Drizzle and Hail

Frugality means managing inconveniences
To live a frugal life, you have to decide whether avoiding a minor inconvenience is worth a certain amount of money. A frugal person is usually willing to endure a moderate level of inconvenience to avoid spending money.

My car's front passenger door doesn't open from the outside. This is a minor inconvenience and I would rather not pay to have it fixed. This morning, however, the front passenger door didn't open from the front or back. To get in, I had to climb into the back driver side seat, reach up to push open the front passenger side door, then crawl in from there to the front driver side seat.

This would be too great an inconvenience to do every time I drove. Furthermore, the car doors only have keyholes on the front doors; if I accidentally locked the doors, I would then be locked out of the car (with potentially my son locked in). That can't stand.

Luckily, the ice melted as I drove for a while and the front driver's side door opens from inside and outside.

Shopping and Gender
I do a lot of grocery shopping, and I spend a lot of time in produce sections. This weekend, I was in a grocery store in a small town. There was a man selecting tomatoes, and I went next to him to start selecting roma tomatoes. A female employee started saying "Oh, it's good to see men here shopping. You must have been given a 'Honey Do' list. Are you preparing supper tonight? Well, if you need any help, just let me know."

I completely ignored this woman rather than launch into a tirade of "Hey, despite whatever gender stereotypes you have, I buy a whole lot of produce myself. I check the quality of a lot of fruit and vegetables. I know what I'm doing. If you ever go to an auto parts store, do you expect a male employee to say 'Oh, look, a woman buying car parts. Your husband must have sent you up here to get something. Well if you have no idea what you're doing and you need me to help you, just let me know'? No, you'd probably feel demeaned. So don't assume that because I'm some oaf of a fat and hairy man that I can't pick out my own fresh vegetables."

Frugality Tip
Avoid ever buying anything that requires you to tip a person. Usually you can get such items on your own without leaving a tip.

Stupid Commercial
You know that commercial where those people buy movie tickets, and it's 8:59 and they all have to hurry to get in by 9:00? What's the deal with that? If it's like any movie theater I've been too, you've got time. There are some commercials and some previews. You'll be fine people.

Now, even as I say this, I am a desperately punctual person that hates above just about anything else being late. I often get to movie theaters 15 minutes or more early, and I start to feel rushed and panicked if I'm not sitting in my seat with at least 10 minutes before start time, before the previews have started. And I limit my fluid intake and go to the bathroom several times before the movie starts. But I don't go to movies in the theater anymore anyway because I have a one year old--I just wait for Netflix.

Anyway, that last paragraph was all about my own neuroses, but seriously, that commercial is stupid.