tropit

As for gender roles...I believe that both people should learn to both kinds of things. I hate that my husband resorts to the year 1954 when it comes to doing dishes, cleaning up after himself, shopping for his clothes, etc. I'm not his "mommy," nor am I a "hausfrau." These chores take away from my time to do other productive things when he doesn't help out...not to mention hurting my dignity.

He probably hates me asking him to work on my car, chop the wood, or make home repairs. (I do know how to do many of these things, but he always takes all of my tools. What mine is his and what's his is his.) He feels like I'm working him to death and that I don't care about him. (I really do care about him.)

As for money...both should always know what's going on with the finances. There should probably be one person to keep the books, but no one should be kept in the dark about anything. No hidden bank accounts, no overblown spending sprees, everyone should be in agreement about where the money goes for major purchases, retirement, etc. Talking about money is hard, but it might be one of the best ways to save a marriage down the road. A good accountant isn't a bad idea either.

Onebyone

I bought a chuck roast today and it was $21.28. Big enough to fit in crock pot. I bought the same size roast in June and it was $13.45. Almost double in price. Six more months it could possibly be $40. I'm thankful my husband and son in law hunts deer, turkey, duck, and catches fish.

ptquilts

As a widow I agree with this 110%. We always paid bills together, when my husband was in the hospital with a stroke for 2 weeks, I was able to take care of things. Don't want to do finances? If you become a widow, and I hope you don't, you will have to do finances. So why not learn now?

Onebyone

I know how to do finances and exactly what needs to be done if my husband can't do it. As long as he is able he will do it as I don't want to he will. He doesn't mind doing it. As for household chores I never started the wife chores from husband chores from day one. We both worked full time so if he wanted clean clothes he washed them same with clean dishes to eat out of. We did equal chores in the house and hired the yard work done as my husband does not like to do yardwork and I didn't want to do as much as needed to be done.

SusieQOH

tropit- I told you before you need to get your husband out of "Ozzie and Harriet" hahaha!!! Your post cracked me up

sewingpup

I am single so I get to do it all. Still in my own house. Considering an apartment or senior living but...holding off because I do like my yard and quilting space.
Oh, to get back to recipes. I made tacos tonight. Pretty sad tacos, but they actually tasted OK and I used up leftovers. Chopped some cooked chicken, grated some cheese, put on some hard shells and nuked. OK, not a feast but it worked! I do a lot of simple things like that. That is one of the perks of being single. I get to be lazy with the cooking sometimes.

bearisgray

DH and I grew up in "thrifty" households. I think he may have eaten squirrels and rabbits. I have not.

It seems like once prices go up, they never go back down - even if the supply chains return to "normal".

Iceblossom

On Thanksgiving it was just the hubby and I and we made up a bit pot of beef stew instead of a turkey. Since he switched to a primarily meat based keto diet, I've had to get pretty creative with my budget to keep cooking meat instead of beans and pasta...

Pre-covid I would go to the stores daily and pick up the marked down meat. As supply chain and safety issues came up, that didn't work so well. We will be getting a freezer but currently just have the one fridge/freezer unit. But one of the ways I'm saving money is buying larger amounts/cuts at Costco or restaurant supply houses. I'm paying typically about half of the single meal sized grocery store packs.

Yes, you have to cut down and repackage (yay! dollar store gallon freezer bags) Sure, it chokes a bit to spend over $100 on a single package of meat, but what I get is a lot more than at my local Safeway and is several meals. Likewise, I was looking at cooking a leg of lamb and realized I could buy a whole portioned frozen lamb at Costco for the same price as two legs. (It does not take up the entire freezer either, but then cooking one leg was a priority anyway) OK, so now I'm cooking cuts I'm not so familiar with but that's not a bad thing. We believe in the "nose to tail" sort of thing.

The stew was made from "Special Trim" which is a very tough, very lean cut of meat but if you can slow cook it, it can be great! I made a bbq-sauced batch and the big pot of stew and still have about 5 pound chunk for later.

This is the current ad for my area of US Chef -- in my state you don't need any sort of membership or business license to shop at the restaurant supply stores, don't know about other areas.
https://www.chefstore.com/content/hotsheet/30/2845/4/0/

Oh yeah, we did get one of the super chubs of ground beef too...

Onebyone

I grew up eating what was grown or killed. We had chickens and the swapped eggs for milk. We had freezer full of venison, duck, squirrel. fish, quail, and turkey. The garden was large and we grew everything . We had apple and peach trees, wild plums and berries patches were plentiful. It was a lot of hard work for the adults . The only thing needed from the grocery store were the basics. Most of my friends at school grew up this way too. I remember one teacher in high school told another teacher she could pick out all the rural kids by how healthy and energetic we were compared to the city kids.

tropit

I know!!! He grew up in a family like that. I don't think that there is much hope in saving him now.