Yikes! Sop told you about our drafts folder – dreaded drafts folder, he called it, and said it has become the slabbed equivalent of the roach motel with few ever making it back out.
Obviously, we needed a catch all; and, this is it – the blog equivalent of the place you toss all the plastic cups and tee shirts your kids bring home.
I wish we could offer Sunday Dinnah as I miss reading the fellowship enjoyed by those at the folo table.
However, with both of us working, this is strictly pot luck. If you have news and/or views to share on any topic, just put it in a comment here – it matters not that it has nothing to do with the issues we regularly cover here although that’s always an option.
For example, I’ve been dying to post about Hodding Carter’s Extreme Frugality series from Gourmet.
For years, Lisa had been telling me we were living beyond our means. “Please, please, Hodding, don’t buy that hand-carved black walnut countertop!” she’d implore. In fact, once she even kicked me out of the house for nine months in hopes that I’d wake up. But like that alcoholic who downs yet another Two-Buck-Chuck, I wasn’t ready. I knew that my next book was going to be an international bestseller and I felt entitled to live as did my father…
Here I was, though, finally seeing the raw truth. Our average combined income—drum roll, please—for the past decade had been … $41,000. Thanks to those heady days of refinancing, deft shuffling of credit-card debt, deceased grandparents, and a lucrative house sale, however, we had lived, year after year, as if we were making $120,000. Like 70 percent of our fellow Americans, we were living off our VISA cards with no means of paying them off any time soon. As a result, we had $75,000 in credit-card debt and owed $245,000 on a $289,000 house. What had I been thinking?
What he does about his problem is best described as carrying on – not in the way you might think if you’re not one of us or haven’t lived among us; but, carrying on as in Scarlett making a ball gown from the drapes of Tara.
Hodding’s Delta roots are holding well in Maine; and, it appears his writing is flourishing. Enjoy reading how his old south upbringing meets his new reality – and feel welcome to put anything you’d like on this table via comments below.
Extreme Frugality: Me and My Ruffed Grouse
Extreme Frugality: Starting Anew
Extreme Frugality: Supermarket Strategy