Lenten frugality

I think the moment we've all been waiting for is here!

No, I'm not in labour!

But I think I am nesting. I hope so, at least.

I say so because I found myself suddenly needing to organize the pantry. I got up on a chair (a precarious preggo position) and sorted and went through each shelf, dusting and then ordering into neat categories: pasta-related products, baking needs, spices (because I lack a spice rack! The INJUSTICE of it all!), canned goods and tea.

I gasped at the section for 'tea' (and if I could get my digital camera to co-operate, I'd post a picture of it so you could gasp, too). We had 14 different kinds of tea! And we actually had two different kinds of Chai (really! Two kinds of chai?!) and two different brands of peppermint! I now have actual proof that my tea takes up more space than my canned goods and spices combined. What is the sense of that?

Anyone will tell you that me and the DH are inveterate tea drinkers. Indeed, I first fell in love with him due in part to his pain-staking efforts to learn how to make me an excellent cup of tea (a tutorial given by a Madonna House staff member who's an Irish immigrant to boot! And now, his skills would make Orwell proud.). But what is the need for 14 kinds of it, when we mostly find ourselves drinking good ol' fashioned Red Rose*?

So in the spirit of Lent, I will not buy another tea bag, nor tea leaf nor any other delectable tea-related substance. Nay, not even a cup when out with friends with the added enjoyment of RRRolling up the Rim to Win! Rather, I will whittle down this large collection, and do without if my favourite suddenly disappears.

I already informed the DH this when he stopped by my office. I said it as though I was getting in his face, as though me forcing penances on him (like running out of our beloved Red Rose) was the pinnacle of miserly wife-ness. He just nodded and simply said "okay."

Talk about self-restraint!

* Try as I might, I can not seem to enjoy a cup of any cheaper brand of orange pekoe. In fact, I'm sure that if I were to venture out of the grocery store and into a specialty tea shop (a favourite window-shopping affair for me) and purchase their version of orange pekoe, I'd set the bar even higher. Despite me buying the store brand of almost every blessed thing, I reserve the right to be snobby about tea. Red Rose it is, please!

P.S. This ad for Red Rose delights me! It fits in perfectly with my recent post about horridly-used quotation marks. Red Rose tea IS good tea. Why hedge around such an obvious proclamation?