Parenting is such a strange business. It is probably the most important thing most humans do, yet it receives the least amount of training.
When I was younger, I never wanted to have children, as I had been told that kids were a burden, an expense, a disappointment, and they caused problems in marriages. To be honest, I was a great disappointment as a child, and I can’t blame my father for my genuine shortcomings.
I was a “surprise” seven years after he already had his perfect family of four. I didn’t give him much to brag about. I was a huge kid, perfect for football. However, I was clumsy, horribly coordinated, and blind in one eye, making it impossible for me to even catch a ball. He told me he loved me, but his actions demonstrated a different reality. I’m not here to crap on my father. He provided me with food and shelter. He did the best he could; he was just done parenting by the time that I came along.
My head was always in the clouds, always thinking, always solving problems, always exploring scenarios. Mr. Wizard on TV became my virtual dad and hero, and teachers became my cheerleaders. However, the overall message was clear to me. Kids are problems; don’t have them.
I have always wondered how things work, why things work, and how I could modify things to do other things. A weird kid, I know.
That all changed with the birth of my first daughter, Anne. How could anyone not love that beautiful baby? I realized that my fear of having children was based more on my fear of being a father. I was a poor-quality son, and somehow that meant that I would be a poor-quality parent. I was terrified that I didn’t have the skills to do the job. I was afraid that I would be an inadequate dad. How could I teach my child sports when I was so awful at it myself? Isn’t that strange? I focused on the one thing I was terrible at and framed it as the sole necessary ingredient for fatherhood.
Sometimes marriages are mismatches, and that was the case with my first marriage. We divorced, but I made a commitment to do the best that I could to be a good dad to my daughter. I assumed that she would be my only child. Note to self: never make assumptions.
I dated a number of wonderful women during the years that I was single. I genuinely liked them, but I can’t say that I loved them. I committed to myself that I would not marry again unless I was sure. This eventually led to the certainty that I would live a single life. Over time, I stopped dating altogether; then I didn’t.
I met my wife by chance, and we hit it off. At the time, she was in the process of earning her PhD, and I was already a medical doctor. We married, but held off having children until she was near the end of her schooling. She was healthy, and I already had a child, so we were certain that getting pregnant would be a walk in the park. It wasn’t. Pills, shots, procedures- we did it all. Finally, a procedure called IUI was advised. It worked, and we had our first child together, a daughter. A few years later, we followed the same protocol and had our second daughter together. I was certain that we were done, but we were surprised by a bonus baby, a son whom we named William.
By then, I knew I couldn’t be a perfect parent, since no perfect parent existed. All I could be was me. However, I could be an intentional parent. But what was my goal? My objective in parenting? It was simple. It was my responsibility to raise my children to be successful adults. That was it, one goal, one mission. You may have your own idea of what successful means. Perhaps it involves a title, a job description, or a salary. In other words, something tangible. That was not my definition. For me, it meant they would be able to support themselves financially. That they had the tools and education to accomplish what they wanted to do. That they were critical thinkers and not sheep. That they had healthy self-esteem and faith in themselves, but not the false self-esteem created by the idea that everyone gets a participation award. That they had the life skills to function as an adult, and that they were kind and compassionate human beings who realized how fortunate they were and how some others were not. It was their responsibility to use their gifts and abilities to move the world in a positive direction, even if that movement would be minuscule.
Of all, being kind was the most important. When I was young, adults would remark how kind I was. I was never a tough kid the way a boy “should” be. I worried about others, I could sense their distress, I wanted to help them. I saw my kindness as a great weakness, a flaw. Another imperfection that made me different. However, I came to realize that it was one of my great strengths. Treating others with respect opens the world, and the act itself makes the planet a better place for all.
How did I accomplish my parenting goal? I tried to be a good parent. I tried to be reliable. I admitted to them when I didn’t know something. I taught them what I knew. How to cook, how to fix things, how to camp, how to see the wonderment that is all around us, how to be grateful. How to be creative, how to critically examine information, how to be kind, how to give back, how to love, how to respect, how to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and so on.
I let them know how much they were loved, but I also had expectations for them. Those were not expectations to make me look good, they were expectations to use the gifts that they were given to their fullest. This is what I could do for them; it would have to be enough.
I have a deep, never-ending love for all four of my children and savor the times when we can all be together. Those events bring me joy. However, I also love those rarer situations when I can spend time with just one of them. Each child is a bit different, yet amazing in their own regard.
