Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday!  This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change as we proceed.

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please keep it to one tip per person per week. Data dumps are tedious for me to moderate and also for readers to use. If you have lots of tips, great -- post one per week. This is an ongoing project. If you want to comment on someone else's tip, that's welcome, but again, don't use that as an excuse to post a second, unrelated tip of your own.

Rule #4:  please keep your contributions reasonably short -- say, 500 words or less. If you have something longer to say, please post it elsewhere -- a free Dreamwidth account is one option -- and simply put a link here. Teal deer comments won't be put through.

Rule #5:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #6: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Bringing what to dinner?

[(Anonymous)]

The norm tends to be when you visit someone for dinner or in general to bring something, more often than not I see this drives people to stores to buy a bottle of wine or some other type of dessert, which is all well and good but it can really add up.

Finding a unique gift or go to homemade item to bring I feel is a better way to go about this when there is the possibility.

Over the past few years I have practiced making bread and people are always incredibly impressed with a few nicely cut lines across the top of a fresh sourdough. I thoroughly enjoy making bread much more than I do shopping and it is a seriously useful skill. Even with some nice presentation I have worked it out that each loaf costs between $2-3 to make and has a much bigger impact.

If not bread, then I would definitely recommend finding something you like to make that people will appreciate for these settings, a decent bottle of wine will cost over 10x as much as those loaves of bread and might even end up in a chain of regifting anyways!

Re: Bringing what to dinner?

[claire_58]

The sourdough produced by our local wood-fired bakery is now more than $8CAD.

A somewhat interesting article...

[not_gandalf]

This appeared in the "Pocket" feature of my web browser. It seems just a bit dismissive, but it was still interesting.

https://www.businessinsider.com/off-grid-homesteading-community-riverbed-ranch-utah-doomsday-prepper-survivalist-2024-1?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

Warm Things

[mindwinds]

We have long had cloth bags filled with rice that we heat for cold winter nights - my daughters when they were young dubbed them "Warm Things". Our only surviving warm thing needs replacing (it smells like burned rice when we heat it now). Fortuitously, I have a kitchen apron that has also reached the end of its lifespan. I've cut out the two large pockets, and now all I have to do is fill them with rice and sew up the tops. Since my sewing skills are in their infancy, that's pretty handy.

Our new warm things are going to have nice jaunty stripes!

Squirrelly Jen

Re: Warm Things

[(Anonymous)]

We use them in the summer as well, by throwing them in the freezer in the morning. At night, we take them to bed and have "air conditioning" under the sheet!

shewhoholdstensions

[(Anonymous)]

I hope everyone is cozy as can be if you are experiencing any snowfall. I'm happy it is snowing. Though I will accept the coming of the "winter rain season" (already here in so many ways) I still like a good snow.

To share: As mentioned on the other blog, I was inspired by this video of a man in North Carolina living what I call a Tao Home Funk lifestyle:

These are from Peter Santenello's great channel where he explores the diverse array of cultures and places within in America.

Tao Home Funk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LEoW81mUXU&t=3s

Peter has done some really other cool off grid stories (and a number on the Amish). Of course, Titus is a favorite of mine, because he lives in the same part of Kentucky, Casey County, where my grandpa on my moms side was from (Liberty, KY). It's also where some of my moms ashes are buried in a small cemetery where there is something of a family plot, so I do feel a strong connection to that area.

This is pretty much Down Home Funk too, with an Amish twist, though Titus isn't a member of the Amish church.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LEoW81mUXU&t=3s

The other Titus videos are well worth watching, and are finding a strong resonance among Christians. Titus is building a church down there. I may stop by to meet him, because I do want to go see my moms headstone in Liberty again. I haven't been there since we buried her ashes in 2009.

This guy from Santenello;s channel lives in a converted van and in a houseboat that has been moved to land somewhere in Utah. I'd call his style Nomadic Desert Funk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soviEjUiLGQ

He has several other "off grid" videos with people, but I haven't seen/listened to them all yet.

