Picture this…
I walk into my kitchen to find my husband slaving away on the stove making homemade Jambalaya, with two kids running around the kitchen. He is in a great mood and so proud of his accomplishment! I walk in and look at what he is about to put into the oven, and I ask him “Did you use the fresh or canned tomatoes?”. He answers “I used the fresh, that is what the recipe called for.” I answer, “Oh, those were for the salad and I have tons of canned. I never use the fresh when I do it.” Then I lean over it and it smells funny. I go to the fridge to find a box of Thai Curry Coconut Broth opened. My mind goes on overdrive. He didn’t use the Chicken Broth, he picked up the Curry Coconut Broth and used it instead. I FREAK OUT, asking him what he did! He says he must have picked up the wrong thing, and that it will be okay, we will just eat it like that. I immediately shoot back…”What???? It is inedible, here let me have it, I’ll fix it!”
So, what is wrong with this picture? Oh, how long I could go on…
To say I am ashamed while writing this is an understatement. Instead of walking in and being grateful, appreciative, and thankful for a wonderful and helpful husband and his efforts, I was ungrateful, rude and just plain tacky. Yes, he messed up the meal, but all I could think of was the time and money he wasted on that dish. Ding, Ding, Ding.
Having a mind set of saving money is – in my opinion – a very important thing. Do you agree? But is it so important that I have the right to treat my husband the way I did above? Of course not. I wanted to post this little incident to drive a point home. I am not shirking responsibility, but I am sure I am not the only one who has acted out my fear of wasting money in an inappropriate way.
I want to encourage you to keep your priorities and goals of saving money in line with your value system. I value my family way more than saving a few dollars, and sometimes I need to be reminded of that. I don’t do this often, but I hope I never do anything like this again.
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So how about you? Do you have a funny story to share of how you let your priorities get out of wack when trying to save money? It doesn’t have to be as outrageous as mine, or maybe it is more so. Show us all how human you are…and please give us a little laugh :).
Image Source: Flickr
oh my friend….I can so relate….we ARE twins. My hubby actually went to Harris Teeter and did Triple coupons for me when I was out of town. What man in the world does that and instead of being SO grateful, I gave him a tutorial on what he did wrong. Shameful, I know. I had to come back, ask for forgiveness and make sure he knew he was the most awesome hubby in the world for tackling that.
I believe that to save money you must be in the correct mindset at all times. This allows you to never slip up. Don't consider spending a little bit here and there because it just leads to more
Thank you for posting this. I have been dealing with this same issue lately of making sure I have my priorities straight. It's so easy for me to be quick to judge and justify my actions with the excuse that I am trying to save our family money. In the meantime, I have not shown my husband appreciation and respect. Although I am sure that it is hard to post something like this, please know that it is helpful for me to hear that other frugal women deal with the same kinds of issues.
I razz my hubby for throwing away boxes w/ boxtops for education still attached. It's a DIME for crying out loud. 😉
Thanks for such wise reminder Kelly. I am guilty of doing this and I have the most wonderful and helpful husband. I need to let him know more.
Funny might not be the word for this story but the point is the same. So my husband and I are new to Dave Ramsey's evelope system, and just yesterday I mentioned that I will need to send some flowers to the funeral home for a very distant family member who passed away. However, instead of being concerned about what had just occured, my husband and I debated for 15 minutes over which evelope the money for the flowers should come out of. We both felt horrible afterwards for being more concerned about “where” the money should come.
Glad for your honesty…helps us to own up to our own faults. We all four had the stomach thing last week. I got sick before my husband fully got recovered and he got right up and helped with everything. I've made some mistakes in the past apparently cause when I got back up and went to the kitchen a couple of days later, all the dirty dishes were carefully stacked in one side of the sink. “I knew you'd rearrange anything I put in the dishwasher, so I just put them all here.” My quick comeback was “We need a dishwasher lesson!” Really? Could I just not be happy he got up and helped me through my illness? On my way home now to make this one right!
Same here! I catch my self trying to correct what he did wrong instead of praising him for trying to make my load easier!
As far as the saving issue goes, I almost don't want anyone to use my precious money saving deals I got! I try to store them up and show them off instead of using the darn stuff and being sane about it! It's like a job for me, I guess and when it starts dwindling down… I don't know, maybe I'm just nuts! lol
Thanks for sharing though, I have sooo been there! This is a great reminder of a couple things – gratefulness and perspective.
Dian
Ha ha! 🙂 My husband usually eventually figures it out on his own…so then I can sort of snicker to myself! 😉
Happened to me last night too! I was so angry when he brought home “rib-eyes” that were “on sale” at an organic market. We migth as well had gone out to eat. Talk about the humble pie I too had to serve. Thanks for the post.
Ha ha! 🙂 My husband usually eventually figures it out on his own…so then I can sort of snicker to myself! 😉
Happened to me last night too! I was so angry when he brought home “rib-eyes” that were “on sale” at an organic market. We migth as well had gone out to eat. Talk about the humble pie I too had to serve. Thanks for the post.