My son is the only child still at home. He is constantly busy with his social life and pursuit of a PhD. My wife works some evenings, and these are often times when William and I spend some time together. We will make dinner together and sit down and talk. The worm has turned, and he is more up to date on scientific theory and procedure than I am, but I’m still capable of contributing to the conversation. At other times, we may talk about world events, my life, his life, or even his friends. I’m interested in their lives, too, as they move into adulthood and follow so many different paths.
My son is smart, actually very smart, and approaches complex topics with a relaxed ease. He is a social creature who easily makes friends, so he always has a story to tell of an adventure or to relate. Most importantly, he is kind. I can’t think of a time when he was deliberately mean to another person. He treats people with respect, and he treats me with respect. I do the same to him, as he is no longer the kid I taught to fix an outside faucet or cook a steak over an open campfire.
A few months ago, he wanted me to watch one of his favorite movies, “Dune.” We did this to our mutual enjoyment, and at the end we decided to continue the franchise by watching “Dune Part 2.” Life got in the way, and that never happened. The other day, at dinner, William said, “Dad, if we don’t schedule “Dune 2,” we will never watch it. I agreed and pulled out my calendar. We would do it the following Tuesday, as Julie would be working that evening and we could have a boys’ night. Naturally, it would involve food, a menu suitable for such an occasion.
On Monday I went to Aldi and picked up some brats, buns, potato salad, a can of pork and beans, and some chips. I couldn’t find sauerkraut for the brats, but Julie kindly stopped by the little store around the corner from her office to pick some up for the event. We were all set.
Aldi only had this enormous box of brats. If I made six, we would have enough for dinner, Julie, and even the next day’s lunch. What to do with the other six?
Yep, I had to make a plug for using a vacuum sealer. The other six are safe and sound in the freezer for another day.
The day before, William suggested that I crack open the bottle of Angel’s Envy bourbon that he gave me for Father’s Day. Dear reader, I’m not much of a drinker. In fact, I’m a lightweight when it comes to any alcohol. However, I do like a rare shot of bourbon on occasion. A few years back, Julie and I were trying to salvage a vacation and spontaneously decided to travel Kentucky’s bourbon trail. It was there that I discovered Angel’s Envy and its silky smooth delivery. Julie bought a bottle, but I never remembered to replace it when it finally emptied. Ever listening, William remembered this and thought it would be a nice Father’s Day gift. Sort of an adult son to his “old man” Father’s Day present.
William worked from home on Tuesday as he was learning a piece of software that analyzes gene sequences. By 5 PM, he was done for the day, and the two of us set about the task of making dinner. Into a pot went the brats. Out from the fridge came the potato salad; into another pot went the pork and beans, which I added some mustard, catsup, maple syrup, and bacon bits. The table was set with paper plates, and dinner was served. Conversation followed as we talked about our day.
I like to par-cook the brats before putting them on the grill. This pot has a can of beer, water, and some onion flakes. Real onion would work too. The trick is to only simmer the brats (do not boil) for around 20 minutes. At that point, they will be fully cooked and ready to crisp on the grill.
On the grill, they went to brown up.
My mom always “doctored up” canned pork and beans. I do the same with a little mustard, catsup, maple syrup (or brown sugar), and bacon. Yum!
A perfect guy’s dinner. Brats with mustard and sauerkraut. Beans, potato salad, and chips. Of course, we served it on a paper plate. Who wants to wash more dishes than they have to?
We worked together to clean up and then had a short break before we started the movie. I poured a couple of shots of Angel’s Envy for the big event. It felt strange pouring a drink for my son, but he is 25 and no longer a kid. To be clear, we had one drink each. It felt more ceremonial rather than anything else.
We each had one shot of Angle’s Envy. It was more ceremonial than anything else.
It had been months since we had seen “Dune 1” so William filled me in on the story as I already had forgotten large portions of it. “Dune 2” is a long movie, at times slow moving, yet engaging. Since it was only the two of us we were free to banter as he reminded me of the various roles and motives of the characters. For sure, it was an enjoyable evening.
In this commercialized world we are told that the best parents offload parenting by sending their kids to classes and summer camps. Every child must go to Disneyland, fly in a plane, have catered birthday parties, wear designer clothing. Honestly, I think that all of that is BS. A child should spend time with their parents. Parents should teach their children how to act, how to critically think, how to celebrate life. Time with you kids doesn’t have to involve the use of a platinum credit card. Playing a game, going on a hike or bike ride, critically examining a news story. For me, those activities are more valuable.
As a child I learned that children were a burden. As an adult, I discovered that they were a joy. Kids are not a bonus designed to make parents look good. They do require quite a bit of time, effort, and money. Isn’t that the case with many things that we deem valuable?
