Being that we are now counted among the empty nest population, our trips to the grocery store have become less frequent and eating out is now more the case. I have promised my wife that if we ever win the lotto, I would remodel the house to fit her every need, a bathroom I would never set foot in and a fast food pick up window in the driveway. Naturally, this would eliminate the need for a kitchen which I used to leverage for a larger garage. She said I can put my bathroom in there.
Yesterday evening we made what now works out to be about a once a month visit to the grocery store, restocking the essentials, milk, eggs, cereal (why does it still take me at least 10 minutes to pick a cereal?) paper products, shampoo, laundry soap,etc. These restocking visits, which usually ran above the $200 dollar mark, now come in between $90 - $110. So if I feel that I've been an extra good husband then I may want to purchase a mountain bike magazine some pork rinds and a 6-pack of beer, for we now have the room in our budget.
I do however, take advantage if something is on sale, like say, toilet paper. Granted there are only two of us in the house now but you can count the rolls on the shelf in the bathroom and find that we have a total of 36 rolls. Actually, I try to maintain an inventory of 20 rolls, but this was a good sale price.
Maybe some of you consider this, excessive ? For me, it is now the yardstick by which my financial security is measured. See, back just a few years ago, things were pretty tough for us, and every month there I was, trying to re-enact the fishes and loaves thing, only with my paycheck and the bills.
On more than one occasion we had run out of toilet paper and it usually happened right between pay checks and grocery runs. Course of action? Find all the coin possible, night stand, in the car, in the kids room, you know, everywhere. I never bothered to look in the couch cushions because, well, we never had money in our pockets so logic would tell you that there wasn't going to be any in the cushions. After finding just enough, and then, not wanting to waste gas driving to the market, I'd walk to the 7-11 and purchase a roll. That's right, I said, a roll ! Sure it was kinda weird, but at 7-11, weird is the norm. Walking back with my one roll of toilet paper I would resolve myself to never have to do this again, but a few months later there we are scrounging for change to go buy a roll of toilet paper. You can see how this experience would lead me to think of this now as a measure of financial security.
Both of my parents were old enough to have experienced the Great Depression,and, at an impressionable age. They also were quick to tell me that, even afterwards, when everyone was working again (thank you World War II) it was still a tough time. They were a young married couple with small children, my dad working in the shipyards of Long Beach and my mom working for some appliance manufacturer, or was it the hot dog company. Anyways, as they recanted those times, I never recall hearing them say how they had to starve for a couple of days, or how they had to go without heat. They just said, "Things were hard back then and we did what we had to do to make ends meet."
Hey mom, was toilet paper ever an issue? I think my mother would have fainted if I had ever asked that of her.
Yes, things were hard then as they are hard now, relatively speaking. And guess what? It doesn't look like it's getting any easier, but, I am at peace knowing that I have enough toilet paper in my house and I don't have to go to 7-11 for anything more than a Slurpee or a hot dog.
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