To ask: What brand of ductwork insulation do people recommend to use? I have my water heater and water pipes insulated, but thought it would be good to do my ductwork as well. There are many different products available. Thank you!

Justin Patrick Moore

Redundancy helps

[artsmith]

One of the things that has been most helpful in making periods of low income less frightening has been putting back up plans in place for things you really really need in order to survive.
As an example, my electric bicycle broke before Christmas and this is how I get to my clients and earn a living. It was in for repairs waiting for spare parts on a slow boat from Asia, which took a month.
I have a manual back up bike which is lightweight and as mechanically simple as possible. Unfortunately, a couple of the wheel spokes broke and it was also out of commission for a couple of days so I used my third back up bike and managed to carry on working. I have collected these bikes over a number of years when I had the money.
Obviously you can take back up plans too far as you still need to check and maintain anything extra you pull out of storage but taking the time to inventory what is essential, and have workarounds if they fail, takes some of the panic away when you lose access to what you depend on.

Re: Redundancy helps

[daveotn]

Obviously you can take backups too far, but with something like a bike the backup works in a number of complementary ways: you can use them yourself if needed, you can sell them, or you can loan them out in exchange for other favors down the road. When I was doing more small engine repair, I'd often have a few lawn mowers or weedwhackers in the garage going through multiple steps in this cycle.

Upgrading fall clothes to winter clothes

[(Anonymous)]

If you don't have any winter shoes to hand and don't want to spend money on them, you can upgrade your fall shoes so that they keep you warm enough in winter too. Buy thermal insoles and put them in your shoes. Also put on a second pair of socks. Unfortunately, this does not work with all shoes as the additional material takes up space in the shoe.

To upgrade your fall jacket, you can simply buy a wide rain jacket and put it on over it. These are usually much cheaper than a winter jacket or if you already have one in your wardrobe.

ExecutedByGandhi

Re: Upgrading fall clothes to winter clothes

[(Anonymous)]

Yes indeed, there is much to be said for layering under a raincoat. I find that my heavy-duty winter coat is no warmer than layering a wool sweater + lightweght puffy coat (I mean one of those feather-stuffed coats, but a lightweight one) + a raincoat. The latter can be, overall, not only just as effective as cold but much lighter weight to wear, which is nice.

About the shoes. Yes!! It makes a huge difference in comfort and overall body temperature to wear properly insulated shoes in cold weather. I didn't grow up where there was cold weather in winter so it took me a while to figure that out. It might seem obvious, but I am here to say that actually, to a lot of people, it isn't. Now I use sheepskin inserts cut to fit.

Lowest effective amount

[hearthculture]

We cook a fall/winter dish called colcannon - which traditionally is mashed potatoes with boiled cabbage and lots of butter added. Our version involves frying bacon, crumbling the bacon and sautéing cabbage in the grease, then adding grease, cabbage, bacon crumbles, and a bunch of butter into mashed potatoes. This is decadent and delicious and a big hit at gatherings, and cheaper than grilling for everyone... ... annnnd... bacon and extra butter take it away from it's peasant food roots and over double it's cost.

So, I'm reducing the amounts to see what the minimum is to maintain enjoyment. We used to put a pound of bacon and two cups of butter (into a huge pot to feed 8-12 people.) A quarter pound of bacon and one cup of butter still adds a lot of flavor. No complaints, and significantly lower cost.

My lemon blueberry scones are still good with half the blueberries and one lemon zested instead of two. How little parmesan is needed to improve the flavor of pasta. In this period of abundance, it's been easy to add large amounts of what used to be valuable ingredients that were subtly and gently used. In moments of resolve, I imagine I can do without these at all, yet with discipline these ingredients can be stored and used purposefully to add significantly to a meal.

This applies to all recipes and I've noticed it start to spiral out to other things as well.

Re: Lowest effective amount

[prayergardens]

Good topic!

I'll offer up a Polish version of colcannon I learned from a former neighbor. Saute cabbage and onions with the fat of your choice (butter or bacon) but then mix with egg noodles instead of potatoes. Delicious!

