Apparently, I’m cheap.
January 14th, 2008I bought a new chair yesterday. Nothing special. Just this club chair from Target. My glider rocker, the very expensive one that Richard bought for me, just prior to giving birth to Dylan, was going to just collapse any day. I can't knit or spin without my chair. So in other words, this seating situation was reaching critical mass.
Last night while I'm sitting in my comfy new, inexpensive chair, my dad calls and asks how our day was, what did we do, yada yada. So I tell him about the new chair..
Dad: laugh, you bought a chair?
Me: Yep!
Dad: Not a new couch?
Me: Nope
Dad: You didn't find it on the side of the road?
Me: Nope
Dad: You didn't get it on that internet thingie you do?
Me: Nope
Dad: Your telling me you paid cold hard cash.. for furniture?
Me: laughing.. Yep!
Dad: So when are you buying a new couch?
Ok, I admit.. we need a new couch. Everyone knows that. But everyone also knows, I'm pretty cheap. Not so much cheap as frugal and insistent on "using up" what we have. Besides that, have you any idea the kind of abuse children inflict on furniture? Before I lay down cold hard cash, as my dad said.. I make damn sure I can't repair, or "make pretty" what we already have. I mean, my glider is the perfect example of this.. my kids ruined this chair. What was once a lovely soft cream color, turned gray. The original "floating on air" graceful glide of that cushy soft chair, one day turned into a loud, clunking, metal scraping wood, uncomfortable place to park my arse.
To get back on my main topic of knitting, I actually did some knitting in my new chair last night. I'm in the homestretch of the second Shibui Breeze basic sock, having turned the heel and completed gusset stitches while watching movies with Richard. For the interested they were Clerks 2 (predictable, boring) and Jackass 2 (hilarious, but stupid in that "boys are weird" kind of way.)
Lastly, back to my cheapness.. I'd have never paid the price on the Target website. I got it for half that price, in store. If the kids destroy it.. I won't cry.
Around a year ago on this day..
- Moving Day - 2006
January 15th, 2008 at 1:25 am
I like that chair! This is the year we are finally buying our first new couch — we have been waiting years for this…okay I have. We try to use our tax return for big House things..this year it’s a new stove and couch. I am SO excited to get one that hasn’t met the corner of a curb — er almost met one, and isn’t a futon.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:25 am
My dh has these two leather IKEA arm chairs that he purchased for his work office over 8 years ago. They still are in mint condition. Since his move to Madison, the chairs have been in the garage gathering dust and road salt from when I park my car. I bought one of them upstairs to my Master and now have a great little seat for knitting and spinning in front of the TV. I love repurposing and using up furniture too. And children are cruel to things they have not purchased. We have actual batting coming out of the sofa where they ripped the fabric. Ce la vie!
January 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I like the socks! I’m with you on the couch - ours has a sprung spring and stuffing coming out of one arm. Even the cover is threadbare. But I’m not buying a new one until the kids are older and the cat is dead!
January 16th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Love the new chair and the socks. My mother thinks we need a new couch too. No way, not yet, my kids still spill stuff everywhere and we have a puppy & 2 kittens. LOL! The couch is stained but otherwise in great physical shape….so tough tooties it will have to stick around.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Wow! Isn’t it nice to know you aren’t the only “cheap” woman around??? I agree with you and the other commenters. Sofas cost WAY too much to buy new while kids are in the house! Our first sofa lasted 16 years. Granted at the end you really couldn’t sit on it without your knees being about 12 inches higher than your butt. There were some god-awful stains and smells in it. But still….When we moved south, we left it and bought new furniture. Well, 2 kids, a dog and a puppy later and after only 7 years…We need new. But NO WAY!! I thought little kids were rough! Ha! Teenagers are AWFUL!! Talk about spilling stuff!! I swear the next time they are all over I am handing out sippy cups!! Don’t laugh!!!
January 16th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Great socks! Lucky Richard. I bet his feet will be nice and toasty.
Hey, I saw the link to a contest for a blender here: http://katieskiff.blogspot.com/ Thought I’d pass it along.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Ha - you are not alone in the frugal department. We’ve still got stuff we got used when we married 20 years ago. I call it wise management. And you deserved a new chair for all your careful, saving ways.
January 20th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I’m with you on being frugal on furniture, and we don’t even have kids in this house. I do need to find a new chair to knit/crochet in. The one I currently use has metal starting to poke through and it kills my back if I sit for any length of time at all.