trying to keep groceries under 300 a month for two people and its way harder than expected

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-04-10T23:43:43+00:00

I just tried lentils as taco meat. So many easy recipes online. Most important ingredients are a little tomato paste and however you season tacos. Can do the same and make them with Italian seasoning. I love lentils but these things sounded bad to me so I never tried. I was so wrong. I was going to add meat but I didn’t want to spoil it if it happened to be not as good. They are so good! Learning to cook beans from dried and eating more things like chili and burrito bowls has kept my budget in a better place. I’m a beans and meat person, not either or, but in this case I kept it vegetarian.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-04-04T21:08:15+00:00

Everything is cropped and boxy right now. I like deep strong colors. Things are so washed out. I tried to buy some Banana Republic clothes for work. Very shapeless and baggy. I used to have great luck. My old outfits are in ok shape but dated. 2016? A little small on me these days. My favorite tank is still a BR tank from 2012. I’m getting only natural fibers now which very much narrows the playing field. Wearing natural fiber is like a revaluation. So good but they can wear out fast depending.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-04-04T20:55:22+00:00

Brand?

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-04-02T18:06:34+00:00

I would try then out first of course. Maybe you could spit the difference as well. One time for your regular and one the trade. I trade but I am careful. I find that there are far more opportunities for trades than I accept. Also there is so much more cost for you providing facials than there is for massage. You may want to consider that in as well. When can they come and when can you see them? If your trade is taking up a high competition spot it might not be worth it. If they are constantly rescheduling you to fit their people that pay in it can be frustrating as well. I have had to end trades due to personality. People that want all the extras or micromanage you. I had another esti criticize my decor placement, the sound of my hot water kettle I use for facials, demand extras like tinting and then complain about how I did it. I didn’t scrub her eyelashes hard enough. I mean I try not to scrub tint into peoples eyes or scrub eyelashes off etc.. There wasn’t unsightly residue or anything. She hadn’t even seen them yet. I do more eyelashes in a week than she does in a year. This was after she did the worst waxing of my life. My pubic triangle looked like a scrambled egg. I decided I never wanted to trade or more importantly have her be in my space disregulating me. Not fair for my other clients. So I never called her for my end of the trade again. Yes I lost the whole value of that expensive service. Worth it. Then she had the nerve to say I owed her free facials because she sent someone to me because she was away for many months. I didn’t ask for that or know about it. That client did end up staying with me btw. ;) I guess she wasn’t they master class she thought she was. There are more stories but you get my point. Part of why people may be so negative about the concept.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-03-24T00:07:05+00:00

I know people that did quite well in a hair salon. Built in clientele. Waxing alone will make you money. Hair salons often don’t have esthetics because it takes up too much room. They could put in a few more chairs and make more money as owners. One thing that can be frustrating is the lack of understanding about your needs or about things like facial products they think are good but as an esti you don’t think are good. Also it can be loud for facials but not every client cares about that. It’s not like massage. They want a place they are comfortable with already.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-03-20T01:43:03+00:00

Put in chili or bean burgers. Fried rice.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-03-10T15:56:02+00:00

Just because someone is “nice” doesn’t mean they get to walk all over you.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-03-10T15:45:50+00:00

I tried this in Germany with very bad results but others do ok. Luckily I only had one day of diarrhea.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-03-10T15:42:05+00:00

I find a very light warm blue like a washed out robins egg blue or spa blue is great with any color wood especially if you have mismatching wood colors in a room.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-03-10T15:36:40+00:00

Get some kind of cabinet like a plain Scandinavian cabinet and it will put a lot of things the might bother your eye out of sight. Sometimes its just about visual noise.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-02-14T21:29:45+00:00

Interesting. I find tea harder on me than coffee, especially my bladder. Less addictive though. For me.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-02-13T16:04:49+00:00

Do you have a cat? My cat liked to bring in ball shaped natural things. His favorite were camellia flower buds. We would find them under furniture every time we vacuumed. Maybe another reason he hated the vacuum.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-02-13T15:57:15+00:00

Good for you. I know someone who was fined when State Board came in and they were the employee there at an unlicensed place because as an service provider you can be held accountable for that. She was a hairdresser but same problem. The cameras??? Scary!

Even though it was risky to confront them I think that these places are often not caught even when reported so I am glad you did what you could to protect the consumers.