Just as you mentioned a small amount of parmesan on Italian dishes, I tend to sprinkle a small amount of seeds on finished dishes and finds it perks it up: fennel seeds on Italian food, caraway seeds on German foods, nigella and pepitas on Mexican food. I find nutritional yeast to be an ok substitute for a sprinkle of cheese when a recipe calls for it on top. It's cheap and stores a long time so I keep it with the beans and rice.

I think pro chefs also do the trick of drizzling the fat on at the end as a topper on some dishes so it's right on your taste buds in the moment, not hidden in the dish. Smaller amount but bigger impact.

Green Wizards?

[(Anonymous)]

Need to ask, is Green Wizards defunct?

Re: Green Wizards?

[(Anonymous)]

The website is not per se, but activity is very sparse.

Check your receipt BEFORE you leave the store

[teresa_from_hershey]

This sounds so basic: check over your receipt to see if any mistakes were made by the cashier BEFORE you leave the store.

But people, including my mother, don't do this.
I guarantee you'll forget or the store will give you trouble when you return two weeks later.

How do you know if the amount is correct? Or close to correct?

This is where your shopping list comes in.
As I shop, I keep a running total of my final price. I round up or down to the nearest whole dollar and I'm fairly accurate. This also helps fix the price of an item in my head.

As the cashier rings up the items, I watch the register. If I know something out of the ordinary, like a raincheck item, is coming up, I warn the cashier.

Once I've paid, I go over my receipt, making sure my discounts were taken.
If there's a discrepancy (and sometimes it's on my end), it's off to the service desk. I'm polite. I point out wrong signs on the shelf. I've got my shopping cart of groceries right there so they can be rescanned if necessary.

Sometimes, the discrepancy is a nickel. Other times, it's more.
The last visit, the cashier mis-rung my raincheck AND some cheese didn't ring up at half price. That meant $17 back at the service desk.

Always check your receipts and address discrepancies on the spot!

Re: Check your receipt BEFORE you leave the store

[(Anonymous)]

Absolutely! Also, I hate to say this, but you want to get yourself on camera with receipt in your hand. I stand at the end of the counter, out of the way of next customer and next transaction, and review the receipt as you said, and then put it away in an easily accessible place. Have you noticed how much information is on those receipts? I take mine home and tear them up after recording the purchase.

Old shoes for Winter

[(Anonymous)]

Old shoes that cannot be used outside (even with holes) may be usable inside home during Winter, and they are specially great if you can clean them and wear them at bed, for sleeping to keep your feet warm.

Re: Old shoes for Winter

[slclaire]

I wear socks to bed when the weather is cool enough to wear socks - the same socks I've worn all day. Most nights I wake up once or twice. When I wake up and my feet are warm, I take the socks off.

I can't fall asleep if my feet are cold. Wearing socks to bed warms my feet up much faster than they would otherwise, so I fall asleep more quickly.

Keep off line track of spending.

[(Anonymous)]

I have found it helpful to keep a small notebook of ATM card spending, transaction by transaction. That way I have a good idea how much I can spend when I leave the house.

Mary Bennett

flannel sheets

[michele7]

Think about getting flannel bed sheets during the colder months. Even though we live in central Florida, it gets nippy in our house as we don't use our central heating. Flannel sheets have made our bed feel warmer and cozier. Due to the nap on flannel, the fabric doesn't have that cool crisp feel that regular cotton sheets have.

Re: flannel sheets

[kayr]

Flannel sheets are the best for any winter area. The do really make the bed seem warm and cozy even when you first get in before it is warmed up from your body heat.

I keep an eye out for sales on heavier flannel fabric and have made my own flat sheets. If you want to sew your own, be sure it is heavier fabric as lighter weight stuff won't hold up very long. I also pre-shrink sheet fabric to get it to fill in and tighten up. This is a very easy beginner sewing project, so if you find a good sale, give it a try.

Replace Bed Boxspring with Slats for More Storage

[dr_coyote]

Better yet, don’t buy boxsprings for a new bed. They’re a waste of money and a waste of space. Just buy the frame and a mattress. Put the frame on blocks to raise it to roughly comfortable height, and use 1x4 lumber to build slats to support the mattress, a la a platform bed.

