Shalom Bayis Eggs

As new business owners of Edison Pack and Ship, my husband Stephen and I work side by side, partnering through our first year in business with all of the requisite tumultuous days such an adventure brings. Any new business owner will tell you that the first year is at times so worrisome, you wonder what you got yourself into. At other times, it’s so much fun, you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. We’ve looked for opportunities to tighten our belts at every turn, stretching the dollars, and creatively budgeting for the transition from salaried work to the ebb and flow of entrepreneurial income.

As I am the only one in the house who grocery shops (except our teenage children who now love an excuse to take the car and do errands for mom), Stephen leaves it to me to forage through the local supermarkets looking for sales and good buys. As regular shoppers at Costco, I do wonder sometimes if I save money by going there, as I walk out with giant size cases of food I might not have bought otherwise. But taking out the calculator, on an item-by-item basis, it often seems like a good deal.

And so it was that I decided to deviate from getting my normal egg brand, and to buy six dozen Costco eggs at a cheaper price per dozen. I carefully transported them home and set them on the top shelf of my fridge. I wasn’t crazy about how much room they took up, but I was determined to make the sacrifice to save a few dollars.

And then Stephen opened the fridge and blanched. “What are you doing with so many eggs? We don’t go through eggs that fast,” he said. I insisted they would get used up before turning bad, but he was skeptical. The last thing my husband can stand is wasting food — in lean times, even more so. I tried to convince him of my frugal, wise grocery purchase, but he was not on board.