Don't you ever get tired of it all?

[Phoenix84]

Specifically, stuff having to do with food?

You go to the grocery store and buy the food.

You come home and put the food away.

You then have to cook the food.

Then you have to do the dishes and put those up.

And at the end of it all you have to take out the garbage to dispose of all that food wrapping.

Rinse and repeat.

I need to get a wife to do all this for me.   You all should think about doing the same.

[Peace Of Mind]

I tried but my DH said one wife in this house was enough.  I guess I have job security.    

 

[Phoenix84]

I forgot step one, you have to earn the money to buy the food.  Which raises another point, you keep going to work to earn money to pay bills. 

It just seems like life is one big treadmill sometimes, doesn't it?

[Peace Of Mind]

It just seems like life is one big treadmill sometimes, doesn't it?

Yes, it does and that's why DH and I split it all up.  And don't forget needing clean clothes, a clean car and home, and then throw in grooming!  Hair cuts, shaving, lotions or after shaves, make up and the shopping...  it's ridiculous!  A lot of women love shopping, getting their hair cut, nails done, etc.  I just don't.

[mmhmm]

Yes, Phoenix, it certainly does!  The food thing gets to me, as well.  So does making the darned bed so I can unmake it, sleep in it, and make the beast again!  Rinse and repeat ... rinse and repeat ... that's life! 

[Jaguar]

Jul 15, 2013 1:00:57 GMT -5 Phoenix84 said:

I forgot step one, you have to earn the money to buy the food.  Which raises another point, you keep going to work to earn money to pay bills. 

It just seems like life is one big treadmill sometimes, doesn't it?

Food keeps you alive, this is needed yanno.

[steph08]

I get tired of cooking and eating. Sometimes I wish I could be like the Jetsons and just take a pill or two for my meals each day!

I hate cleaning. I was just thinking about this yesterday. I need to vacuum the upstairs of my house. But you know what, it's just going to get dirty again! Why can't we just do these things once and be over with it, at least for a few months! I get tired of cleaning and cleaning and cleaning and then in a few days, it is all dirty again! Ahhhhh!!

[Deleted]

I don't get tired of the food related treadmill.  I love food.  I get tired of the work treadmill, though.   M-F the same friggen thing, over and over and over again.  My only hope is that my brain gets so mushy that I no longer care.

[marvholly]

Yep - get VERY tired of all the constant repeats in life:
food/cooking/clean up
laundry
cleaning
lawn/garden stuff(alternate = shovel snow)
work

Need some adventure here but canot afford after having to replace a/c, paying home owners insurance and have real estate taxes & auto insurance due 8/1.

[giramomma]

Jul 15, 2013 1:00:57 GMT -5 Phoenix84 said:

It just seems like life is one big treadmill sometimes, doesn't it?

Yes, it's the little secret that no one tells you. Most of life is really made up of very tedious moments all strung together. 

That said, there are things you can do to alleviate the tedium. I live in a midsized city (200K), and the more expensive grocery stores will shop for you and deliver your groceries at no cost if you spend $40.

You can make friends with your crock pot, or cook in batch meals to freeze. We shop at the farmer's market in the summer, and freeze fresh stuff for the winter. It helps break things up in both seasons. As well as trying new things. Or try not cooking. There are some nights we have cereal. Some days to break things up, we have a picnic. It's all good.

I'm sort of weird in that I get satisfaction from some manual labor-laundry being the exception,  so it's not too much of a bother to me. I'm also happy with "good enough" so I don't feel inclined to kill myself in the cleaning department.

I have a part time SAHD, and I still need a wife sometimes. I don't think one wife is enough, actually.

[Apple]

I've said I need a wife many times

When I get too tired of the food thing, I use the stuff in the freezer I pre-made.  Or, I make one meal with a ton of leftover so I don't have to cook for a day or two (I do almost all the cooking "from scratch", rarely eat out, almost never have fast food).  I buy bread, but try to keep boxed/convenience stuff to a minimum.

Hate putting away clothes, hate dishes (no dishwasher), hate housework...

[Deleted]

Jul 15, 2013 7:17:32 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

My complaint is in trying to think of something interesting and healthy to fix for dinner every night. It's getting to where we are eating the same things night after night, simply because I don't want to think any harder than that. I would love to have enough money to be able to hire a cook to come in everyday and prepare our meals. Prisoners get this...why not me?

