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Look, I’m just as frugal as the next gal – but there are some things I just don’t skimp on. ‘Generic’ will never describe certain things in my home like mayonaise, peanut butter, tampons and laundry detergent just to name a few. My mother taught me a long time ago that when it comes to taking care of your clothes: you get what you pay for. I don’t even trust generic bleach. These days clothes cost so much that I feel like a lottery winner when I can just buy one pair of jeans. So I’m definitely going to take care of them so they last as long as possible.
That requires quality laundry detergent.
My husband disagrees. In fact, he thinks any generic product is just as good as it’s name brand counterpart.
We’ve had this fight more times than I can count and it always ends with me saying the same thing, “If you want to shorten the life of your favorite shirt with cheap detergent then go for it. But, I want name brand stuff swishing around with my meager wardrobe.” Does he listen? Maybe. Does he honor my request? Nope.
Recently he started sneaking in the ‘mid-grade’ detergent. Since I’m one to pick my battles (and he caught me on a good day) I let it slide. I figured it was at least a brand, even if it was a cheap one. The smell was good, the clothes looked clean and it didn’t seem to make my shirts look all funky yellow like they were ten years old. Okay.
I was awesome, right? I mean I have my soapboxes that I stand on (no pun intended…maybe), but I know when to compromise like a good wife and all around decent human being.
Today I wandered in to the laundry room. I say ‘wandered’ because it’s my least favorite place in the house and if I’m going to talk myself into doing laundry then I have to make it seem like it’s an accident I’m even there. “Oh…look where I ended up! Well, I guess I should wash something while I’m here.” So there I was – wandering – and what did I behold? A bottle of the most generic detergent you can get. I mean this was the queen boss of generic detergent. Not to mention, it was a teeny tiny bottle.
Why? Why risk my wrath with this…..faux soap….and then compound your doom by also downsizing when you know we have 4 dirty bodies making 4x the amount of dirty clothes each week? Why?! I’m just starting to work up steam behind my “Seriously? Again?” assault when I notice something that makes this even better.
The small generic detergent that he claims he continues to buy at the risk of my wrath because “It’s half the price” cost two cents MORE than the larger, better smelling, better cleaning brand.
Oh the irony.
My revenge? Next time I’m buying generic beer.