In one easy swoop you’ve (a) not gotten screwed out of the money for utterly useless boxsprings, and (b) opened up a pretty big under-bed storage ‘closet.’ Storage is always expensive, and here’s a way to add more of it while saving money in the process.

Hello to Bushmagus who reached out to me

[teresa_from_hershey]

Hello Bushmagus,

I saw your "message" in my gmail account but have no idea how to reply via dreamwidth!

You can reach me more easily via www.peschelpress.com

Nutritional Yeast for Anxiety and Depession

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Everyone,
Part of my family has some extra anxiety. One of my older relatives has kidney disease and one of the symptoms for that is extreme anxiety as the adrenal gland is always going off. I got my relative to eat lots of nutritional yeast and a week later I called and asked her how her nerves were doing. She said, "What nerves!"

I have had great results with other family member who tried nutritional yeast to calm their nerves. Nutritional yeast is bang full of B vitamins and has a soothing, sustaining effect on the brain. Tastes great too. I always add a heaping tablespoon or two to a bowl of soup. I am so chill!

Re: Nutritional Yeast for Anxiety and Depession

[(Anonymous)]

Not the OP, but I'd add a caveat to that: nutritional yeast can be a problem for people who are sensitive to MSG. Yes, loaded with B vitamins, but also some neurostimulant compounds that not everybody can tolerate. I tried it once-- gave me possibly the worst migraine of my life! Use with caution ;)

Cheap hobbies

[(Anonymous)]

As I have downsized over the last decade, my hobbies have had to downsize also. Woodworking, ham radio and gardening just had no room or resources to continue.
Instead of woodworking, I started whittling in the summer, where the shavings could be made outside and sticks supply most of the raw material, and use a coping saw and xacto knife. Then I do origami in the winter to make use of all the junk mail the insurance companies send and make small holiday gifts. Once I have the folding figured out, I make it using origami paper.
I still do ham radio, using very low-power radios and putting temporary antennas up in local parks. At the apartment I use VHF radios with very small antennas.
I didn't think gardening would be possible, so I started learning about foraging wild plants. Then I started sowing my own seeds in out of the way places around town. Some didn't take, or were stolen by the critters, but others do amazingly well. There's two cherry "tomato patches" that have kept coming up for the last three years, and are getting bigger each year.
There's lots of hobbies that don't need much space or money. Any one else have ideas on this?

Re: Cheap hobbies

[kayr]

I like your outlaw gardening technique and have had the thought about that more then once myself, but never acted on it as I do have garden space. I can think of a few other vegetables that would self seed very well year after year in the right spot, carrots, parsnips, potatoes and garlic.

Uses for Interior design samples

[(Anonymous)]

Carpet samples are the most accessable in most areas and there are good uses for these. I just picked up one wool one(free), and it is in front of the wood stove ( I have new wood flooring and no throw rugs or anything like that right now, until I make some....) The cat loves it, she knew right off it was for her. Cozy, and right in front of the fire. Definitely worth it just for that. But, I also like kneeling on it when I load the stove, it is more comfortable, and it functions as a hearth rug to keep any errant small piece of hot coal from burning the new floor. In the past, I have put 2 of these next to each other for wiping feet inside the front door, 2 of them over the floor access to under the house in the downstairs closet, and I used to have a couple more scattered for cat lounging. They could be sewed together for a larger throw rug

Then, there are furniture upholstry and curtain remnants, I also picked up around 5 of these (free) that are large, so the right size for recovering dining chair seats. You will not have all seats match when you do this, but you can match color or thematically. These also make good cloth bags

