Reply #38: Salon hearts the great unwashed [View All]

I'm sure I sound like one of those tender-pawed yuppies who shops at Whole Foods and buys $15 grilled salmon salads and $9 cups of prepackaged butternut squash soup prepared fresh by Wolfgang Puck's foodie minions, eats it all in one sitting, then laments that her grocery bill is too high.

But that's not me, my friend -- although I sometimes wish it were, as I drop a boneless pork shoulder the size of a handbag dog into my slow cooker. No, I'm just a regular, middle-class chump with a sizable mortgage and a husband who's hardly saved anything for retirement and a toddler who drinks organic milk and a stepkid who wants to go to college and two dogs who require almost monthly visits to the vet. Once I considered myself (as so many of us do when we're young and stupid) destined for a life that bordered on glamorous. I'm not saying that I believed with all of my heart that I'd be wealthy or that I felt entitled to huge tracts of land, but really, who knew? I figured I might meet a dashing young heir in line at the taqueria one day, and the next day I'd be flying off to the South of France to dip my toes in the crystal blue Mediterranean while nibbling on fine wine and really good cured meats and aged cheeses. These days, though, I'm old and I need a haircut and all I really want is a good recipe for black bean soup. <...>

This picture might seem sort of droopy and pathetic to some of my friends, who would feel as deprived as Haitian boat people if they couldn't afford their regular $70 bottles of Erno Lazlo moisturizer. But honestly, I've found my newfound role as recessionary coupon-clipper oddly soothing.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/04/18/recession/index.html