Happy Hump Day! yes, it's that day of the week. Doesn't seem like it should be with the shortened week, but it is. This always seems to happen when a holiday occurs. You forget that the first day of the week isn't Monday and thus you end up a day off the rest of the week. It usually takes me until about mid Saturday morning for it to finally dawn on me that it was a shortened week.
This is especially bad when it comes to weeks like Thanksgiving week. Being in the Navy, I tend to get the day after Thanksgiving off as well. This means that I end up with 4 days off straight. While I enjoy the lead up to it, I end up feeling as though I should be somewhere else on Saturday and walk around in a daze for hours until it finally sets in that I really don't have to be anywhere. I think my wife figured this out and has used it as an excuse to either schedule things or to take me shopping. Either way, I am able to skip the daze. Not that I don't like shopping or doing things with my wife, it just makes for a long day. In fact, I love doing things with my wife (I'm not just saying this because she is reading it, Hi Honey!, I really do enjoy spending time with her) and she is the one who hates shopping. I love window shopping (and the occasional purchase is good as well).
This brings me to a whole other topic. I must have the most non woman type wife in the world. I mean that in a good way. She hates spending money. The height of fashion for her is the sale rack at good will and as long as you can rig it to work it is still good. She balances me. I like to look halfway decent, can't stand it when things aren't performing or looking as well as when they were new, and love shopping. Since we actually have a savings account with money in it, you can guess who wins more often. The funny thing is, we both had similar backgrounds. Growing up, our clothes were either hand me downs, thrift store purchases, or garage sale finds. New meant we went into a store to buy it (you do have to go into a thrift store to buy it). We wore faded jeans because that's how they came (they faded naturally, we paid $2 for them while the stores had them for $50 new). When ripped jeans became the fashion we were excited, we were finally in style and we didn't have to pay outrageous sums of cash for new jeans, ours came "preventilated" (my dad's phrase) from the thrift store. Shopping meant that we were going out to get stuff we needed and that was it. I only got actual new stuff for Christmas and birthdays. It was the same for my wife.
So why is it that I like to spend money and my wife wants to hold on to it? I don't know. We both had lean times growing up, but when I had money I couldn't wait to spend it. She on the other hand held on to it. I really can't explain it and neither can she. I am glad she likes to hold onto stuff, it keeps me in check and makes it so we can have nice things (at least until the kids get a hold of them).
Yes, I sometimes complain about my wife's thrifty tendencies. Yes, I call her cheap every once in a while. Yes, we argue about money regularly. But I think that just helps me reign in my spending. I get the feeling that she complains about my spending ways just as much. She constantly reminds me that just because we have $50 in the account doesn't mean that we can go find a new knife for the kitchen (so I like cooking as well). I love her for it and maybe because of it. She carries a lot of weight around with the primary worry about money. I am usually unconcerned about the check book until I have a stack of receipts in my wallet. Add to that the ease of going to the store on my way home from work and, with out her, I would be up to my eyes in debt.
So I guess this Happy Hump day post has become a thank you to my wife. The humor may or may not be there, but this is what came out when I let my thoughts go free (I also appear incapable of sticking with a single topic, but maybe that's just ADD). Thank you for reading. Have a great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment