It’s taken me 4.5 years, but I am creeping curiously close to Post #1000! Whoa Nelly! 285 of which (plus a few) have all been created in 2008… I have Blog 365 to thank for that, as well as the rather unhealthy “bent” in my personality, that professionals refer to as… “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”. Is there “Selective OCD”? Because there are areas of my life I do not obsess over: doing bills, returning phone calls and emails, dusting, vacuuming, or things that may require planning or commitment.
If my math is correct, I could hit post #1000 on January 1st. But I hate math. You do it. 1 post a day through the end of the year - 80 days left… Ouch. Just typing numbers make my head feel like it’s gonna crack wide open. *gagging*
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Hey - how is the market affecting you? Have gas prices gagged your purse strings? I’m curious. Are you making different choices for your family? Cutting back? Will you keep your house colder this winter? Do you make your own lattes? Stocking up on socks, are you? Growing an extra layer of body hair, perhaps??? I hear large sea mammals (such as the walrus) have lots of blubber that keeps them warm…
I find I am tolerating a colder home, working harder to make food at home, drive less, I am thinking harder about purchases, PB&J & refried beans are more and more often a viable option for multiple meals in a row… but the most unfortunate result of this economic crisis is: my roots are horrible! Oh the travesty!!!
I am going to be sporting the grunge look a few weeks longer than is socially acceptable. Keeping up one’s roots, while important, is VERY expensive. Wall Street doesn’t even talk about this kind of stuff. Real sacrifices for real people. We bloggers, we keep it real… we keep it on the level. WE are the social media, and I feel it’s time I said something!!! The economy is affecting my hair, people!
Don’t bother asking a woman how the market is affecting her/her family… just look at her roots…. just look at her roots.
Go ahead. Laugh… but mark my words… Mark. My. Words. The roots… you will find your answer at the roots.
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Keep up-to-date on the insane, the insightful, and the whatever…
hehehehe. We have also had to tighten up our belts. I don’t go out and run errands anywhere close to what I use to. One or two days a week. That’s it. No matter how tired I am, I try to cram it into one day.
We are also watching how much we go out to eat, which is good anyway considering I am trying to lose weight!
And today we fired up the wood stove for the first time. We want to try to avoid using the propane heater as much as we can.
Yes. My roots are also oddly not matching the rest of my hair! And it is changing so much tht we do (and don’t do). I think my kids are sick of me talking about how much everything costs. The biggest thing it will effect is college next year for my two seniors.
We are on total austerity. No unnecessary expenditures. Art’s stocking up on free wood and we’re trying to decide if we should keep the pool chlorinated over the winter. No more Starbucks. Now it’s brewed and Coffeemate for me. I don’t have roots though, so I got that going for me.
I died my hair back to my natural color (as best as I could remember that is) in order to save some money. I did this MONTHS ago and am now even happier for making that decision.
One thing that I am enjoying is that the pressure is off to have EVERYTHING!! It’s suddenly okay to say “nope, better not buy that”. I don’t know about where other people live but there was just this whole culture of “everyone can have everything they want”. I live with a husband who has never bought into keeping up with the Joneses (and for a girl who secretly grew up wanting to be a Jones it really forces me to be a a little deeper - it’s so agghhh, ouch). We all know that buying things does not makes us happier or more fulfilled and I think the economy crisis will remind us of this (if we haven’t already dug such a hole that it causes real problems)
JMHO
Lisa
Yes, I am stockpiling an extra layer of blubber, it’s working well and is very easy to do.
I am right there with you Kerry. I cut my hair short in order for my roots to not look as bad. My highlights had grown WAAAAY out. Horrible, sad stuff.
We are also driving less and grilled cheese sammiches & Bush’s baked beans are our multiple meals in a row. However, so far, the temp in my home remains the same. It’s still hot here and I can’t bear to be hot. Our good friend Stacey, of JameeForever, had a church friend who came up with Live Simply so others can Simply Live motto. We are living simply, simply to live.
But the hair? The hair makes me cry.
Driving less isn’t really an option here with the kids involved in so much. We do carpool more though and that’s a plus. As for eating at home, we do mostly organic foods and with all the crappy food places out there that can sell you junk for cheap, it costs more to eat at home! (But I’m okay with that because health is more important to me than cheap.)
The main thing we have cut back on is birthday parties. This time of year is completely crazy due to all of the family birthdays and though Andy is doing a little something special for my 30th (since we don’t really ever do anything for us adults birthday-wise) we have cut way back on the girls’ parties. And I’m already stocking up at Costco, Ross, ect. for Christmas. Along with trying to think of more crafty Christmas ideas…which makes me think…hmmm…you just gave me an idea for a blog!
My roots are taking the same hit as yours. Roots Unite!
Have you checked out Bossy’s Daily Pity Party? We joined over at 3giraffes (see post on this Monday am). I’m thinking this post was perfect for Bossy’s Party.
I’m male and while I still have a full head of (thining) hair, to my wife’s disgust I’m not even graying yet. No roots.
We are planing on keeping the house much colder this winter. 60 vs 68. What we have done is bought electric heaters for my wife’s office, mine, the dining room and the master bath. The kitchen stays pretty warm all by itself, the stove has 9 pilot lights and I put a cheap stock pot filled with water over two of the hot ones. That also acts as a humidifier. If we need it warmer or have guests we will heat more, but we don’t use much of the house. We have an HDTV and a small couch in her office, so that will be where we are of an evening.
We try and not use her truck unless we need a truck. My car gets far better milage, but I bought it for that.
We do almost all of our own food. We buy in bulk and I fabricate meat and freeze it. Your baked beans are cheaper than Bushs. I’ll be starting to do my own bread again. I realize it is hard for both of a couple to work and raise children and still avoid fast food or prepared food, but it can be done and it is far cheaper and healthier than the alternative.
We haven’t really made too many changes. I do use more coupons and I work from home as much as possible so a tank of gas can generally last me a little over a week!
What will save me a TON of money is when my husband finally comes home next month (he’s been in school for 8 months) and we don’t have to support two households!
Ok, not to sound all hoity or anything, but the hubster and I have been discussing this for years and frankly have been surprised that it has taken so long to play out. So now, we’re doing the same old thing, just trying to be cool and not get all crazy.
We’ve been living lean for a long time so no major changes for us…I have, however, discovered Nice n Easy root touch up and was pleasantly surprised to find that it works! A friend who is a hairdresser turned me on to it. Give it a whirl…
The roots and the toes, baby. No more flip flops for me for a while.
My lovely highlights are a thing of the past. I’ve waited three weeks longer than I normally do to get my haircut (I was going every five weeks b/c it’s a short ‘do). I think I’m gonna have to go back to letting it grow out just b/c of the money thing.
We’ve also tightened out belts considerably with regards to eating out (our entertainment of choice). And have been taking walks in the evenings with the kids more. They miss going to the park as often as we used to b/c of gas prices, but we have a swing set so they aren’t totally deprived. The Calm One and our sons play a lot more football in the backyard than ever before.
Wish I could post a picture of my roots in your blog comments. Yep, the root color certainly matches the eye brows.
Roots unite!! I am with ya sister.. Bastards do they know what they are doing to us women?? Priorities people :)