Keeping costs down, and staying within a budget, can be overtaken by events (OBE) fairly easily. Even with the best intentions, things happen.

When I was newly married, maybe 6 months into this adventure, I kept us on a very tight budget. It wasn’t easy, we were both post-grad, and while others were taking copious notes on molecular breakdowns of disease patterns, I was filling the margins of my notebook with menus, shopping lists, and other planning. Superwife in training.

One week, I pulled back to back 36-hour shifts. And, I ran out of tampons. DH, however, was heading out to Longs Drugs to pick up some film, so I asked him if he could pick up a package of tampons.

The blood drained from his face.

Now, we’d shopped together for six months, he’d been physically present when I purchased tampons. I always chose the same brand, same box, same package design. How hard could this really be? He was getting a Ph.D. in rocket science, after all!

I gave him The coupon, which had a nice picture of the item on it.

I didn’t hear from him. You would think he would come in proudly bearing gifts, but no. I called up to his office, he said they were in the car. I went to the car. Hmmm…

The conversation that followed went something like this: