy.
Needless to say we had made some decisions that would at the very least have needed a little more deliberation if we had been paying attention to a crystal ball. My husband has only been able to find part-time employment which brings on a whole variety of issues. Our income is not what we expected, our marital dynamic is not what we expected, the progress on our house is not what we expected, our ability to make purchases is not what we expected, our ability to pay down debt is not what we expected, the stability of our life is not what we expected.
So how do we deal with all that? Obviously this would be short lived blog if I had that answer. The journey is the adventure, and maintaining happiness is the challenge.
Needless to say we had made some decisions that would at the very least have needed a little more deliberation if we had been paying attention to a crystal ball. My husband has only been able to find part-time employment which brings on a whole variety of issues. Our income is not what we expected, our marital dynamic is not what we expected, the progress on our house is not what we expected, our ability to make purchases is not what we expected, our ability to pay down debt is not what we expected, the stability of our life is not what we expected.
So how do we deal with all that? Obviously this would be short lived blog if I had that answer. The journey is the adventure, and maintaining happiness is the challenge.
October 19, 2009
Come along...
I would like to invite you along on a journey of financial turmoil. My husband and I are in a position that is not as uncommon as we're all pretending. We are both college graduates, we are young professionals; we're all in all, upstanding citizens. We're also broke and have trouble seeing the way out of a pit of bills, student loan debt, credit card debt, and a house we bought in need of lots of home improvement projects.
The objective of this blog is to provide a little group therapy, some hope, possibly inspiration, definitely comic relief, and above all else the knowledge that you are not alone. Someone else out there is struggling too. So come on along, we’ll cry together when we overdraw our checking accounts, we’ll high-five when we pay off credit cards, we’ll vent our anger at the credit system, we’ll laugh at the mess we’re in and courageously move forward one day at time. Or perhaps one paycheck at a time.
One thing I want to focus on is that money does not buy happiness. We all say that, and I truly believe that, but living that mantra has proved to be quite a bit more difficult. Recently I was watching a show that featured children in impoverished India. These children were in rags, running through streets buried in trash, their dark eyes filled with hunger, yet were laughing and playing with the biggest smiles on their faces like a fat kid at a pie eating contest. Where is this joy coming from? How dare I worry about money while they worry about clean water.
I want my life’s focus to be on happiness and love. I want to find ways to live better, with less. I want to not worry. I want to not want.
So our adventure ensues, to battle for financial security in an economic insecure time and to pursue the kind of joy only children who don’t pay bills seem to have.
The objective of this blog is to provide a little group therapy, some hope, possibly inspiration, definitely comic relief, and above all else the knowledge that you are not alone. Someone else out there is struggling too. So come on along, we’ll cry together when we overdraw our checking accounts, we’ll high-five when we pay off credit cards, we’ll vent our anger at the credit system, we’ll laugh at the mess we’re in and courageously move forward one day at time. Or perhaps one paycheck at a time.
One thing I want to focus on is that money does not buy happiness. We all say that, and I truly believe that, but living that mantra has proved to be quite a bit more difficult. Recently I was watching a show that featured children in impoverished India. These children were in rags, running through streets buried in trash, their dark eyes filled with hunger, yet were laughing and playing with the biggest smiles on their faces like a fat kid at a pie eating contest. Where is this joy coming from? How dare I worry about money while they worry about clean water.
I want my life’s focus to be on happiness and love. I want to find ways to live better, with less. I want to not worry. I want to not want.
So our adventure ensues, to battle for financial security in an economic insecure time and to pursue the kind of joy only children who don’t pay bills seem to have.
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