Rob a liquor store at gun point and you too shall get a cook.

[busymom]

Yup, cooking gets old.  Especially since I'm married to a picky eater.  A lot of the things the kids love, DH won't touch. 


On the positive side, I love to bake.  That never gets old.  And, it seems these days more people compliment desserts, rather than main courses.


If I could "rent a wife", I'd not only turn over the cooking job, but a lot of the cleaning.  The way Bad Boy Puppy sheds, we HAVE to vacuum every day.

[Deleted]

I'd love it if I could have someone come in and cook my meals too. And do the grocery shopping. Cleaning is low on my list of favorite things to do, but I'd rather clean an entire house than cook 1 meal.

[resolution]

Amazon is starting an online grocery and delivery service, but it is only active in a couple of cities.

[wvugurl26]

I need a housewife or at least a chef. Since I'm not that highly compensated, I try to do at least one thing every night, a load of laundry, clean the bathroom, etc.

It takes me longer to come up with a meal plan and a grocery list than it does to actually shop. The Wegman's app is the best. I make my list on my laptop and sync it to the app. It lays it out by section and aisle for me, no wondering around for ten minutes until I remember they have a big Asian section and that's where I'll find the soy sauce. Check out is always quick too even at 530-6pm.

[Deleted]

I live nowhere near Michigan.

[constanz22]

I used to really enjoy cooking, but not any more.  I HATE it.  And cooking for one person SUCKS.  I prefer to cook once or twice a week and just heat up leftovers the rest of the time.  I get in a rut too of cooking the same things, over and over and over.  I guess it's good I'm not a picky eater.  I say all the time, I wish someone would just show up at my house with dinner every night.  I wouldn't even care what it was, as long as I didn't have to make it!  And the amount of food I throw away is AWFUL! 

I hate cleaning and housework too.  I agree, we should only have to do it once and it should stay clean for like 3 months.  I don't get how my house gets so messy, so fast with just one person living there.  UGH, I hate everything about it.  I vacuum the LR every other day usually cuz of the dogs, and unload, load, unload, load the dishwasher regularly, but everything else I really let go until I can't stand looking at it anymore!

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I love to cook.  I love it even more when I was single because I could cook whatever/however I pleased.  Now I have a picky husband so I have to clip my culinary wings a bit.

I get tired of feeling like I am working just to send money to more bills, like daycare.  I get everything I pay serves a purpose but it feels like I'm throwing money down a giant blackhole sometimes.  I feel like I don't really get any value from paying the insurance bill, for example.

I know I'd feel differently if I had to use it though so I suck it up and keep paying it.  Same with every other bill.  I kinda like having electricity and running water.

[alabamagal]

We used to have a place here that was designed for people who don't have time to cook and want fresh meals.  You would order a dinner pre-made and you just put it in the oven.  I guess there were a lot of casserole type dinners.  They seemed pretty expensive to me, then they went out of business.
,
I love to cook, but I hate having to deal with DH (I wouldn't call him picky, but there are a lot of things he doesn't like), and DD2 who is home from college for the summer.  Every time I suggest something new or different I get groans of complaint.

I would love to have a menu planner who works with everyone, prepares a menu and shopping list.  I don't mind the shopping or cooking, I just hate trying to get everyone to agree on food.

[geenamercile]

When I start getting down about paying bills, I splurge on something.  But I have most of my bills on bill pay so I don't have to see them come out.  It helps.    

[milee]

Jul 15, 2013 7:33:52 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

That said, there are things you can do to alleviate the tedium. I live in a midsized city (200K), and the more expensive grocery stores will shop for you and deliver your groceries at no cost if you spend $40.

I wish we had a store that would do this. I would love it! I'd always assumed that by the time I got to the age I am that everyone would be able to get their groceries delivered. Didn't Safeway try this at one time? I HATE grocery shopping!

Safeway in Phoenix tried it.  It didn't seem to work very well the few times I tried to use the service (after my son was born in July and I was recovering and didn't want to haul a toddler and newborn around in the 116 degree heat.)  Some of the issues I remember were:

- Limited selection of items to choose from.  Not all brands/types/foods offered.
- Of the 3 times I ordered, each time only about 85% of the items I ordered were delivered.  The rest were "out of stock" or "unavailable".  Although I wasn't charged for the stuff they didn't deliver, because I didn't get those ingredients, that meant I had to go out to get certain staples or that I was stuck with 90% of the ingredients for a recipe that I needed a missing item or two to make.  Very inconvenient.
- Produce sucked.  'nuff said.

