I suck at journaling. So why a blog?

Image from nydailynews.com

Beats me. I’ve sucked at journaling all my life. Picked up a blank book, gotten really diligent about writing in it for several weeks, then drifted away. I’ve started and abandoned at least a dozen journals this way, then beat myself up for a slacker each time. My undiagnosed ADHD butts heads with my undiagnosed OCD.

So what’s different now? A little more focus, a little more motivation. A nifty notepad computer, courtesy of my sister Colleen, that I can tote around and key in stuff wherever I grab me some wi-fi. Plus I’ve been blogging without realizing it on my Facebook page. I dunno. If this page drops off the radar in a few weeks, you’ll know I haven’t yet mended my errant slacker ways. We’ll see.

About the blog title: I was frugal when frugal wasn’t cool, before the current day when broke is the new rich. Frugality is the song of my people. My folks practiced it, mostly because of six kids in the family. And I’d like to believe that my Scots roots have a wee bit to do with it as well. I’ll obsess over big significant purchases waaaaaay more than most people will.  So maybe I’m just a cheap-ass?

My ex-wife was a frugal Jedi master: her tightwad nature put mine to shame. We threw nickels around like they were manhole covers. We ate store brands galore. I loved the bit on “Roseanne” when Roseanne was giving shopping lessons to her daughter Denise’s home-ec class: advising them to buy just one box of name-brand cereal, then keep the empty box and pour in some budget bagged cereal of the same type. “Nothing but second-best for MY family!”

Despite all that, with certain items I always buy the name brand. Ketchup. Cola. Coffee. Beer. TP. Toothpaste. Everybody has stuff they won’t compromise on, and those are mine. And already I can hear the responses: don’t you know that the store brands are exactly the same as the name brands? The story goes that “they” run them on the same lines in the same factories, just slap a different label on, and there you are. I call shenanigans on that theory. Why would Heinz spend billions of dollars on recipes, procurement, production, infrastructure, labor, promotion, marketing, and copyright infringement – – just to let Cub or Rainbow or Safeway or Kroger fill some bottles with the same stuff, label them as “Our Very Own Ketchup,” and plunk them on the shelves? Store brands are not identical to name brands. It’s a rationalization.

So, name-brand ketchup only. Certain items in your home, anyone’s home, must always be top-shelf. Hence the name of this blog. (“Yeah! Hence!”) And I hope also to put you onto some top-shelf things that you may not already know about. We’ll see.