Our neighbor here in the marina had a little mishap with his bicycle this morning…it fell in the water by his boat. If it had fallen in the crystal clear waters of the Bahamas, I’m sure he would have jumped right in to rescue the bike. Being we are in Charleston SC, where the waters are not known for their sparkling features, he offered to pay my husband Jack to dive 20 some feet down and bring the bike back to where it could again be useful. Jack quickly denied the offer and referred him to a diver who would be up to the task for a small fee of $50.

Jack didn’t even get in a breath after telling me he denied the offer and I was already saying “I’ll do it for $50!” I have been told on occasion that few rival my commitment to saving money. It’s true that I make it one of my missions in life to never spend a penny more than I have to. I buy all of our clothes at Goodwill, breastfeed and use cloth diapers, and generally ensure that we have almost no monthly expenses.

So I would never normally treat myself to something like caviar, even though I love it. Looking down at the murky water of this low tide, I still knew the $50 in luscious ikura (salmon roe) would be worth it all. Jack threw his head back and laughed, “OK, I’ll tell him my wife will do it.” You can’t imagine how bummed I was when Jack returned and proudly told me how he retrieved the bike with a grappling hook so I didn’t need to dive in.

I sighed as I thought of my last “will work for caviar” job. It was just before my birthday last year and I was about three months pregnant. Jack wanted to pay a boatyard $100 to pressure wash the bottom of our boat when we hauled it out of the water for repairs. I was aghast and said “I’ll scrub it if I can spend the $100 on caviar for my birthday.” He laughed and said “Sure, if you want to.” I strapped one-year-old Marietta to my back and starting scrubbing. Two messy hours of work and a sore back later, I smiled while cleaning all the moss and seaweed off my body and thought of the caviar I would soon purchase in Miami. Marietta and I both thought it was worth the hard work!