COUPONS 101

I do the grocery shopping for our house. I plan the meals, I check the sales paper, and I make the list. I got this. I even use those eco bags, too. I have a system. It may not be very practical, but it works for me. I usually go Monday mornings and I start in produce. I usually have my list memorized (which is good because I forget it in the car half the time) so I only look at the list when I think I’m done. I get in, I shop quickly, and I get out.

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MANLY THYME

With my house being in total chaos now, my main goal is to get it back to normalcy as soon as possible.  Having a blow-up mattress in the middle of the living room (actually, the mattress is the living room) is starting to cramp my style.  And it’s making me very lazy.  The other day Ellie and I spent the entire afternoon in “bed” watching TV.  I even fed her dinner in bed.  I ate mine there as well.  A bite for you, a bite for me.  My cooking situation has been pretty minimal, too.  And then there’s the laundry.  We’vebeen living out of a laundry basket in the dining room for two weeks.  I wore mismatched socks the other day because I couldn’t find a pair that matched.

All of my “domestic” chores were piling up, but I really couldn’t do them because of the renovation project.  And I couldn’t really work on the renovation project until the weekend.  So I decided it was time to send Ellie to grandma’s house so I could get a start on my “manly” chores by working on the house.

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READY, SET, MOW!

Sun plus rain, rain and more rain. Which means it’s time to mow the lawn!

I’m one of those sick people who likes to cut the grass. I always have. As a kid, once I took over the job from my brother, I made it my own. It was serious business. The care of the lawn was in my hands. It was my chance to have some influence in the house. To make a difference. To show that, I, the youngest of the family, was responsible. I could not only be trusted with this task, but I’d be the best at it. (Or maybe I was just a lonely kid with nothing better to do and this was something to focus my energy on.)

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TRASH TO CASH

I’ve never had my own garage sale before. I’ve only helped out my folks a little bit when they had one. The thought of having a garage sale made me want to puke. It sounded like a big hassle and way too much work. I’d rather just donate the things that had some value and pitch the rest. And with Aya being Japanese, the whole garage sale concept was completely foreign to her. “People sell their old junk? And there’s people who pay money for it!?” But last fall my parents held a garage sale and we included a few items of our’s after we cleaned the basement, and we made forty bucks! Feeling that cash in my hands felt great and I wanted more. If we made forty bucks just selling that small amount of junk, how much could we make if we cleaned out the garage, the basement, and the kitchen!? We decided then that we would hold our own garage sale in the spring.

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CHEER UP, IT’S FRIDAY!

When I first started this stay-at-home gig, I was very regimented on how I did things.

Monday was grocery shopping day. Tuesday I would clean the house. Wednesday I’d cut the grass and do my outdoor chores. Thursday was laundry day, and Friday was left open for any miscellaneous activities. Also, on most days we’d have a long walk down by the river so Ellie could nap. And then during the afternoon, I’d throw her in the baby carrier while I started dinner. At the time, that was the only way to get her to fall asleep for her afternoon nap. So with all that, I made myself a pretty busy guy.

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