My evening with William may seem ordinary to you, but for me it was priceless. As he ages there will be less of these special times, but it is my hope that there will be some.
Peace
Mike
A photo of William and me from a father/son camping trip that we took a year or two ago.
Inflation continues, and many are struggling. This is another post in my series to help people get through these difficult times by using common-sense principles.
By now you know that I’m a fan of soups and one-pot meals. I have made a number of bean and lentil soups, and they are all similar, yet a bit different. Bean soups are extremely flexible and forgiving. Ingredients can be added or removed, and you can still get an excellent, delicious end product. Bean soups can also be extremely economical. A 20-ounce, 12-16-bean variety sack costs only a few dollars; the vegetable ingredients are cheap, and the meat can be anything from an Easter hambone to cut-up hot dogs.
This recipe made over 5 liters of soup, plenty to feed a large family. Only two of us were home when I made this, so we had quite a bit left over. The good news is that this soup freezes well!
Recipe adapted from the website, “Valerie’s Kitchen”
Cut up the vegetables. Exact amounts are not important.
Prepare your spices. Don’t add salt until you can taste-test at the end. The ham is already salty, as is the broth.
Here is the meat that I used. The ham bone was a gift from my sister, who had it left over from Easter. I froze it and used it all of these months later. I also had a couple of strips of bacon in the fridge. I used these for their grease and for their bacon flavor. If I didn’t have the bacon, I would have used vegetable oil. The meat that you use can vary. Try sausage, other smoked meats, or even sliced hot dogs. You can also omit the meat for a vegetarian dish. However, the meat adds a lot.
You will need around 6 cups of liquid for the recipe. That can be 4 cups from a box of stock plus two cups of water, 6 cups of broth, or, in my case, 6 cups of water with some chicken bouillon granules. I only used about a tablespoon of the granules, as they are pretty salty.
Here are the beans that I used. They are the Aldi brand and were of very good quality. I believe they were a couple of dollars. You should dump the beans and sort for broken/moldy ones as well as small rocks. This bag was very clean, and I only had about 5 beans to discard.
To soak or not to soak? That is the question. With a pressure cooker, you can use unsoaked beans by extending the cook time. I tend to soak when possible, as I believe that it makes the beans more digestible and less… hmm. Well, you know what beans can do. Pro Tip: I added a pinch of baking soda to the soak. This helps old beans hydrate better. I soaked the beans in plenty of water, overnight in a covered bowl.
Here are the beans after a night of soaking. I drained off the old water and rinsed them before adding them to the soup.
The recipe calls for 8 ounces of crushed tomatoes, but I used a whole can. If I didn’t have these, I would have used any tomato product or even condensed tomato soup. Remember, you are cooking for a family and not following some sort of heirloom recipe.
I also used my usual jar garlic. Would fresh be better? Likely, but this works too. If I didn’t have this, I would have used powdered garlic granules.
Let’s go! I rendered the bacon for its fat using the sauté setting on my electric pressure cooker (think Instant Pot). Don’t worry about the crispy stuff on the bottom of the pot; I will take care of that in a bit.
After the bacon rendered, I added the onions and cooked them for a few minutes to soften them. The onions released a lot of liquid, which made it easy to remove the fond (the flavorful, burnt-on crust) with a wooden spoon.
In went the carrots and celery, as well as the garlic. I continued to cook this mixture for a couple of minutes.
Then my spices. If you cook the spices for a bit, their flavor is intensified. However, be cautious, as you don’t want to burn them.
Now the soaked beans. Remember, you can use dried beans too, you would just need to cook them longer.
Now the chicken broth and the can of tomatoes.
Lastly, the ham bone. My electric pressure cooker is pretty full. Perhaps a bit more than it should be. However, we are going for it. A pressure cooker should be no more than 2/3 full. Probably less if I were just making the beans alone.
All of this is very simple. Now it is time to place the cover and pressurize. Since these beans were soaked, I cooked them for 25 minutes. When the cooking was done, I let them sit for at least 15 more minutes before releasing the steam. If the beans were not soaked, I would pressure-cook them for about 45 minutes and also let them rest for 15 minutes.
As an aside, I looked up this pressure cooker, and I have been using it for over 8 years. I can’t say enough about how useful pressure cookers are. Stove-top units last forever, but you have to watch them. These electric ones are also very robust. It seems that the Instant Pot craze is waning, and you can buy a new 6-quart electric pressure cooker for well under $100. I checked Facebook Marketplace and saw several used 6-quart models (a good size) selling for between $20 and $50. The Instant Pot brand is good, but so are many other brands. My unit is not an Instant Pot, but it works great.
