I’ve been on a bit of a crusade to save energy and money lately – not out of choice, what with us being part of the nouveau pauvre and all this talk of economic recovery not having made an impression on my wallet yet.
The Panther, being from Yorkshire, is known to keep a firm grip on his money – or at least when it comes to anything that isn’t beer or processed food. But we have very different priorities when it comes to shaving a few quid off our monthly spend.
He’s forever going round turning off lights and plunging people into darkness. And, while he may have a point, before you can say “oi, put the light back on”, he’ll be standing by the fridge pondering some cheese in the glow of the open door.
Now this rips my knitting because I think the fridge should be shut as fast as possible after the cold food storage related business is concluded.
He thinks we wash clothes too often and that wearing them longer before washing would save money, I think this is false economy and the stains and grime would mean they’d have to be chucked out sooner. Plus we wouldn’t have any friends, but that’s a bit of a roundabout way of making economies.
I know he thinks hoovering is a waste of energy, but he knows better than to suggest this.
If it’s his turn to bring home the bacon (and whatever else is on the list for the supermarket) you can bet his bottom dollar he’ll have some yellow label goodies and other bargain basement treats in the shopping bag. While his bottom line is certainly smaller than mine (stop sniggering) I think it’s not money saved as a dozen just-about-out-of-date eccles cakes are not about to get scoffed before tomorrow on any day of the week.
And as for really cheap things the following conversation happens far too often here:
PoN (looking in dismay at shards of plastic or a blank screen) : “It’s broken.”
Me: “Oh.”
PoN: “It didn’t last long/ never worked at all.”
Me: “Maybe it’s not surprising because it was really cheap.”
PoN: “But it said on the tin it would do x, y and z.”
Me: Sigh.
His optimism is almost touching. However, it turns out he was right in one regard – leaving things on standby wastes money.
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