Please believe me when I say that I am not that kind of a person. In fact I'd consider myself very mellow. You need to be when you're as frugal as I am.
In any case, here are some of my favourite everyday simple pleasures in life.
10.Eating with chopsticks
Forks & knives are so monotonous. Does anyone else out there get bored of them?
It's nice to mix it up once in a while & have something different. Chopsticks are the cure for that. They are also good when you have food that you've seared or sauteed lightly & don't want to jab with a fork & inadvertently squish/dejuice. Props to chopsticks.
9. People who really love their job
I work in the same building as a Cole's bookstore in downtown Winnipeg. The people who work at this book store are AMAZING! They truly love books & I can give them any abstract theme or vague description of something I've heard of 8 years ago by an unreliable source & they'll know what it is! Going down there & interacting with them really makes my day. Now if only I could learn to read...
Aside from the Cole's employees, I think a positive attitude from a waiter, flight attendant, bank teller, sales associate or bus driver is infectious! I wish I could tell you about my work experience dealing with the public because BOY OH BOY do I have stories. Safe to say that it is challenging to keep your sanity. Kudos to you positive people!
8. Pedicures that stay on forever
Ladies, do you manicures stay on? Mine don't.
They will start to chip that day if not immediately. So how is it that nail polish on toes stay on forever? Whatever the reason, I don't mind. It truly makes my day to look down at my toes & see a beautiful, perfect paint job when I haven't been in a salon for a month. This not only appeals to me on an aesthetic level but is thrilling to me as a cheapskate who only has to shell out the cash & go to the chop shop to get their toes down once every 2 months.
7. Turning the heat up
Did I mention that I am cheap?
We keep our thermostat at 20 degrees when we are home & 18 degrees when we are not. I also keep us on a monthly metered hydro bill instead of a 12 month payment plan because I like to know exactly what we're consuming & get a better idea of what the old house is siphoning away.
As if there isn't anything better than getting home after a cold jaunt outside, I THOROUGHLY enjoy cranking that furnace up a whole two degrees! BAAAAALLA!
6. Waking up before your alarm
I have a debilitating fear that I have forgotten to set my alarm & that I am sleeping in for work.
I also recognize that I am obsessive compulsive & haven't been late in two years. That being said I will roll out of bed just to check my clock & appease the paranoid little spazzes in my head. There is nothing better than being worried that you're late, but finding out that you still have an hour to sleep Ahhhh...
I ran this by a friend at work who disagrees because as soon as he gets up to check his alarm, he can't get back to sleep. The poor, pathetic sap.
5. Doing laundry in a house
This one is for all my friends in apartments.
I know your pain. I lived in a 3 story walk-up with laundry machines in the basement & it was brutal.
Up & down the four freaking flights of stairs. Once to bring down the two loads (separate trips, as with groceries, are for newbs), one to change the load and one to bring them all back, and that's assuming the machines are available.
All of this also has to be perfectly timed lest you go too late & disturb people or lest someone else be waiting to use your machine & moves all of your clothes.
There is light at the end of this tunnel. The light is in buying a house. I know have a 2 & 1/2 story house with laundry in the basement, but these stairs are considerably shorter. I also now having the luxury of potentially getting up at 3:00 am to put the laundry in & no one gives a crap. I can leave shit in the dryer for a week.
For the record though, when the machines break I can't call a service line & forget about it. Yeah, that's a downer.
4. Nailing a new recipe
I usually bomb something the first time I try to make it. Such as the pumpkin cheesecake I tried to make last month that just turned in to pumpkin flavoured sludge with cream cheese balls.
But occasionally, you try something new & it is just about the best thing EVER. This is especially wonderful when it's a recipe with complicated ingredients that you had to go out of your way to get.
If you are bored one day, you should take a look through some of the pages out there dedicated to Pinterest fails (including cooking):
Buzzfeed
Huffington post
3. Accidentally leaving the gate open & the dog doesn't leave the yard
This has never happened in my household so I couldn't comment. I'm sure it's awesome to have a good dog though.
2. Uploading new songs on your I-phone/I-pod/MP3 player
Ever get in to one of those funks where you get so tired of the bazillion & one songs on your playlist & just end up listening to 'What makes you beautiful' on a loop for an hour? Enough said.
A new & revised playlist just makes me wanna break-out in to dance on my walk to work on Portage Avenue, it's OK though, I'll fit right in!
1. Coupon codes
Mother-effer-jones I love me some coupon codes.
I'm a believer in delayed gratification.
If I see something I want, I wait to see if I still find it amazing after a couple of weeks. After that I tell Mr. Ford what I want & wait to see if he is opposed to it or can talk me out of it. I then go through flyers and/or look online.
Usually you can find a better deal online (given you've checked shipping & handling & duty fees).
I'm usually feeling proud of myself at that point for restraining myself,comparing prices & having found one with reasonable (or preferably no) shipping costs. You must then go searching for a coupon code.
It's as simple as pulling up google & typing in 'X Coupon code' or 'X promo code'.
There is inevitably more sifting to do to find a decent code. The coupon value will never reduce the price drastically but I will usually knock off any shipping I've committed to or get anywhere between five & twenty percent off. And in my books, there's no shame in doing ten minutes of research to save $20.00.
It would rot my soul to have to shop online without looking for a coupon code. If you haven't ever looked for a coupon code, START. I've saved money on everything from hotel rooms, to airfare to NHL gear to furniture. If you don't care about saving money...well then, I don't even know if we can be friends...
No comments:
Post a Comment