If You Think It's Expensive to Buy The Best...

...try buying the least best.

...and seeing how expensive that is.

There is a conventional wisdom saying that makes this very point, but I can't remember how it goes at this moment.

My late wife was a very wise person for her age. Karen was what some might call an "old soul." Today, almost a year after her passing, I took a lesson from her. And I'm going to follow her advice starting today and up until the day I die.

I remember that every time Karen and I would go to the grocery store together, and I would treat myself to a little beer, Karen would inevitably take note of my selection with some disapproval.

My favorite beers are Stella, Harp and Guinness. But I almost never, ever buy them. Maybe at Christmas or Thanksgiving...  But way too expensive otherwise! So I would always just settle on whatever was on sale. Even if it was beer I wasn't really fond of-- if I was craving a cold one, and it was on sale, that's what I would be drinking.

Karen would always say something along the lines of, "Why do you do that?  Why don't you buy the Stella since that is your favorite?"

I explained that I couldn't pass up the bargain on the lesser-liked beers. It was the way I was raised.

She would always argue, "It's like you don't think you deserve it or something! What's the matter with you? It's your money. You worked hard and earned it. Buy yourself the best beer because you deserve the best beer. What if you die tomorrow?"

This turned out to be pretty ironic advice, since she ended up passing away. We had the "beer arguments" way before she became sick. So it wasn't as if she were speaking from the perspective of having cancer.

She just really disliked the idea that I would "deprive myself of a little happiness," to use her words, and she always spoke up about it.

So this morning, I went and bought some dishwashing detergent. I usually buy Cascade, but there was another one on sale and, as usual, I bought the cheap one.

I have the type of dishwasher that dispenses soap automatically.  In other words, you pour the entire bottle of soap into the dishwasher and forget about it for a month or two.

Well, I ran a load of dishes and it was as if there was no soap in there at all.  The dishes came out looking as if the soap dispenser had malfunctioned.  But it hadn't.  I know this for certain, because it turns out that my silverware is all covered in dry, stuck-on, crumbly soap residue.

So I ran the dishwasher again.  And the only thing that happened is that the dry soap residue became worse.  All of the dishes will need to be removed and washed by hand.

I cannot figure out how to get the soap out, other than running the dishwasher...  I actually have no idea what to do!  My dishwasher is pretty much useless as long as that crap is in there.  I am going to have to call GE and hope they have a method of getting the soap out.  I inspected the dishwasher pretty good and I don't have a lot of hope right now.

Karen was absolutely right when she told me that I should buy the best.  Life is way too short and she understood that better than most people. 

The next time I am in the grocery store, I'm getting a six-pack of Stella, some lamb chops (rib chops, not shoulder as usual), and the most expensive dish detergent I can possibly find.