Three days of meals for like 8 bucks is just being smart with your money, not some huge crisis. People have been stretching cheap cuts forever, this isn't rocket science.

Man, I heard a podcast once where this author said she threw out 200 pages because her editor told her the book actually started on page 90. She was pissed for a week, then realized it was the best thing anyone ever told her. Something about how strangers and near-strangers can see our stuff clearer than we can, because they don't know all the backstory we're carrying around in our heads. Your barista buddy didn't have any skin in the game, so he just said the thing. That's kind of a gift even if it stings.

Learned this one the expensive way too, same deal with the shop vac. What got me was my GPU fans, you can't even hold those still with a pencil because of how they're set in the shroud. So now I just unplug the whole rig and blow everything outside with air, then wipe the blades down by hand with a damp cloth. Takes longer but I haven't bought a fan in two years. Also the makeup brush tip is solid, those things get into the fins way better than a q-tip ever did.