If one of the local stores could get the delivery thing right, I'd happily pay a $10 or even $20 fee for the convenience and I'll bet most working parents would as well.

[resolution]

Jul 15, 2013 8:45:14 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

I just hate trying to get everyone to agree on food.

When raising our family, there wasn't that option. If someone didn't like what I prepared, they went hungry. No debating.

I don't take the hungry approach, but I am cooking more and more food that contains things off the huge list of ingredients that DH doesn't want to eat. If he doesn't like what I fix he can always throw together some cheese and crackers for himself or some corn dogs from the basement freezer. I actually got him to eat some barley last week in a side dish and he ended up liking it.

[resolution]

Jul 15, 2013 0:53:18 GMT -5 Phoenix84 said:

Specifically, stuff having to do with food?

You go to the grocery store and buy the food.

You come home and put the food away.

You then have to cook the food.

Then you have to do the dishes and put those up.

And at the end of it all you have to take out the garbage to dispose of all that food wrapping.

Rinse and repeat.

I need to get a wife to do all this for me.   You all should think about doing the same.

And I hate to be a debbie downer, but I found that life got a lot more complicated and more work in general after I got married. You would think with two people to divide the work it would be cut in half, but we have double the family obligations, double the pet projects, and double of things to keep track of. I guess part of the problem is that I moved from a new house to an older one, so the amount of maintenance just skyrocketed.

[Tennesseer]

Win the lottery and the only repetitive tasks you will have to do is write checks.

[Cookies Galore]

I could do without the grocery shopping, but I love cooking and menu planning. DF doesn't cook, so he gets no say! :-)

I do wish I could wiggle my nose and the cat litter would magically clean itself.

[sheilaincali]

Jul 15, 2013 7:17:32 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

My complaint is in trying to think of something interesting and healthy to fix for dinner every night. It's getting to where we are eating the same things night after night, simply because I don't want to think any harder than that. I would love to have enough money to be able to hire a cook to come in everyday and prepare our meals. Prisoners get this...why not me?

We hit that rut in which we were having the same 8 or 9 meals over and over again.  So we decided for July to make it a goal to try 31 new recipes this month.  It's been interesting that's for sure.  Only one dud so far.  Thank god for Pinterest.  I've been able to find some great recipes and really mix it up.  Cooking with ingredients I've never tried before.  We really had to make an effort and it takes a little while each week to find new recipes and meals for the next week. 

Overall it's been successful.  We've had two meals not at home so far this month (sushi for date night and once we were running errands late and picked up Burrito bowls at a new Chipotle type place).  For the most part I've been able to find meals that I can make in 30 minutes or less (not counting the time it takes to bake in the oven) and we have one crock pot meal each week. 

It's just an experiment we are doing this month (we do 30 day challenges every month) but so far it's helped to cut down on the feeling of dread that normally comes with having to make dinner every night.  It's been fun to break out of our comfort zones and try new things. 

[formerroomate99]

Yes, dealing with grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning up is a dreary task.  But what are your alternatives?  Restaurant food and frozen meals are generally expensive and unhealthy. 

If I were you, I'd google 'once a month cooking' and start streamlining that task. 

[sheilaincali]

Lone-  Sorry- I should preface that to say that it's just me, DH and our 15 year old DS.  No one has any real food issues or hang ups.  The Boy isn't a huge fan of asparagus but he will eat a few pieces of it every time we make it. 

I've been making pretty much everything from scratch within reason (when I made Beef Wellingtons on Friday I didn't make the puff pastry shell from scratch).  Mostly just proteins and veggies in the bulk of our dishes.  No strange high fats or sugars.  We get all of our meat directly from a local farmer that I have known for years.   

[Deleted]

Yes.  Especially with a kid.  And a DH with a weird schedule.  It's food all day long.  I'm tired of cooking, cleaning, planning, prepping, packing and most especially the bill at the end of the month.

The worst part is that a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine is no longer considered a meal.