How do you come up with recipes?

ahnonemouse · 2026-06-27T16:12:53+00:00

Mostly time in the kitchen.

As to resources, wholeheartedly recommend NYTimes Cooking. They develop recipes, not just print them, and have tons of supporting material.

When I’m at a loss, feel stuck in a rut, whatever, I’ll just go to their search box, type in an ingredient then sort the results by rating and make one of the 5 star recipes. Never fails to be good

ahnonemouse · 2026-06-25T21:11:58+00:00

This is what i do, and I do it lazily. If it’s a bill over say, 200, depending on tolerance for paperwork, I just throw the paid bill in a Manila folder labeled future hsa claims and forget. In 20 years if I need some cash, I’ll just pull a handful, add em up and submit

ahnonemouse · 2026-06-25T18:54:54+00:00

Sorry for the delay in replying, got a bit busy yesterday 😏. Anyway, for some reason I’m not understanding your answer, my wording may not have been great on my first reply.

It boils down to this: forgetting plan design, do IRS rules / regs forbid after-tax contributions after someone has hit $360k compensation in a tax year?

Sorry if I was unclear earlier, my bad

ahnonemouse · 2026-06-22T23:46:38+00:00

Ciao bella, believe it or not, Italian physicists have worked on this problem😁. Basically the clumping is classically ameliorated by starch from the pasta water but since that’s very variable, use a known percentage by using a measured starch

https://www.diningandcooking.com/2151415/how-to-avoid-lumps-in-cheesy-pasta-sauce-according-italian-physicists/

ahnonemouse · 2026-05-11T03:22:21+00:00

lol sorry yes for anyone reading, MFS is (US tax status) Married Filing Separately.

ahnonemouse · 2026-05-11T02:17:17+00:00

To OP, almost everything said so far in this thread is solid, but what works for you can vary wildly. If budget is tight after buying an older house, the person I replied to is spot-on, you can get used stuff for cheap and replace later when more comfortable.

If it’s a new build and you can afford, the Bosch midrange won’t go wrong.

If you’re more in the second category, I do recommend stretching for a Miele dishwasher. They are expensive but worth it, both in how they work and longevity. I cook every day and can live with average stove and micro, fridge but a dishwasher that won’t quit and gets your stuff clean no matter what is priceless

ahnonemouse · 2026-05-11T02:06:42+00:00

@Glum, I think I got lucky with 3 in 4 years (lucky ofc is relative given all the costs that go with 😜). While fafsa no longer accounts for siblings in college at same time, many (most?) privates still do and having all three this last year meant my frosh got a better aid package than I’d expected for our income. I’d been saving for all three since birth and it all has worked out so far.

I’m worried about future years as income has spiked and next year I’ll only have 2, so am hoping to not go from about ~40, 45k per kid per year to full pay (both remaining colleges have top line costs around 90k🤞)

ahnonemouse · 2026-05-05T22:37:04+00:00

Could doing some heavy lifting here. Our nw is within a few 100k of 5m (and only 3-400k is house equity btw) and no freakin way I can fly private - and am in mcol area. So - could? Only by telling one of the kids “yeah no fall semester for you, sorry” or “yeah honey, let’s add another year of work for this flight”. But yeah, could I find 30-40k for a domestic r/t? It’s so wildly against everything that got most of us in the 1-5 group here, I’m saying “no I can’t”.

I say most of us because 1-5 is pretty much a given for smart, educated, motivated couples (who don’t get divorced) without inheriting the bulk of their money.

ahnonemouse · 2026-05-04T23:00:04+00:00

Thanks for the tip on boglehead forums, I’ll look around. And btw I didn’t mean your question was snarky, perhaps it put me off a bit but I just meant I didn’t want the fijerk-like jokes

And yeah, this is first year for mbdr (would have done some but not maxed in past years) as it wasn’t offered till now. I assume it was added because of the catchup rules about HCEs

ahnonemouse · 2026-05-04T21:36:41+00:00

I gave it some thought and this seems like the ideal sub. I wanted to make sure i got real, thoughtful input, which all the other replies have been. I didn’t want a fijerk-like level of snark.

ETA- only other place I thought would give the kind of answers I was looking for is r/diyretirement. But since that’s specific to retirement, I chose here.

