Before last week’s layoffs I wanted to make mincemeat tarts and even have mincemeat in the pantry, but my muffin tins are in storage half a country away. Before, I would have bought muffin tins. Now, I won’t.
We’ll work our way through the frig, freezer and pantry as that’s what people do when there’s no income and expenses remain the same. I don’t know that I can get it down to $10/day but that was years ago. Maybe $15? That’s just grub.
My husband bought me a fur Cossack hat before Christmas and it doesn’t fit and I’d love to send it back and get the money but he says no. That was before.
I bought him $12 worth of undershirts for his birthday before Christmas. He bought me the hat. Zoe our dog bought me a $20 heater for the guest bathroom so I could take a bath as that room is not properly insulated. It’s where she gets a bath, too, so was not entirely a gracious gift.
Luckily we didn’t spend more than $200 on Christmas, including filet mignon for dinner, or take a vacation. Now that vacation time for three years is in the bank we just have to sign our lives away to get two weeks severance pay.
After that and insurance issues, the before is over, and our next step is 100% of our work and concentration. That’s what we strive for. As for me, I don’t ever want to think that I could afford a muffin tin yesterday, but not today.
I see the ceo of this company, $3 million dollars richer as of a week ago, cashing in stock before it plummeted and he canned 25% of IT staff and know that he’ll go about life without a care, while 57 families know their health insurance runs out at the end of the month and they only get 1-2 weeks severance. Also that in this economy and city it can’t absorb these layoffs.
We must look toward the future for ourselves and for those my husband has been taught by, and those he mentored, over the years. If I was in his field, (and not his wife) I’d like to learn best practices from him. There’s a reason MIT tagged him at age 15. He was living on a dairy farm and didn’t know what those initials meant but was in AP classes and driving his math teachers crazy, questioning everything.
After will be a good place, perhaps not in the mountains but somewhere we can thrive. In-between is the toughest place. Don’t worry, except you may hear from me more sporadically until we get settled. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 