Confessions of a disillusioned American housewife

Time to purge myself of the wasteful spending I have succumbed to recently.

An Apple iPhone! $423!!!!!



I don't know why I bought it. I stay at home, I don't need a cell phone at all, let alone a device like this one! I reasoned to myself that I could utilize it to organize myself to stay on track thus being more frugal.

I vow to try harder to avoid getting sucked into the allure of these gadgets. There should be a 12 step program for people like me, I swear.

This housewife attempts tangling with a clothesline

Spring is here! The first green buds of spring are gracing us here in northwestern Pennsylvania. There's no better inspiration to start line drying our laundry. Though I admit my spoiled ass has never done it before, I am attempting to string up a clothesline and force myself to use it consistently. I'm being realistic in saying it will be hard for me to keep up with it because I'm lazy (seriously) but I guess we'll see how it works out for me. Just another baby step on my journey of getting back to basics... mostly for frugality's sake as well as for the environment.

Update with pictures to follow!

Credit Bandwagon Crash

We lost our 4 bedroom brick house to foreclosure last summer. Our home is now a 3 bedroom trailer on the in-law's property. Cost per month, $0 (other than what we give his parents as a token of appreciation). We also filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy to get out from under about $100,000 of debt.

Do I blame Wall Street?

Nope! I blame ourselves for living above our means, poor financial planning and wasteful spending. No excuses. We allowed ourselves to get pulled onto the same "buy now pay later-a-plenty" bandwagon that has caused this country's lowly financial state today.

Voluntary simplicity written by a student of Gandhi..so much truth in one paragraph

"Voluntary simplicity involves both inner and outer condition. It means singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, as well as avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our energy and our desires, a partial restraint in some directions in order to secure greater abundance of life in other directions. It involves a deliberate organization of life for a purpose. Of course, as different people have different purposes in life, what is relevant to the purpose of one person might not be relevant to the purpose of another....The degree of simplification is a matter for each individual to settle for himself." ~ Written by Richard Gregg in 1936 a student of GANDHI

Is corporate America trying to turn your manly man into a girly boy?

Guys Gearing up for Glitter


Alright ladies, my carpenter husband is probably one of most manly, meat and potatoes-type men I know. It is alright with me that corporate America is marketing body wash to him. He has been a faithful user of the Axe body wash line for men since advertisers lured him into the idea that if packaged in a studly way, gel body wash is acceptable for heterosexual men these days.

That being said, his last body wash purchase really surprised me. The gel he pulled out of the bag looked like the same brand & bottle he's used to buying, but upon closer inspection contained what I can only describe as tiny sparkles! I can see by reading the label it is now called Axe Shock. (Um, tell me about it) The "sparkles" are supposed to be beads of deep sea mint meant for something or another.

Come on Unilever Company, all that glitters definitely is not gold. What is big business trying to pull by switching up my man's body wash for what looks like girlish glitter gel? Is this one step closer to marketing men's makeup and many-hose? My message to corporate America, leave my man's meat and potatoes alone!

Leaving the Buick in the driveway and trying out my feet

My oldest daughter has a doctor's appointment this afternoon. What I would normally have done is just hop in the Buick and drive the 8-10 blocks. Today I have decided to try out my feet! Benefits I expect are saving gas money (Well over $3/ gallon!!), I will be saving Mother Earth the abuse of pollution caused by driving said car and lastly, the girls and I will enjoy the time outside.

Gasonline...did you know?

Did you know Americans spent approximately 1.1 Trillion dollars on gasoline last year? That's almost 3 billion dollars every single day of the year! What we in America spend on gas in JUST ONE DAY would feed EVERY starving person in the WORLD for 15 days!