To Have or To Hold

Among the many ways DH and I are different is in our attitude to food - in specific, fancy, expensive, glorious, tempting foodstuffs. I've got to HAVE it, he's got to HOLD it. Let's say he and I walk into a fancy chocolate emporium and each buy a bar of our favourite chocolate. Me, I'm eating a bit on the way home, I'm putting what's left of it in the cupboard, and within seconds the damn thing is singing it's siren song and I've got to eat it. If it's very lucky, it might enjoy one more day of relative comfort in my pantry but that's about it. DH on the other hand, will bring home said bar (untouched), stick it into the back of the pantry, and never bother to touch it again. It doesn't matter that it cost more than the GNP of a small Indonesian island. Nor does it matter that it's his favourite of all kinds of chocolate and he would have leased (never sell, no ongoing revenue that way) his first born in order to get his hands on some. He just won't touch it. It just...hangs out there, taunting me. (Why is it that chocolate only seems to speak MY language and not his?)

This whole "hold it" thing DH has means I find shrivelled bits of (expensive, French) cheese in the fridge, bottles of wine well past their cellaring date, and rather wrinkly bits of (expensive but local) smallgoods in the drawer. For him the importance is in the holding, for me the importance is in the having.  I actually find this whole concept really interesting - because DH grew up in a family where the fridge was, while not bare, certainly more utilitarian in nature. I grew up in a house where, if you wanted to find something, it necessitated emptying half the fridge to find it, and along the way you'd find a bunch of interesting things to eat (and probably some stuff which should have been thrown out ages ago.) Now, we're the opposite of our upbringings.

DH derives some sort of comfort from just having the  stuff around, and I derive some sort of comfort from actually consuming the  stuff. I just can't see the point in spending my hard-earned dosh on something delectable and then NOT enjoying it. I also don't understand the idea of filling a fridge with a bunch of stuff you won't use, or will let go bad. It breaks my heart to think about throwing out heaps of floppy celery or squishy tomatoes or cheese with crusty edges - when, with a bit of effort, I could have made any one of those into something, while not necessarily glorious, certainly edible. In addition to all of that, I'm an emotional eater, which means that when I get in a certain type of mood, NOTHING in my house is safe. Nothing. Not even the dark chocolate (blech) which I don't like but DH loves. Not even the years-old jelly beans. Not even the cereal with the healthy bits in it. I can't keep a bunch of treats in the house because I will inhale them faster than you can say, "I think I'm getting my period."


The end result is that our fridge, because of our meal planning (and because I'm chief cook around here), is pretty barren-looking.  Of course, to me it's not barren at all, because I know that in that "nothing" it has the makings of several dinners, and enough shelf space to fit in five packed lunches every day- but the average person might look at it (especially at the end of the week) and wonder if we were not on some sort of strange condiment-and-lettuce diet.

So is my - thing - about keeping a utilitarian fridge about my hatred of waste, my innate ability to create something out of nothing, am I totally lacking in self control or am I just a cheap bastard who won't spend money on "unneccesary" stuff?

Probably all of the above.

In the meantime....I avoid chocolate shopping with DH.