Comments on: Thank You Notes and Dollar Stores

By: Air Conditioning Woes II | Out of Debt Again

Air Conditioning Woes II | Out of Debt Again — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:41:53 +0000

[...] yesterday. Thankfully Mr. A has a business relationship with an air conditioning professional, Mr. Fierce, who has already said he will help us get the unit at his cost with no additional markup. That is [...]

By: Custom Stamps | Out of Debt Again

Custom Stamps | Out of Debt Again — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:15:15 +0000

[...] Mrs. Accountability: Cathy, this is so brilliant. Of course it would be cheapest … [...]

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:39:22 +0000

Cathy, this is so brilliant. Of course it would be cheapest to make my own! I could make up a bunch at one time. I could order stamps with our logo. Yeah… that would be awesome. Years ago I used to shop Target once a month for sundry items and I would always make my way ’round the end caps. I miss shopping at Target. The nearest ones to me are now 25 and 30 miles. But I do go past one relatively easy to hit on the way home from work. Thanks so much for your suggestion and thanks for visiting and commenting!!

By: Cathy @ Chief Family Officer

Cathy @ Chief Family Officer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:42:41 +0000

I usually get my thank you cards on clearance at Target, often from the Dollar Spot section when they have 8 cards for $1. Although they’re usually pretty colors, not really appropriate for my boys or husband. I often use blank cards, not necessarily ones that say thank you on the front. It’d be cheapest to make your own, which is really easy to do – you just need cardstock, a good paper cutter, a stamp, some kind of color, and envelopes. Invitation size envelopes from office supply stores perfectly fit a quarter of an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper, so half of a sheet folded in half, or a quarter sheet if you’re doing postcard style cards.

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:45:34 +0000

LOL, I couldn’t help but smile as I read through your post. I think it’s kind of funny and a compliment that Mr. Fierce is so bent out of shape over it. I guess one main difference is that Mr. A and I look at this as being on the same team, working toward the goal of my one day being able to quit my job and work for our business. I think Mr. Fierce’s wife’s job isn’t particularly glamorous or fulfilling, Mr. A thinks she makes calls to people who are late on credit card payments. Maybe it’s really stressful. And yeah, I don’t think of myself as a secretary, I consider myself to be the office manager. We went through a period in our lives when Mr. A was the stay at home parent. We were just talking about that the other evening. I only worked three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday. We did the grocery shopping and errands running together on Fridays and the other days we stayed home and worked together on projects. The only thing is we didn’t have much money. Like we put our goat barn together by gleaning wood from the abandoned property next door. But we had the time to do that. Now it feels like we are constantly on the go and as far as housework goes, who has time for that? Sheesh. Thanks for taking the time to add to the conversation, Abigail, it’s nice to know someone out there has a response to something I’ve said.

By: Abigail

Abigail — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:18:49 +0000

At estate and garage sales, you can find some awesome deals! That’s where my mom gets most of her cards — seasonal and otherwise.

As for the thing about Mr A’s friend being jealous, I think it’s good that it helps Mr. A realize just how good he has it. But it irritates me that (at least as you describe it) he seems put off by the fact that his wife won’t do that. Well, why WOULD she? She has a full-time job. I mean, it’s great that you find the time/energy to help out. Fabulous, actually. But it’s just another example of how men hold women up to higher expectations. If the situation were reversed, it probably wouldn’t occur to him to go get/write thank you notes. But since he’s got a business, she should go home after a full day and then do things to help HIM out. And I doubt he would expect that to get in the way of cooking and cleaning.

Also, why on earth is it that he feels it’s appropriate to call you a secretary? Even in joking terms? You’re helping your husband out with his business. But he doesn’t say, “Wow, that’s nice. My wife doesn’t do things for me.” No, it’s automatically (since you’re writing things and mailing them) secretary.

Argh! I know I’m probably blowing this out of proportion but… Well, as I put it to Tim recently, when I was trying to explain the difference in expectation between genders: When’s the last time you heard a guy exclaim to a friend, “Wow, your wife cooks?! Oh, man, that must be nice!” or “Omigosh, your girlfriend CLEANS?! Mine just leaves messes and waits for me to clean them up. (And she leaves the toilet seat down, constantly!)”

Seriously. I am as guilty of these set-in ways as a lot of women. I feel bad at times that I don’t cook more. But you know what? I’m not healthy and most of my energy is spent working. And, right now, while Tim is out of work, he does most of the household chores. When he was working and I wasn’t, I cooked more and tried to do most of the cleaning.

Okay, I’m almost done ranting, I promise. I know I probably come off as being a little uptight, but it just gets old. Few women receive praise for coming home after work, cooking and then cleaning up after themselves. But if men do it, it’s practically deserving of a Nobel Prize.

So why, oh why, does your guy friend get to be upset that his wife doesn’t want to help his business in what little downtime she has? Especially if he’s got all the time that she’s at work to take care of his business-related tasks.

*Grumbling as I step down off her soapbox*