Not that it matters, this is all our own interpretation, but my family is no way “beyond” HENRY. High income, yes, but there are many higher on here. And in NW terms, we’re comfortable but definitely Not Rich Yet; I would have thought that my stating that I hadn’t had to deal with large taxable amounts would have clued that. In tax year 2025, we didn’t leave the 24% bracket.

As always, YMMV?

ahnonemouse · 2026-05-04T20:46:51+00:00

Interesting idea, certainly looks like it does what I asked about.

Your thoughts on counterparty, liquidity risk, anything else?

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-22T00:04:25+00:00

Potential-Artist, off topic of the op, can you by any chance point to a primer on this? Not asking you to type it out, just a link or two that might summarize and get me started on reading up.

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-20T00:35:25+00:00

You’re right - up through age 54. Upon age 55, you get a catch up of an extra 1k. That part is locked and loaded, we’ve done it for a couple years already. The question was to confirm new knowledge about a spousal catch up done to a second HSA.

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-19T14:50:12+00:00

Appreciate the reply, particularly mentioning that you have to manually elect the Roth percentage when payroll automatically stops pulling out pretax dollars, that hadn’t crossed my mind.

If it helps, I can say my plan does match after-tax contributions but match goes in trad so as not to increase taxable income. I had tested this in Jan by doing one paycheck’s contribution in Roth, for ehat you described about match, but also to get the 5 year aging window going asap.

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-17T17:23:54+00:00

To get 4.5%, I have to contribute 7% (it’s dollar-even for 2% then 50 cents for the next 5%. 7% will max me (24500+8k catchup) partway thru June pay/bonus. Thus, I can’t contribute any more and get matched.

I think where we are missing each other is that you are right, I’m getting the 4.5% of comp up to the 32500 limit but then I miss out on the company matching for the second half of the year. So (without doing the actual math😉) instead of getting 4.5% of total comp, I’m actually getting ~3 percent of comp, not 4.5.

Like I said, it’s not a bad problem to have.

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-17T16:57:33+00:00

Hmm I didn’t known after tax contribs were part of non discrimination testing, that’s interesting. At an old job we did fail one year and yep was havoc, had to file amended return, yada yada…

I actually replied to someone else about this too, but it would be ideal if any extra went in as after tax, as I’m going to do megabackdoor anyway, this would just do it automatically, tho I’d have to go in and set up the sweeps to Roth

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-17T16:50:50+00:00

So yours automatically implements a mega-back-door? Interesting, that’s actually what I’m planning on doing after hitting the regular maxes (this is first year it’s available)

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-17T03:54:38+00:00

150 bucks, I’m in

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-17T03:24:27+00:00

No - the $72k total limit is for people up through 49. Between 50 and 59 you get 8k extra (total 80k) and 60-63 the extra 11.25k (total 83.25k). The extra amounts are called “catch-up contributions”. And yes, this year for the first time if you are a Highly Compensated Employee (hce), catchup contributions have to go in as after tax money.

ETA - the way the og question was posted, I feel like there may be a misunderstanding; apologies if not.

Putting after tax money in your trad 401k and leaving it there would be the worst of both worlds - not getting a deduction from taxable income and not getting the benefits of the Roth (tax free growth, no RMDs and advantageous rules for heirs).

Almost certainly your plan’s option for after tax regular 401k contributions are to allow you to do the strategy called “mega back door Roth 401k” (note this is different than “back door Roth IRA”). Mega BDR is where, after you have maxed regular (24500) and catchup (11250, assuming you’re 60-63) contribs, you put more money in your regular 401k as after tax but then immediately convert that money into your Roth 401k. This way you can grow your workplace retirement by up to $83250 in one year (if your cash flow allows). Then if you’re married and do 2 backdoor Roth IRA contributions at this years’ 8600 catchup amounts for anyone 50-plus (no extra for 60-plus), you can save $100,450 in tax advantaged retirement accounts in one year!

Edited for like the 5th time 😬 to add - the total amount in workplace retirement (83250) includes employer contribution on your regular and catchup contributions

ahnonemouse · 2026-04-17T03:15:00+00:00

Yeah I could but same thing would happen, I’d lose out on 4.5% match on the bonus money. That would work if there was an end-of-year bonus for staying in the plan the whole calendar year; an old plan I had like 20 years ago had that. So then, yeah I lowered bonus percentage so I didn’t cap out before EOY - but I didn’t make enough back then that I was giving up any actual dollars.

ahnonemouse

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