Wednesday, May 19, 2010

I Still Don't Have A Clue

I have been married for almost 14 years now. That is a long time to be keeping house. You would think by now I would be a housewife extraordinaire! But life keeps teaching me lessons. There is NO way my ego will become over inflated after this latest discovery; which in case you aren't following my stream of consciousness writing here...means I did something really stupid and it sent a super clear signal that I stink at my chosen profession.
For the last couple of week we have been trying to solve a mystery in our house. Why do our dishes have a funny odor and slightly perfumed taste to them coming out of the dishwasher? Let me tell you, it can totally ruin your eating experience when you plate smells funny. Even though the smell was a pleasant smell it was just SO wrong on our dinner ware.

I solved the mystery yesterday. We have always used cascade in our dish washer. But in my efforts to cut down the grocery budget to a bare minimum (so I can have more spending money...is it shameful to starve your children so you can buy a shirt form Anthropologie?) I have been buying things on sale instead of keeping to my usual "brand loyalist" shopping methods.
So one fine day of shopping at Walmart (I really miss you Safeway) I noticed that Tide detergent was on sale. So instead of Cascade I put the new and significantly cheaper detergent in my cart.
In retrospect I think, how could I have made such a bonehead mistake. While there is no excuse for plain insanity, the packaging is very similar (false advertising!) and the tide pouches were on the shelf right next to the Cascade pouches. So I assumed they were the same type of product. It is always someone else's fault (a valuable lesson I learned in Kindergarten).
Eventually we concluded that it was the new Tide packets that were making our dishes smell so funny. So yesterday when I went back to the store...dish detergent had finally been all used up (wouldn't want to waste and throw it away - even though we hate it - this is the new cheap me) and had made it back on my grocery list, I made an oath that no mater how much more expensive Cascade was I was running back to it with open arms and teary eyes.
I rounded the corner of the aisle, thoughts of happier dish days in my head, and I had an epiphany. It wasn't Tide's fault we had been eating off of smelly dishes - it was mine. There in front of me were the same Tide packets I had bought a month before. This time however I read the fine print.
STAIN RELEASE
IN-WASH BOOSTER
Does that mean...LAUNDRY kind of wash????!!!!! I was pretty much horrified to realize we had been washing our dishes in LAUNDRY detergent. I still hold to this one small scrap of justification - it is not very clear that it is laundry detergent instead of dish detergent. Who knows? Maybe Tide doesn't even make dish detergent and all you super Moms out there would have known that.
But as for me and my house we live on the precarious line of thinking we know what we're doing and messing up all the time.
In order to avoid all future mistakes at least in this department:
I WILL ALWAYS BUY CASCADE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!!!
---Watch Cascade start marketing laundry detergent and silly ol' me start washing clothes in laundry soap!

13 comments:

The Roberts Rollercoaster RIde said...

LOL! Thank you for making my day. At least I'm not the only one. Yesterday I did a load of nothing but water and detergent. Forgot the clothes. NICE!!

Stephanie Saunders said...

That is freakin' hilarious!

The Seaquist Family said...

That is awesome. Love it! My dishwasher repair man said that he always recommends Electrosol dishwasher soap. It is cheap, does a great job, leaves no residue, and is good for the dishwasher. I have used it ever since and no issues. Thanks for always keeping it real Jen.

Rebecca Pierce said...

That is HILARIOUS!!!! Lol!

Mimi said...

when I saw the two side by side... I immediately thought... "Oh no!"

Did it get the stains out of your dishes??

Sara said...

That's funny. You shouldn't feel bad though. It reminds me of the time that Blaire put dish soap in her dishwasher...soap, soap, everywhere. AND the time I put a can of old potato pearls down the sink and proceeded to run the water. You can imagine the mess and clog I made. We all make mistakes. Good we can learn from each other!!

Nicole said...

Hey, I have a coupon for those Tide packets- I could have helped you buy them even cheaper :)

Anne said...

Awesome, so funny! That is the kind of thing I would do, for sure. Too bad the had a funny taste, it would have been a great money saving secret! PS I really loved your honest response about home school. I WANT to hear everyone's opinion. Promise. I am typically not so passionate about my views, who knows why, but I absolutely appreciate that in others. I totally got what you were saying. You are a good writer too!

M said...

I love you for doing this! Makes me feel so much better about my Pledge incident!!!

Dying laughing, my poor cousin!

Anonymous said...

When I saw the picture I laughed before I even read the blog I knew what you had done, silly girl.. well at least no one died.
Love
Mom

Anonymous said...

I remember, when out on one of my 1 month Army campouts in a foreign county, buying some toothpaste... It wasn't toothpaste....
Dad

Heather said...

That is one of my favorite posts EVER!!

Lisa said...

Jen, it is good to come visit and get all caught up. This post made me totally crack up. You are the best. I love your blog!