Dishwasher Fights

   Many of my married friends and family will recognize a "dishwasher fight" as an explosive fight over something silly such as the way one partner loads the dishwasher. And how it is phenominally different than the way the other partner would like it to be loaded.

   This morning, as we were preparing coffee and thinking about lunch options before walking out the door, we discover the plate of leftover chicken from last night's dinner has been left in the microwave (our secret hiding place so the dog can't reach it on the counter) all night and is now garbage. Because this chicken would have been a good lunch option, and now one or both of us will need to buy lunch, I became upset about how wasteful it was to forget the chicken was in the microwave and let it go bad. This was the beginning of a dishwasher fight.

   Because he put it in the microwave, I reminded him that he should have been responsible to put it away before bed. Ian is not a fighter - he would much rather make a joke of things and carry on. So in his best and honest attempt to defuse the situation, he says, "It's okay. Chicken is only $1.99/lb," as he rakes it into the trash can. Fumes. Coming from my ears. I interpret this as, "I don't do the grocery shopping and don't know what we spend on groceries and throwing expensive food away is okay." I. Flipped. Out. And reminded him that "being this wasteful is absolutely not acceptible."
   Ian's counterattack was to remind me of how much fresh produce I buy and don't eat and it goes bad in the fridge or fruit bowl. And reminded me how equally wasteful that is. My defense is to throw my hands in the air and say, "Fine. Fine. You're always right!" While I let this very true fact sink in, I march to the fruit bowl and snatch an apple that has a few days left in its life expectancy, and begin cutting it up for lunch. **Confession: I bought a cantaloupe on my weekly grocery trip for the last 3 weeks, and every one of them went bad before I cut it open. So, I do buy a lot of produce that I would like to eat, but a lot of it goes to waste in the fridge before I get around to eating it. Damn. He got me.
   The savings lesson learned here, for me, is that I need to be more mindful of the amount of fresh produce I buy that two people cannot possibly eat in a week. One change effective immediately: Fruit of the week. Instead of buying oranges, apples, grapes and bananas, and letting at least half of them go bad, I will buy one or two fruits to eat that week, and then switch it up next week. This way, I won't get burnt out on one fruit, and I'm not spending half my grocery bill on produce that goes bad. Another alternative: Canned fruit. I like the "no sugar added" options, "in water". Canned and frozen veggies should make an appearance more often, too.