Some upholstry samples are leather, and these are different sizes. Leather can be sewn by hand or regular sewing machine ( the weights used for upholstry can go thru a sewing machine in most cases anyways). My youngest made a gift of a glasses case for a sibling using a sample, I have seen other small goods like cases for ear buds, coin cases, etc.. made with these. And, they can be sewn together to make patchwork larger items, like this purse https://www.instructables.com/Scrappy-Patchwork-Leather-Bucket-Bag/#discuss. The interesting thing about this is the technique to just zig zag the leather side by side over interfacing. You dont have to cut triangles or by use dramatic contrasting colors, I am thinking of doing one with squares of a mix of browns and blacks, a mild contrast. But, I forgot to get a piece for the bottom ! I did buy those leather scraps, so I spent $5 so far for my 20 rectangular pieces. Each of those will be cut into 2 squares I think, unless I leave then rectangles. The leather goods store by me, the owner keeps his samples and he sells these type of small items inexpensively in his shop. Like a little coin or ear buds or ..?.. case that is basically a triangle with one snap on top that he makes with rectangular samples once that line is no longer being carried.

A few people base their side job business sewing up goods from sample remnants around here. And, the better samples have a small charge from the nonprofit that gathers up and organizes all the goods. Because they have rent to pay now. And, anyone by or in a city can organize such a nonprofit. Businesses have to pay to throw away their samples, and the fees to do this are high for them. This non-profit in Silicon Valley was started by a person with an idea, who stored things in her garage and would bring it out once a month to a community center or other spot and soon had others volunteering to help. And now, of course, they are sought out to please take even fabric from fabric stores or private people will bring it in as the downsize. So, they are big now, but dont be intimidated, they started small with an idea. https://www.fabmo.org/. This is not close to me, they used to bring some of the stuff over to my county once every 3 months or so, but that was before COVID. I go rarely I have to have other reasons I need to do in their general area, which means maybe once a year or less

Atmospheric River

Re: Uses for Interior design samples

[slclaire]

Several years ago, when we had a back porch added to our house, I collected a few samples of cork floor tiles to choose from for the cork tile floor. After we decided which kind of tile we liked best, I thought about what the samples might be good for. Answer: coasters for glasses, mugs, and so on, to keep the table under them from being damaged by liquids. All of ours are now employed in this way.

Make your own granola

[claire_58]

A nutritious breakfast or snack food, easy to make and stores for a long time.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

2c slow-cook rolled oats
1 or 2c nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, hazel etc)
1/2c sunflower seeds
1/2c pumpkin seeds
1/4c sesame seeds
1/4c of mild flavoured oil (grape seed, almond)
1/2c honey

Mix all of the above in a large bowl and spread it evenly on a large baking sheet. Making sure all your ingredients are room temperature will make mixing in the honey easier. Don't worry if it's a bit lumpy; you are going to mix it again on the pan after it's cooked a bit.
Put it into the hot oven and set a timer for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and mix thorough on the baking sheet. Return to oven and set the timer for 10 minutes. Mix again and return to the oven for a final 10 minutes. (30 minutes total cooking time).

Scrape it all into a bowl and add:
1/2c of raisins
1/2c of other dried fruit (optional)

Mix well and continue to mix and break up lumps at intervals as the mixture cools.
Store in an airtight jar. Makes 10 or 12 half cup servings.

Re: Make your own granola

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, granola is crazy easy to make, cheap and it stores well. Never buy granola when you can make it yourself.

Good Anti-Fungal Skin Powder

[(Anonymous)]

I looked online for herbal antifungals, picked a couple, and came up with the following foot powder recipe. It cleared off my athlete's foot much quicker than I have ever seen any store-bought product do:

1 part Borax, finely ground
1 part Oregano, finely ground
3-4 parts Cornstarch

I "finely grind" the first two ingredients in a mortar and pestle that I got from an Asian grocery store.
I put the mixture in a repurposed spice-shaker jar (the kind with a cap and a perforated top under the cap), and this is now my go-to antifungal powder.

- Cicada Grove

Sausages

[baconrolypoly]

After some years of buying shop sausages and being crossly disappointed we started making our own, which we call British Bangers. They're packed with flavour at the level we enjoy, they go down well with everyone who tries them and they also make good gifts.

There are many sausage stuffers available and we use a Weschenfelder (https://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/butchers-equipment/sausage-stuffers/manual/trespade-minnie-plus-little-demon-rosso-stuffer.html). A good one isn't cheap and they've gone up in price since we got ours about eight years ago, but I reckon it's paid for itself more than once, just for the pleasure of a decent snorker and knowing what's in it, rather than buying the mystery bags of pink slime from the shop.

