On Being Cheap

Published on Feb. 9, 2007 in Taiwan

Today is February 9th, and it represents several things for Yan-Shih and myself. First, we consider February 9th as our official unofficial holiday. Second, February 14th is Valentine's Day. Third, February 15th is my birthday.

One thing you might not know is that the two of us are extremely frugal, our main "material vice" is traveling, and that is arguably not a vice. Indeed, I like technology, but since I'm in a nomadic state at the moment, I'm avoiding any technology purchases. In fact, I'm writing this on my four year old IBM T23 laptop (which must be the most solid laptop ever built).

Because we are frugal, spending massive amounts of money on flowers, rings or other things is temporarily out of the question. We would prefer to do things. We early in the week made a date to go purchase some material to make some custom T-Shirts. We went to a little art store near Dingxi, close to my house, and bought the fabric ink ($1.75), the roller ($1), some thick paper to be used as a stencil ($.20) and two long sleeved shirts ($6). For under $10 I would consider this a Mission Accomplished.

On the night of the 9th we started on our project. I'm slightly embarrassed to make this public, but, as is natural with couples, we have nicknames. Mine is Teddy Bear, hers' Honey Bunny. For our design we decided to start simple and traced a Bear and Bunny.

Next we pulled out the exacto and cut the stencil. For the ink "palette" we used a piece of bottle, which worked decently. We put a big book in the middle of the shirt (to have a flat surface to paint on, in addition to making sure the ink wouldn't bleed through the shirt). Ink in the "pallet" we dipped the roller, and made sure it was soaked evenly. Then, slowly, we applied the ink to the stencil. And voila! We have a bear and bunny custom shirt, and a wonderful sub-$10 perfect date.

Comments are currently closed for this entry.