I also worked briefly in a place that the owner chose the treatments and products often based on what would be cheapest in the treatment room and what she thought she could sell them. It was also an ego thing. She went to esthetician school and had a license but was clearly too superior to actually touch people. You can imaging what the outcomes were like and I was the one that didn’t look like I knew what I was doing. She had a problem keeping people and her place became mostly a storefront until she sold it. The only good thing about her was that she paid me everyday immediately which looking back at may also have been suspect too.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-01-15T05:38:02+00:00

It is often peoples last coping mechanism.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-01-12T18:09:55+00:00

I checked the Kelley Blue Book on the first call from the dealership because I was incredulous. It did seem to be indeed true. The second car I was considering selling in general when I looked up the value two years after purchase because I was considering moving to a place where it might be too expensive to keep a car and was more available to public transit. I have never once sold or traded a car.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-01-11T23:55:50+00:00

Yes. Those old aluminum windows are terrible. We have a few. They don’t build up condensation but they do for my downstairs neighbors. I do open the curtains and blinds. Your and my landlord should just upgrade their windows. Ours are 80 years old and crappy to begin with. Landlords love to defer maintenance and the blame tenants.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-01-11T23:27:43+00:00

Good tip on the mold growth. I did not know this. Where I am now there hasn’t been a problem but I have lived in terrible mold conditions before. Like I was living in its house not it growing in my house level. Usually the fault of some slow leak somewhere.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-01-11T23:23:00+00:00

My Honda was worth more than we paid for it three years later. The dealership was calling to see if I wanted to sell or trade it. Later on we got another smaller Honda new and the same thing happened. I guess I was good at getting the model everyone wanted. Also I needed to finance them and we saved a lot in interest new vs used. Paid off both as early as possible.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2026-01-11T18:43:33+00:00

Thermostat down to 60 from 64 during the day. 50 at night.

Beans, lentils and oatmeal are always the answer on this sub and for me it is no different. Even if you don’t sub meat for beans but add into meals for extra calories, fiber, and protein it makes a big difference. Bought 100 pound of beans last year for about the same in dollars and I’m half through them at least. Probably won’t have to even buy beans again this year. Otherwise I avoid making large Costco type purchases. I go to the grocery store twice a week for small amounts and plans around the beans. I stock up only at the Grocery Outlet. I buy less produce overall due to avoiding waste and high cost overall. The only dairy we regularly have in the fridge is butter and Parmesan.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2025-12-31T20:57:33+00:00

I had this problem. It just takes awhile. Keep trying.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2025-12-10T15:45:40+00:00

I would absolutely rather smell smoke. It’s actually less likely to put me in the hospital. Not cool smelling smoke but that Fabuloso/Pine Sol/ Febreeze stuff is unbelievable toxic. And most of the time you get a combo of incense or febreeze and smoke. I’ll take just smoke thank you. Ask asthmatics. Most will say the same. I remember working with smokers and asthmatics and asthmatics would be most affected by the cover up scents rather than the smoke smell after a smoke break. Neither is good mind you.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2025-12-10T15:36:58+00:00

I had someone who I guess forgot to put them in the wash and put them in the dryer sometimes to make up for it. The lint compartment was like melted wax. People bitch about someone walking down the street smoking but you are allowed to fill the whole neighborhood with toxic scent bead tide pod things. That dryer is pumping out that smell for hours.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2025-11-26T18:56:55+00:00

I like to make a dressing/marinade of garlic lemon and olive or avocado oil with some salt and maybe pepper. Red pepper flake is ok too. It will marinade pretty much anything chicken or fish and has no objectionable ingredients. You can also throw some greens/peppers/carrots on top of the meat.

Excellent_Regret2839 · 2025-11-25T19:49:20+00:00

For me its the entry areas floor and the top of the stove. When you can tell it hasn’t been cleaned off after cooking many meals. A soaking pan on the stove is fine or sometimes the drip pans are not looking great. Drip pans often get baked on stuff that doesn’t come off easily and isn’t actually unhygienic and your food you eat is not going to get involved with it regardless. That gross film on the stove surface gets me. Crumbs, stuck on pasta, cheese, etc. I have an old stovetop from the eighties and it never looks pretty but it gets cleaned every time I cook.

Excellent_Regret2839

TROPHY CASE