Am I the only one who tracked every single coffee shop purchase for a year?

Switching to a French press at home cut that line item from $720 to under $60, so what's your best 'latte factor' win?

Found a box of VHS tapes at a garage sale in Tacoma with a show I haven't thought about in 20 years

I was picking through a garage sale last weekend and found a whole box of old, unlabeled tapes for a dollar. Took a chance, popped one in my old VCR, and it was an episode of 'The Adventures of Pete & Pete' from like 1994. Completely forgot that show existed. My favorite part was always the opening with Little Pete's tattoo and that weird theme song. It got me thinking about all those quirky 90s Nickelodeon shows that just vanished. Does anyone else have a memory of a specific scene from a show that time forgot?

A customer in line at my bank in Fresno said something that made me rethink cash

I was waiting to deposit a check last Friday and an older man in front of me, named Frank, was paying a bill with exact change. The teller asked if he wanted to set up auto-pay, and he said, 'No thanks, seeing the money leave my hand is the only way I remember I paid it.' It was a simple moment, but it stuck with me about how different people handle their money. Has anyone else seen older payment habits that actually work better for some folks?

A chimney in Cedar Rapids went from clear to blocked in under a year

Cleaned a standard clay tile flue for a regular client last spring, and it was spotless. Went back this week for the yearly check and found a half inch of hard, shiny creosote buildup along the whole length. The homeowner said they started burning a lot of those pressed wood logs from the grocery store because they were cheap and easy. Those things are like creosote factories. Has anyone else seen this kind of fast buildup with those fake logs?

My balcony worm bin started making a weird hissing sound on Tuesday

I was adding some coffee grounds from my morning pot when I heard this low hiss coming from the corner. I opened the lid and saw the bedding was way too wet, basically soup. I realized I hadn't added any shredded paper for over a week, so there was nothing to soak up the extra liquid. I mixed in a whole newspaper and by Friday the sound was gone and it smelled fine again. Has anyone else had their compost make noises?

Update: I spent a full day trying to make a drawer slide fit and I'm done with soft close

Last Thursday, I was installing a set of cabinets in a kitchen remodel. The client insisted on these high end soft close slides for every drawer. I'm talking the kind with the little dampers built in. I had one drawer, just a simple cutlery box, that would not sit flush no matter what I did. I must have taken it off and put it back on six times, checking my reveals and my case square. The problem was the slide itself had about a millimeter of extra play in the mounting channel, so when you pushed it closed, it would ever so slightly twist and bind. I finally got it by shimming the back of the slide with a piece of card stock, but it felt like a hack. Everyone acts like these things are foolproof, but that tiny bit of slop in the hardware can ruin a perfect fit. Has anyone else had to fight a drawer slide that just would not cooperate?

I finally tried a 5-blade foil shaver after using a 3-blade for years in my shop

The extra blades gave me a smoother finish on tough beards in half the time, so has anyone else made the switch and noticed less irritation for their clients?

I think the bulk bins at my local co-op are a bad deal now

I was at the River City Co-op yesterday and checked the price on rolled oats. The bulk bin was $2.49 a pound, but the packaged store brand right next to it was $1.99 for an 18 ounce bag. That's a big difference for the same thing. They had the same issue with lentils and rice, where the bagged stuff was cheaper per ounce. It feels like the bulk section used to be the cheap option, but now it's just for people who want a tiny amount of something fancy. Has anyone else seen their store's bulk prices go way up?

I tried spraying my chicken with water halfway through the cook and it actually saved my dinner

I thought a coal forge was just old school hype until I tried one last fall

For the first 5 years I only used a propane forge, thinking it was cleaner and easier to control. A friend in Toledo let me use his hand-cranked coal forge for a weekend project. I was shocked at how fast I could get a precise, localized heat on a piece of 1-inch square stock, something that always took longer with my gas setup. The way you can push the coal around to focus the fire changed how I approach scroll work. Now I'm thinking about building a small coal setup in my own shop. Has anyone else made the switch and found it better for certain kinds of work?