When The Murph and I were children, one of the many things we had in common was our parents telling us to "make things last." My mom went to the grocery store every other week to purchase food and snacks and it had to last until the next time she went. She never made extra trips. Grocery shopping was every other Saturday, period.
Even though The Murph's mom went to the store every week, they had a house full of growing boy's so one package of cookies rationed three ways didn't last very long. Therefore, snack foods purchased (if they were purchased at all) had to last until the next time mom went to the grocery store or you did without.
Personally, to me this was tough. The first week we had limited snacks. The second week, the pantry was barren. Combine this with the fact my mom liked to cook gross stuff for dinner like liver and onions, hamburger helper and macaroni and cheese with diced spam and you can see how my childhood culinary experiences were very traumatic.
For years she told me and my brother that the liver was actually steak so we would eat it. It wasn't until I was in first grade that I discovered the truth about the "steak". It wasn't steak at all. It was an organ that came out of a cow. Ick! I felt so deceived!
Where is all of this going, you ask. I don't know except for the fact that now The Murph has decided that I need to ration out my animal crackers so they will last until the next time we go grocery shopping. He suggested I count the animal crackers in the teddy bear container and divide that number by 7 so I will know how many I can eat per day to "make them last."
Suddenly, I'm being thrust back to the horrific days of liver steak and spam and hamburger helper. The days where one package of Oreo's or Chips A'hoy and a box of Pebbles or Lucky Charms were purchased on Saturday and expected to last until Saturday two weeks later, but never made it past Wednesday of the first week. The only things we kids considered worth eating were gone in half a week.
Oh, the suffering! I need some serious counseling sessions now because of it. When I became an adult and was on my own, I vowed to never sacrifice like this. The only time I would sacrifice like this was when I refused to eat anything because I thought I was too fat. Once I started eating again, I didn't "make things last" if I wanted to eat them right away. No way! If cookies purchased on Saturday ran out on Wednesday, I purchased more if I wanted too. Maybe a different kind, but cookies (or whatever ran out) just the same.
The Murph knows this and is only doing this to torture me for fun. He is just like me when it comes to food, except he's not into cookies. He doesn't make things last anymore than I do. I've never seen him counting out how many beers he can drink per day to make his last until the next time we go to the store. I would just love to see him make those two 12 packs of beer he purchases at the grocery store last for an entire week.
The beer guy can attest to the fact that this doesn't happen. We've had at least three extra runs to the beer store just this week.
I will make a deal with The Murph. I will make my animal crackers last for the week if he will make his beer last for the entire week. This is the only way because I'm not counting all those animal crackers in that giant teddy bear container any time soon. Besides the fact that it is the end of the week and I still have cookies left.
Deal?
I didn't so!
UPDATE: My mom just informed me that it was NOT spam in the mac and cheese. It was corned beef. Sorry mom!
She reminded me that she did, however, feed us bar-b-cued spam. Double Ick mom!
