"Guys don't want watches or cologne ... they want to get laid in every way possible for as long as possible."

From: [redacted]
Date: November 3, 2008 3:34:44 PM EST
To: Julia@nonsociety.com
Subject: TMI topic

Hey Julia!

I wanted to answer your TMI topic question….

I’m engaged so as for the shitty econ changing our dating lifestyle, it has dramatically.  EATING is by far the number one thing we have changed because of the large amount of money we can save that way….and everything we dont spend goes in to a high yeild savings acct.  My fiance is a hockey player and knows that each seasons poses the risk of him being weeded out by younger up and coming players and with the economy the way it is, we are not confident it would be easy for him to find a job right away if that were to happen, so we are trying to make an effort to SAVE SAVE SAVE!

Instead of just one stop grocery shopping at Whole Foods, I buy a bunch of chicken, salmon, shrimp, lamb, etc from Costo - portion it out into freezer bags so we always have our core meal items on hand without paying an arm and a leg for fresh stuff as needed.  The rest I get at Whole Foods but its usually their 365 brand which is super cheap.  We no longer order drinks when we eat out (unless we are with group, but even then we limit it to one or two) because the markup is so high (even ordering 2 sodas at a decent restaurant can tack on an extra $9 to your bill) which adds up if you do that a few times a week… We figure we should be drinking more water anyways so that part hasn’t been too hard.  I did go out and buy a bunch of All Clad and really good cookbooks and taught myself how to cook, so we eat at home alot now.  Whatever I don’t know how to make (which has been EVERYTHING at some point) I just google, buy the ingredients, and go to town, and it turns out I don’t suck!  I love knowing whatever we want to eat is only an ingredient list away…not a $75 meal out for two each time.

We’ve been saving this last year for a house so we are applying the things we’ve learned about cutting back on spending to the way we spend today because of all the uncertainty.  For instance, instead of spending money on a birthday gift for my fiance I told him his present was the “the best 2 hours of his life”….I gave him a full body massage and got him all oiled up then drew a hot bubble bath with candles etc and basically went at him.  He loved it…. Besides, guys don’t want watches or cologne…they want to get laid in every way possible for as long as possible so we just skipped the wallet bleeding aspect of gift giving and he said he had the “best birthday ever”.  Success!

A truer statement has never been emailed.