The Sensitivity of Men

So, pretty much anyone that knows me knows that I am just about as frugal as can be. For example, yesterday I wanted some potato chips (yes, I know how bad they are for me… but sometimes you just need that salty goodness), but I just could not make myself spend over $2 on a bag of junk food. So, I stayed home, peeled and cut up three potatoes and made my own. Yes it took a lot more time than going to the store and buying my own, but a 10lb bag of potatoes costs like $1.50 on sale, so 3 little potatoes are super cheap… and when turned into potato chips they are also super yummy :)

Believe it or not, junk food is NOT the point of this post. That was just supposed to be an example of my frugalness to transition into this: Laundry.

Yes, we have an HE washer and dryer. It saves on water, electricity… The only real drawback to this is that the detergent for the washer is out of this world expensive… anyways, that is, again, not the point. The point is that we got this washer and dryer set because it is supposed to be saving us some cash, and I’m sure it is. However, this is of course not enough for me. Nope, I have to push everything to the frugal limit. So, I thought “HHmm… how can I make this whole laundry process cheaper for us?” Then it came to me: Line-drying.

Now, both Josh and I, at some point in our lives, have worn clothes that have been hung out to dry. Whether the hanging dry was due to a broken dryer or a mother’s preference for having clothes swinging in the breeze for all to see, I am not sure. Either way, Josh and I were not fans of this drying style when we were growing up. It seemed that hanging our nice soft clothes out to try sent them through some magical process in which they transformed into evil scratchy pieces of cardboard that attacked you as soon as you tried to put them on your body.

I however, was sure that I had matured passed the age in which line-dried clothes could affect me. So, I thought I would give this whole hanging dry thing a try. I didn’t tell Josh of course. I figured if he knew he would be sure to HATE the idea and be convinced from the start that all of his clothes were scratchy… So I decided not to inform him and see how he reacted when he put on his new more frugally dried clothing. I figured if he noticed and hated it I could just go back to putting his clothes in the dryer, and if he didn’t notice I could keep line-drying his clothes.

So, I hung the clothes out to dry, hung them up in our closet, and then forgot about the whole thing. Now, I did not just hang Josh’s clothes to dry, nope, I hung mine to dry as well. I went about a week or so wearing these line-dried clothes and I did not notice anything different at all. Like I said, I actually forgot that I had dried these clothes any differently than normal. Imagine my surprise when, this weekend, Josh asks me if we switched to a new fabric softener or if there is something wrong with our usual fabric softener. Confused, I told Josh that we don’t even use fabric softener (Our clothes are usually pretty soft on their own, and fabric softener leaves an annoying residue sometimes). Josh said, “Oh, well for the last few days my shirts have been really stiff and scratchy. I can’t figure out why.” At this point it all came back to me and I just started laughing. Josh of course had no idea why I was laughing and was sure I was laughing at him. I told him that I had hung the clothes to dry to find a new way to save money and I didn’t tell him because I figured if he didn’t know he wouldn’t notice a difference in his clothes. Josh laughed at my silly frugalness, pointed out that he did in fact notice all on his own, and then informed me that because we have an HE dryer, any amount of money that we would possibly save by hanging our clothes out to dry would be minuscule at most.

Well then, I guess it is back to the old drying routine and time to find a new way to save some cash (we are not destitute, I promise. I just feel like it is important for me to be in charge of us saving money since Josh is really the one who brings most of it in)… Funny how I didn’t notice the difference in my clothes though… Men must be more sensitive :)

-Kelley