Working for Pennies

My Household Income

The other day I was snapping ends off of my garden-fresh green beans. Am I even saving any money at all? I asked myself. A bag of frozen beans at the store costs $1.50. My garden beans cost pennies on the dollar to plant, but how many hours had I spent planting, weeding, picking, snapping, blanching, and packaging for the freezer? I would be getting paid something like $1 an hour for growing beans. Depressing.

Before we married, I elected to quit my job as a secretary, so I could focus on helping/spending time with Hubs and also keeping house. On the surface, being a housewife is not as lucrative as being a married career woman. I mean, two salaries are better than one, right?

Maybe not.

Here's the huge, HUGE benefit to being a busy* housewife:

I don't have time to buy stuff!

I don't even give myself time to browse Pinterest for cute home decorating ideas. There's no time to watch funny cat videos on Youtube (I want a kitty...), buy Kindle ebooks on Amazon that I'll never have time to read, go to Hobby Lobby and buy craft supplies for projects I'll finish... someday.

I''m too busy washing dishes, snapping green beans, and doing other $1-per-hour tasks that actually are worth more than my $1 per hour because I'm not spending my husband's dollars-per-hour.

Forget how much you're making per hour- how much are you spending per hour??

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*This does not include the stereotypical TV-watching, bon-bon stuffing lazy housewife.