Waste

Today is my first full day home in a week. After doing a couple of chores I decided that I would kick back and catch up on things recorded over the last week I'm not 10 minutes into an episode of Oprah and I'm flabbergasted and not surprised at the same time.

The premise is getting a family who is super wasteful to live on only what they need for 1 week. The family got a letter from Oprah that reflected basic idea's you've read on most frugal blogs- turn down the thermostat, kick bottled water, eat at home, and eat leftovers. Mom, Dad, and three teens make up the family. I haven't seen how it ends up, but what killed me was what the family wasted before.

On grocery day mom opened the fridge and cabinets so she could purge enough stuff to buy new groceries*. Each family member eats something different for dinner. When the mom said oh, our son will only eat pasta I seriously pictured a 6 year old. Instead he's in his teens. Dad seems stressed about the spending, complaining about the number of appliances (5) one girl had going at once and the level of the thermostat. Though a few clips later dad and two girls are off to buy a new TV for on of the daughters who purposely broke her old TV because it wasn't a plasma.

The kicker- to fund this lifestyle dad has to take loans from family members. I have a general problem with wastefulness. I'm nowhere near perfect, but try not to have food go bad and otherwise buy excessively. It's one thing to be wasteful, it's another do do so with someone else's dollars.

Now that I've calmed down a bit I'm going to finish watching. Hopefully the experience will be an "a hah" moment for the whole family and get them on a better path.

*This especially kills me when in other countries close to home people can't afford to buy what little food is available and are relying on handouts.