Why we shouldn't be entrusted with our daughter's moral education
Somehow I doubt that participating in Buy Nothing Day really counts if you then go out the next day and spend a horrifying amount of money. Even if it was kind of by accident....
And, if truth be told, we did end up buying stuff on Friday, too, although it was 11:56 pm. (I wasn't actually trying to wait until Saturday - it just worked out that way.) So really, I was a complete failure at the whole BND thing.
How did we spend, um, thousands of dollars sort of by accident? Well, it was a little something like this. First of all, the purchases late Friday night were suggested by Cait as a way to cut down on the amount of running around we had to do this weekend. We did have plans to pick up some supplies for a baby shower we are hosting in a couple of weeks -- the only shopping we intended to do at all this weekend -- but Cait thought we could save ourselves some aggravation and avoid the post-Thanksgiving insanity by shopping online. She proposed this idea around 9 pm on Friday, by which time I'd basically forgotten that it was BND. I didn't think about it at all until the order confirmation email showed up timestamped 11:56.*
The rest of the purchases can be traced back to one word: stink. We've been working towards buying a new washer & dryer because the washer just doesn't work that well anymore (our clothes often smell mildewed and the cloth diapers have been getting downright funky), and last week we discovered that our disposal is only doing a half-assed job: it grinds the food but so coarsely that it won't go down the drain, resulting in a pulverized, rotting swamp. Not wanting to be wasteful members of our disposable society, we looked into getting all three appliances repaired, but research indicated it wouldn't be cost-effective for any of them. However, by the weekend, the various smells hung over the house like a dank cloud, and we started out this morning by looking at the advertising circulars to see if any of the models we were interested in were on sale. Cait was so frustrated by our odiferous house that she wanted to go out and by something, anything, NOW! to improve the situation.
Being the major tightwad AND research hound in our relationship (and also having forgotten to take my antianxiety meds two days in a row) I was not as enthusiastic** but agreed we could go out to a couple of big box stores to research the washer and dryer although I wanted to wait for a big sale before buying anything.
Well, even if I hadn't given it away in the first sentence, you'd surely be able to guess the rest of the story. We did do some price comparison (and I had done a fair amount of research beforehand) but we*** got suckered in by a couple of rebate offers and did upgrade to the ridiculously snazzy machine that will do everything including file our taxes for us. Cait is going to go for some major dyke cred tomorrow by installing a new disposal, and our laundry lives will be revolutionized in early December when our insanely expensive and cool new washer & dryer arrive and are installed. Assuming, of course, that they will FIT into the laundry closet. But that's another post.
Anyway, I'm not willing to calculate the monetary total of our absurd shopping spree for fear I would spontaneously combust right here on the couch. I will, however, list for you the ridiculous inventory of the day's take:
Ah well, doing our part for the economy. Or something.
*For the record, I don't think I've ever succeeded at BND but I've never had a failure so colossal - I usually end up buying groceries or kleenex or something that's more of a necessity.
**Understatement of the decade.
***Cait says it was ME, not we, who decided to go for the upgrade.
And, if truth be told, we did end up buying stuff on Friday, too, although it was 11:56 pm. (I wasn't actually trying to wait until Saturday - it just worked out that way.) So really, I was a complete failure at the whole BND thing.
How did we spend, um, thousands of dollars sort of by accident? Well, it was a little something like this. First of all, the purchases late Friday night were suggested by Cait as a way to cut down on the amount of running around we had to do this weekend. We did have plans to pick up some supplies for a baby shower we are hosting in a couple of weeks -- the only shopping we intended to do at all this weekend -- but Cait thought we could save ourselves some aggravation and avoid the post-Thanksgiving insanity by shopping online. She proposed this idea around 9 pm on Friday, by which time I'd basically forgotten that it was BND. I didn't think about it at all until the order confirmation email showed up timestamped 11:56.*
The rest of the purchases can be traced back to one word: stink. We've been working towards buying a new washer & dryer because the washer just doesn't work that well anymore (our clothes often smell mildewed and the cloth diapers have been getting downright funky), and last week we discovered that our disposal is only doing a half-assed job: it grinds the food but so coarsely that it won't go down the drain, resulting in a pulverized, rotting swamp. Not wanting to be wasteful members of our disposable society, we looked into getting all three appliances repaired, but research indicated it wouldn't be cost-effective for any of them. However, by the weekend, the various smells hung over the house like a dank cloud, and we started out this morning by looking at the advertising circulars to see if any of the models we were interested in were on sale. Cait was so frustrated by our odiferous house that she wanted to go out and by something, anything, NOW! to improve the situation.
Being the major tightwad AND research hound in our relationship (and also having forgotten to take my antianxiety meds two days in a row) I was not as enthusiastic** but agreed we could go out to a couple of big box stores to research the washer and dryer although I wanted to wait for a big sale before buying anything.
Well, even if I hadn't given it away in the first sentence, you'd surely be able to guess the rest of the story. We did do some price comparison (and I had done a fair amount of research beforehand) but we*** got suckered in by a couple of rebate offers and did upgrade to the ridiculously snazzy machine that will do everything including file our taxes for us. Cait is going to go for some major dyke cred tomorrow by installing a new disposal, and our laundry lives will be revolutionized in early December when our insanely expensive and cool new washer & dryer arrive and are installed. Assuming, of course, that they will FIT into the laundry closet. But that's another post.
Anyway, I'm not willing to calculate the monetary total of our absurd shopping spree for fear I would spontaneously combust right here on the couch. I will, however, list for you the ridiculous inventory of the day's take:
- Stuff for the baby shower
- Natalie's Christmas gifts (puzzle, bath toy, art paper)
- A tank of gas
- A latte, a chai, and 2 scones
- Krazy Glue
- Vent covers
- Spray paint
- Disposal, plumber's putty & plumber's dope
- 5.5 lbs of M&Ms
- Hair elastics & hairbands
- Coke and pizza
- Teakettle
- Washing machine
- Dryer
- Ice cream
Ah well, doing our part for the economy. Or something.
*For the record, I don't think I've ever succeeded at BND but I've never had a failure so colossal - I usually end up buying groceries or kleenex or something that's more of a necessity.
**Understatement of the decade.
***Cait says it was ME, not we, who decided to go for the upgrade.
posted by Jen at
10:10 PM
4 Comments:
As long as people are confessing - I shopped too. I can't be trusted when there's a deal to be had! I meant to do it all ON thanksgiving but I forgot until very late and it was 1am...
You aren't going to tell us which KIND of washing machine you researched and purchased??? Not that we need one - we did that when H was a few months old and hormones drove me to it!
By
party b, at 12:19 AM
Friday seems so long ago now, but I think I did succeed at Buying Nothing. It's not because I intended to participate (I'd plum forgotten!) but because my son pitched a royal fit when I suggested that we could ride the train down to Macy's together. Does it count that I went out to dinner? Does it matter that I didn't pick up the check?
I think I might know which kind of washer and dryer you got, if it's the set that I lustfully ogled in the advertising supplement of the newspaper. (I think it was a Best Buy ad.) And I don't even need new laundry machines. I need a dishwasher. Badly.
By
Summer, at 10:06 AM
Here I thought you were going to say you bought more sperm.
By
Brooke, at 10:47 AM
I think I succeeded at BND without meaning to - we were out at the beach house. Wes went horseback riding and we went out to dinner, but I don't think we paid for either of those things.
I wonder if you got the same crazy washer/dryer that we have...?
By
Briar, at 12:27 PM
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