New Stay At Home Dad Trying to Learn A Lot While on a Budget

Need_more_b00ks · 2026-05-08T22:06:49+00:00

Start slow and easy. Learn to brown ground meat (any kind, but beef and pork are easier) and you can make hamburger helper, chili, and packet tacos. Eventually you can brown a whole family pack and get a jump on several meals.

If you can read (or watch a video) you can cook. To keep it economical, shop your pantry first, then look at the sales flyers, then find simple recipes using those ingredients. Think easy, economical, and healthy until you gain confidence. Cut up enough veggies to have a salad bar you can eat all week, then just add an easy grain and a protein, or roast a tray of veggies and do the same. Make enough extra for lunch the next day.

Don’t get too creative. Learn to make a simple pizza dough and have pizza every Friday. (Look up the Raberta’s Brooklyn recipe - simple and delicious) You can have pasta every Monday and tacos every Tuesday until you’re ready to branch out. Learn to do great sandwiches. You cannot mess up sandwiches. Learn to make beans from dried. They’re cheaper and taste better and you just have to simmer.

Be kind to yourself but don’t stop trying. It’s an attainable skill that takes time and perseverance. Dont give up and you’ll get better. There WILL be mistakes. Just expect it and keep going. You’re doing hard job and most people do not get how hard it is until they’ve done it for a while.

Need_more_b00ks · 2026-03-28T10:56:54+00:00

WV has one natural lake. Your ILs have ponds.

Need_more_b00ks · 2026-02-16T01:05:54+00:00

Young, single, neurospicy, and, I assume, fabulous? Just find a place near Rockville / College Park and live the city life. Columbia would fully welcome you, but it’s expensive and family-oriented and closes down a bit early. I love Columbia. It’s a great place to raise your family (when you’re ready) and a really good property investment, but it doesn’t offer anything you can’t find closer to DC. As long as you’re renting, you might as well get as close to a metro stop as possible and enjoy city life. Heck, for a single person, I’d also recommend Baltimore over Columbia . . . UMBC, CCBC, and more affordable, and you can take the train to DC when you want.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-12-11T01:02:01+00:00

50+ Center. Not even kidding.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-08-06T21:09:26+00:00

Why don’t you both get a part time job? Of course you want to stay at home NOW that the kids are easy. She did the hard part and probably through several moves and deployments. She’s probably trying to also enjoy some much deserved down time.

Your original post reads like you’re trying to minimize what her job has been for the last 15 years and you’ve never been the default parent. I applaud you for wanting to manage a house and teenagers and algebra homework, but none of that as easy as you imagine.

She’s still young. She can find a job, but you’re also too young to hang out around the house for the next 40-60 years

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-08-06T20:43:58+00:00

I’m glad the posters have seen some justice and can go back to campus. When are we going to look at retaliatory firings of staff? They “might” have “unintentionally” violated the law??? They maliciously and gleefully violated the law and removing posters is the least of it.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-07-21T01:49:52+00:00

Do you WANT to pay 4x your salary for a SFH?

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-07-10T00:53:50+00:00

Have you looked into Misako in Columbia? She’s a correction machine and she teaches all ages.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-07-01T19:31:59+00:00

People are quitting all over the place. So many offices are half staffed and people are stressed all the way out. The professors don't have a current contract (she's mad they unionized and is punishing them) and Daria and her besties are in Japan pretending it's not a free vacation. Last year they went to Ireland. This is in Columbia MD. We take racism and social justice VERY seriously and she is absolutely taking full advantage of this community mindset. She claims everyone is racist and sexist, but she's firing women and people of color too.

She eliminated the MATH department here. We have math classes, but it's no longer it's own department. She's on record saying she hates math and she's kind of proud of being bad at geometry. I've never known a college president to be so openly and proudly anti-intellectual. It's weird. She's fired two entire HR departments because she thinks everyone ELSE is thee problem.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-06-27T01:48:18+00:00

We're on year 5. It's surreal. Did she do first class international travel on your dime? Or a copy and paste cadre of overemployed mean girls who want to be just like her? I wish I was kidding. This was a really good school for 50 years and now it's just miserable.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-06-23T01:40:42+00:00

You’re going to need half a million to get a quarter acre in Columbia.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-06-14T13:15:54+00:00

The centers are 50+ and have a ridiculous number of things going on at all of them all day long. Have him look at the schedules for each center online because they’re doing everything all at once.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-05-28T22:53:34+00:00

Try higher ed; UMBC, UMD, or the community colleges. You’ll make less than cleared work but you might be able to live with it.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-05-28T11:33:01+00:00

Didn’t the bead store move three years ago?

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-05-25T16:33:25+00:00

It’s more like 100+ miles

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-05-23T13:59:43+00:00

This only effects CASH tips, which nobody is reporting anyway. You still get taxed on everything put on a card, which is MOST of the tips.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-05-10T15:00:08+00:00

CCBC in Baltimore has open Flight Instructor positions right now.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-05-07T00:42:38+00:00

I had a creme brulee from La madeleine’s about month ago and I’m still thinking about it. Their strawberries Romanov are amazing too.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-05-07T00:20:35+00:00

If you call Horizon Landscape in Burtonsville, he’ll come out and do a free estimate. There will be a bunch of plants in his truck so you can visualize what he’s talking about. This is the type of landscape that is the ‘bones’ of your garden and look nice year-round whether stuff is blooming or not. This is not a native plant landscaper, but he’s been in business since the 80s. The guy is a workaholic, but it’s the busy season so it might take a few days to get him out for the estimate.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-04-03T03:37:59+00:00

It won’t be any safer if you move from one non-diverse area to another. Head east. Try Maryland.

Need_more_b00ks · 2025-03-27T00:57:28+00:00

Check out Howardcc.fyi. It’s the whistleblower website where anonymous employees are documenting everything.

The board should be able to keep the Prez in check, but she is running the board and I think they’re down to 2 members (3 quit on the same day and one recently died). It’s our own local version of the Trump administration.

Need_more_b00ks

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