Mommy Life: Dishwasher Magic

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August 1, 2007 4:17 PM

Dishwasher Magic

My Loudoun Times-Mirror column 8/1:

My spend-and-save philosophy
"Nice dress, honey. Is it new?"

My usual answer to Tripp these days is, "Oh, no, I've had it for a long time." That's because I probably have. Since I've been on a losing streak, I've been buying smaller sizes on sale and using them to dream on.

So far my diet/motivation strategy has worked as I've whittled down from a size 22w to size 10.

My price-dodging serves well, too. When I come home with bags from Marshall's or Ross or Nordstrom's Rack (my personal favorite – I could spend days there) and Tripp raises an eyebrow, I tell him how much I saved rather than how much I spent.

It just feels better.

With Tripp and me coming up on 25 years of marriage (Jan. 2 – woo-hoo!), while it might appear that with 12 kids I've been quite busy spending money, I prefer to be remembered for a solid history of money-saving as well. I shop clearance racks and do my best – a la Tim Gunn on “Project Runway” – to Make It Work. I've dutifully marshaled up my receipts and deadlocked customer service lines to get the sale prices, which always seem to go into effect as I'm leaving Kohl's parking lot.

My most recent coup was redecorating two bathrooms and a laundry room – saving $3,000, while spending only $547.

To set the stage, you need to understand I am way too busy writing to decorate my home in typical Northern Virginia style. When we moved in, I spent a day reviewing paint colors – I'd always so admired the deep hues of my friends' walls – but grew impatient with the process and opted for creamy walls with white trim throughout the house.

But looking for something to keep my college guys busy at break time, I put them to work painting.

Which meant work for me as well – spending hours at Lowe's and Home Depot trying my darndest in unfamiliar territory to Make It Work.

One day, waiting for a can of paint to shake, I was multitasking – dreaming up my next blog entry while browsing the cleaning products – when my eyes lit on a product called Dishwasher Magic.

Let me tell you, I was in desperate need of dishwasher magic. Our well, I am convinced, draws up the hardest water known to man. In fact, driven to distraction by the speckled glasses rendered by my dishwasher, the week before I had gotten an estimate for installing a water-softening system. You guessed it: $3,000.

Now, here I was in a place I never frequent, finding my personal genie in a small white plastic bottle. I took it home and it worked – well, it worked like magic! I even threw one in my washing machine and my laundry started looking better, too.

The grandest feeling of all – next to having at least three small areas of my house that have transcended my basic color grid – was when Tripp asked the cost and I could proudly say, "Nothing at all. We actually saved $2,426."

And that's the truth.

I've been writing my Close to Home column at the Loudoun Times-Mirror for almost four years. It used to be biweekly, but now it appears the first Wednesday of each month in the GO! section. Very few are archived, but what there is can be found here.

Love,