New blog: The Great Washer / Dryer Experiment!

I made the idiotic mistake of asking myself just how much time I spend doing laundry. Fourteen loads a week, each taking about 1-1/2 hours to go from washer through dryer, folding and putting-away, I make that to be 21 hours. Twenty-one hours.

You know, it’s funny how sometimes things will blindside you. When I decided to have four kids, I was braced for things like ‘very noisy house’ and ‘going through a lot of groceries’ and ‘in my van chauffeuring an awful lot’ and ‘having to save diligently for college funds’.

Two things that have really smacked me in terms of grim, unexpected reality: that I will be doing a full load of dishes at least twice per day (and that for us, ‘service for 12’ is precisely half as many as we need), and, that I would spend 21 hours per week, half of a more rational person’s total work week, standing around either folding laundry or waiting for more laundry to fold.

I have decided I need a new washer and dryer. I need the Big Ones, the ones that can handle about three times the capacity of my current washer/dryer set.

They cost $3,000.

Did I mention I’m a stay at home mom with four small children, no income to speak of and a pretty damned tight budget?

But! Undaunted, I forge on!! I’ve started a new blog to track my progress, which may well take years! I’m going to be using every trick I’ve garnered over years of debt and income reduction to squirrel away cash out of my discretionary spending toward these washers and dryers.

However, unlike the times when I’ve done it because it was a matter of eating or not eating, keeping a roof over our heads or using the van as a mobile hotel, or staying just on the other side of the Bankruptcy Line – this promises to be kind of fun.

This time, it’s a game.

C’mon over if you have time. http://iwannanewwasher.blogspot.com

I’ve got $8.57 so far. I'll be at $3,000 in no (geologic) time...