And the day started out so promising!
I got up this morning to discover that my husband took my car to work today. On the surface, that may seem fairly insignificant, but the underlying meaning is quite profound. My car does not have air conditioning. Oh, it has it I suppose, but it doesn’t work on a hot day, which ultimately renders it fairly useless. But my husband’s car is wonderfully cold even on the hottest day. And he needs that air conditioning.
Atlanta traffic is the worst, and he works on the other side of town. He has a rather lengthy commute to get to work in the morning. It takes him over an hour to make the drive most days, so I can only imagine that he arrived at work uncomfortably hot and sweaty.
I didn’t have anywhere in particular to go, but it was a very hot day, and he didn’t want me to get overheated. And I found that to be one of the sweetest sacrifices anyone has ever made for me.
Sometimes it is the simple things that mean the most.
Being a coupon clipper is NOT a simple thing.
My sister has gotten me involved in something that should be illegal. Oh, it’s not. It’s perfectly legal to clip coupons and take them to the store, combining the weekly sales flyer with the coupons to save ungodly amounts of money. It should, however, have a disclaimer printed somewhere in the Sunday paper that this practice is highly addictive, and can cause marital disharmony.
After his one plus hour commute back home in the mobile oven, my husband met me for dinner at one of our favorite places—I know…only one week in and we’ve already cheated on our no restaurant rule, but it was a Friday night, and I was so good all week!
After dinner, I convinced him to accompany me to the local pharmacy to take advantage of the last night of the big sale. He didn’t really want to go, but I told him it was crucial that he select all of the items that were for the man of the house, as I was completely unsure of what he would want. He begrudgingly agreed, but after only a few minutes, he retired back to the car while I shopped.
My first stop was the shampoo aisle. The John Freida shampoos were on sale—three for $15, with a $5 store credit for buying them…AND…there were coupons in the paper for the same shampoos giving you $7 off! So essentially, I bought three large bottles of shampoo that normally run around $7 a bottle, for $1 each! Is there anyway someone could NOT be excited about that? AND I got $10 worth of tampons for $2, $25 worth of men’s deodorant for $6, toothpaste, woman’s razors (I lost track of my savings at this point) and assorted other things that I can’t even remember.
After checking out and paying for my treasures, I was hot and sweaty from running up and down the aisles seeking out savings, but my excitement was barely containable. I knew my husband would be so proud of me!
My husband was furious with me!
This store has only seven or eight aisles at the most. And they aren’t long aisles. It would seem completely impossible that I could have been in the store for over an hour.
It was not impossible, as it turns out.
I did take a little time deciding which of the numerous shampoo formulas would be the right one. And I couldn’t decide which of the men’s deodorants would be the best choice. I can never decide which razors I like best. And the toothpaste? Again, there are too many choices. To top it all off, the check-out lady had to re-ring the entire transaction after making a mistake in the computer system, but I was too excited by my savings to be annoyed.
My husband was decidedly not excited. My over bubbling of excitement on my savings did NOT rub off on him. When I tried to tell him how much I saved, he said he didn’t care.
I was momentarily shattered.
He didn’t care!
I’m still not quite over the slight, but I do sort of see his side of things. I’m sure it wasn’t fun sitting in the comfortably cool, air conditioned car for an hour while I scavenged like a rabid squirrel inside the local pharmacy. But in my mind, I’m still mulling over the fact that my husband loves me so much that he was willing to suffer two hours in an unbearably hot car, but he drew the line at waiting for an hour in an air conditioned one.
I guess I just don’t understand men…after all these years.
He says it’s just scary to watch a woman with OCD get hooked on something like couponing.
I don’t care what he says…I saved a total of $72 on less than $100 worth of purchases. I can’t wait to see what I can find in the grocery store tomorrow! But I might just have to leave him at home when I go.
Until the next time…I’ll be the crazy lady with two buggies, a wad of crumpled up coupons, and three sales flyers, pushing people out of the way at the local Publix!