Cutting Back Costs in Hard Times By...Not Singing?

With the economy the way it is these days, you're probably trying to find all kinds of ways to cut costs and make your hard earned dollar stretch a little further. Like me, you may be clipping coupons, buying generic brands, not eating out, only driving when necessary, turning down the heat, not indulging in impulse shopping, or maybe even selling your plasma. ($25 for laying down and watching t.v. for an hour, you can't beat it.)

You may also be looking at all your bills and seeing where you can cut back. In doing this, again, like me, you might have noticed some ridiculous spikes in spending on certain bills. In my case my gas and water bills. In my little town home we have a gas powered furnace and hot water heater and we are supplied water by the great city of Lawrence, Kansas.

So, I say to myself, "These bills have been inconsistent. There must be a reason for it and there must be some way I can save a significant amount of money every month by figuring it out." I thought, have we been running the dishwasher too much? Have we been washing our clothes in too much hot water? Could we turn down the heat a little more or turn off the fireplace pilot and could it make that much of a difference? Could it be a combo of all of this? I couldn't figure it out. After a month of paying attention to all these factors, nothing seemed to be out of the norm. That is when I thought about the shower.

One morning I was taking a normal shower, basking in the hot water and singing away with the poppy radio single that I currently had stuck in my head. I finished up the song, turned off the shower, got out and realized how long my concert/shower actually had been; almost a half hour!

I'm a guy, I have short hair and I didn't even so much as sweat in 3 days, a rinse was basically all I needed yet I ran that steaming water for the length of one of my favorite Monday sitcoms! If this wasn't my gas and water problem, the mystery might as well be in the ranks of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance and Area 51.

Our problem had been solved and it came down to a case of shower singing. That overwhelming urge to belt out any tune, for however long, like no in the world even exists but in your mind. This is on par with the singing/nose picking habit that most people can't help but take part in on a long drive home in an empty car thinking no one can see them through the 6 windows surrounding them. (Oh, come on, you know you've done it.)

When it comes to singing in the shower it seems like it's insanely easy to get carried away, lose track of time, and before you know it you've sung half a full album of tunes and you haven't even washed your hair.

So, what is it about the shower that turns even the most non-musical person into a rock star? Is it the hot water and steam opening up the airways and letting you belt out ranges you normally wouldn't be able to hit? Is it the amazing reverb and echo that makes your voice sound better than it ever could? Or is it simply the feeling of privacy that you can't get anywhere else?

For me, being the rock star that I am out of the shower, (I'm exaggerating a bit here) singing while washing away is great for the sound, but also because I can close my eyes and hash out ideas that might not come otherwise. This can tend to be a problem like I mentioned in my earlier post "Right Idea; Wrong Time, Wrong Place". Like any other situation, apparently I get carried away and that quick rinse turns into time I could have used to perfect one of Rachael Ray's famous meals.

So, if you're trying to ease back on the spending like I am, pay attention when you hop in the shower. It's perfectly normal to float away to the lyrics of "I Kissed A Girl" while soaking up the hot water but make sure to multitask and limit it to just that, put down your microphone/bottle of shampoo, and dry off before the bills go through the roof and you're stuck singing in the rain instead of the shower.