Saving Money 101

Over the years, I watched my mother iron from a never-ending basket of items to be ironed.  The basket was always in the kitchen and the “over the door” device for hanging ironed shirts was another permanent fixture.  Very little was spared from her iron...even our blue jeans didn't escape.  (My brother and I always noted that we could never look like real hippies because our jeans were ironed and had creases down the front and back.)  She ironed my dad’s undershirts and boxers, saying it made her happy to see how much dad enjoyed putting on a well-ironed piece of clothing.  Come to think of it, she even ironed the bed sheets.  I hated it and the feeling of being such a slave to such a task.

I unconsciously vowed that I would never live with something like that hanging over my head.  Even in college, I bought or made things that required zero ironing.  After getting married and being expected to work even if we didn’t need it at the time, I advised my husband that like me, he could buy clothes requiring no ironing, iron things himself or use a dry cleaner.  After a few peevish attempts at ironing his work shirts, he opted for the cleaners.  Back then (jeesh I sound old!) washing and ironing men’s’ shirts was super cheap, not even $1.00!  So it made sense all around.

Now, as I get older and find myself facing a frugality I did not volunteer for courtesy of doltoid, lawyers and the economy, I have decided to eschew the dry cleaners wherever  possible.  So I iron.  

Unfortunately, in the past 10 years, my body has morphed and is not receptive to knits because the knit fabric currently being used is so thin and drapey showing every bump.  Add to this the fact that dry cleaning has risen to $5.65 for a simple blouse and frugality hit me hard!  So last year when I bought some new blouses and pants to refresh my very worn out pieces, I made sure they were machine washable.  Let me just state one more time for the record, I hate ironing.