These days we start with 10kg of meat and freeze the sausages but this is a cut down version for 1.5kg/3.3lb of meat.

1500gm/3.3lb pork shoulder minced twice (ask the butcher to do this)
220g/7.5oz rusk
10g/2tsp white pepper
20g/4tsp salt
6g/1 tsp mace
25g/8tsp fresh thyme - use 1/3 dried
50g/1.7oz fresh sage - use 1/3 dried
200ml/6.5 fl oz water - approx
Hog casings - 1.5kg meat approx 2m/80 ins approx

Adjust the flavourings as you see fit.

Mix everything together thoroughly. Stuff the hog casings using the instructions that come with your stuffer or look at this video guide: https://youtu.be/UsuDL0Gf9Dw. Bag up at six to a bag, let them sit over night in the fridge for the flavours to settle then freeze.

No doubt about it, making your own sausages is a faff - we find it generally takes about three hours - but they are so, so good.

Comparing the cost of buying vs making them yourself, there isn't a lot of difference but the quality of homemade can't be compared to bought, they are vastly superior.

Re: Sausages

[(Anonymous)]

The only rusk I know of are babies' teething biscuits - is there another definition?

The Generosity Of Ginger

[(Anonymous)]

Found this via midwesterndoctor's comments:

https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/the-generosity-of-ginger

"This article provides info on how to grow Ginger (Zingiber officinale) in pots, exploring the many health benefits of ginger and offering some recipe ideas to enjoy your future harvests"

Re: The Generosity Of Ginger

[baconrolypoly]

Thanks for the link, it's really good. For the first time, I grew ginger in a polytunnel last year and it turned out well and had a wonderfully intense flavour. This year I'll start it earlier as last year it was already early summer before I put it in the ground.

I used some to make Japanese style picked ginger and the flavour knocks your socks off. https://www.justonecookbook.com/pickled-ginger/

Laundry economics

[(Anonymous)]

Well, it's about 20F outside today, so I can't hang the laundry outside. And I can't hang it inside, because we need the sheets dry and warm to sleep on, so I decided to use the gas-fired clothes dryer. When the wash cycle was done, I pulled out the first item, and thought "this feels heavier than it should". Maybe the load was off-balance for the spin-cycle. So, I put the item back in, cranked the control knob back around to Spin, and put a bucket under the outflow hose.

I captured at least another quart of water, maybe two! The clothes felt quite a bit less wet, of course, but just for an experiment, I dumped the bucket and gave it a third spin. This time, I got two more cups of water! That's a LOT of water than I wasn't going to have to boil off in the dryer, and a lot of cold outdoor air that wasn't going to be drawn into the house to make up for the exhaust air of the dryer.

I may make an extra spin a regular part of my laundry routine. Even on the clothesline outside, I don't always have time to get things completely dry.

By the way, this load included two heavy-weight flannel shirts, which probably held a lot of water.

Lathechuck

Re: Laundry economics

[(Anonymous)]

You don't mention what type of interior heating or climate you have, but around here it gets very dry in winter, and the woodstove makes the interior air of the home even drier. In winter I hang clothes on a rack near the woodstove and they dry as fast as they would on a hot, dry summer day.

Blown-air heat also makes the inside air very dry and works similarly, though not as fast as a woodstove.

--Ms. Krieger

Second spin

[baconrolypoly]

Same here, a while back I started doing a second spin in winter, when the washing line can't be used, and it does cut down drying time a fair bit. In summer one spin is enough and putting damper things on line means that the wind 'irons' the fabric.

Slow cooker automation

[(Anonymous)]

I can't believe it took me this long to figure out how to cook food for an appropriate time in a slow cooker while working, but here's the secret: use a timer plug with your slow cooker. eg. set it to start cooking at 10am and stop at 6pm exactly. Now you can cook for 6-8 hours and have a piping hot, not overcooked meal when you get home.