After cooking, I took out the hambone and removed any meat, which I added back to the soup.
I tasted for seasoning, and no salt was needed. I did add a few shots of hot sauce (optional). I used a stick blender to blend some of the beans to thicken the soup. You could also mash the beans using a wooden spoon, or just leave the soup as is.
Here is the soup, plated and served with some of my homemade whole-wheat bread. The bread was made with a thrift-store bread maker that cost me $6.99. Why an avocado garnish? It was going ripe, and I needed to use it up. Necessity is the mother of invention! I also added a little grated Parmesan cheese. The soup was extremely filling and really delicious. There will be leftovers for several lunches and for freezing for a future meal.
Making food from scratch is much more economical than eating ultra-processed foods. Additionally, the food tastes so much better. I put together the bread’s ingredients in less than 5 minutes, pressed a button, and had a fresh loaf 3.5 hours later. The soup took less than 10 minutes to prepare, and then the pressure cooker took over automatically. Easy peasy.
Times are tough, but cooking from scratch and shopping at Aldi can save you both money and frustration. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can make this soup on the stovetop; it would just take longer (4 hours?). I’m pretty sure you could also make this soup in a slow cooker on low for 8-10 hours. If you go with either of these two methods, you will need to soak your beans overnight.
Earlier this year, I published a post on making banana bread using the classic Betty Crocker recipe. That recipe makes two loaves and uses buttermilk.
There are dozens of banana bread recipes, so I thought I would post another one. Why? Because this one is as simple as it gets and uses the most basic of ingredients. It is very likely that just about anyone who cooks will have the ingredients to make this single-loaf recipe.
In our home, bananas can be discarded when they are overripe. Turning them into banana bread transforms trash into treasure. A nice, thick slice can serve as a to-go breakfast. If you are single, it is easy to make a loaf and then freeze individual portions for breakfast, dessert, or a mid-afternoon coffee break.
You can dress up this recipe in a variety of ways. I added a little vanilla. Other add-ons like a handful of chocolate chips, walnuts, or dried cranberries are delicious. How about a dash of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice? Want your own signature bread? Brown the butter or use brown sugar instead of white sugar. Want to make the recipe as simple as possible? Just follow the standard recipe. This recipe is from AllRecipes.com. Ready? Let’s go!
Oven Temp: 325F or 160C
Screenshot
Mash the bananas. I’m using a hand mixer, but you can use a mixing spoon if that is all that you have.
Add the melted butter, sugar, and egg. I’m also adding around 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Mix it all up.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking soda. Note: Use baking soda, not baking powder; they are two different products.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones.
Mix just until combined. You will have a thick batter. Then add the salt.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the salt.
Pour into a greased 4″ x 8″ baking pan. If you have a slightly larger loaf pan, that is OK; the loaf will just be a bit flatter. Bake at 325F for 1 hour. My oven can run hot, so I checked it after 45 minutes. The bread looked baked, but inserting a knife into the center showed it was still raw inside.
The top was already browning, and to prevent it from burning before the center was done, I covered the pan with aluminum foil and returned it to the oven.
I set a timer for 10 additional minutes and checked again… still raw in the center. It actually took about 25 additional minutes before it was fully baked. Here is the finished bread cooling on a cooking rack. It is important to test the bread to make sure that it is done. Normally, my oven bakes things a bit faster, but in this case, it took a bit longer. By checking the center with a knife, I made sure that the bread was completely baked.
There you have it, the simplest banana bread recipe that I know of. Remember, you can do any of the above additions to make it even more special. Don’t have an oven? I have a friend who makes a delicious banana bread in his rice cooker! If there is a will, there is a way.
I have been on a journey to rediscover reading for pleasure. A journey that has had many twists and turns since childhood. Like most things that I do, this rediscovery has practical implications. Let me explain.
The early issue
You may recall from previous posts that I had significant problems learning how to read. I attended a Catholic grade school in the 1960s, where learning was expected, and processing problems were not understood. At a 2nd-grade parent-teacher conference, my teacher, a nun, told my parents that she thought I was very bright, so my reading problem must be due to poor vision. She was certain that I needed glasses. This was not met with joy from my dad; glasses were expensive. However, he was a dutiful Catholic, and I was taken to the Optometrist. Honestly, I was pretty excited as my young brain completely trusted the nun’s evaluation. Soon, I would be able to read! The glasses came, and I eagerly put them on. I could not read. I was horribly disappointed. Worse, I thought my father would be furious with me. He had spent an enormous amount of money, and I was once again disappointing him. I had to do something, but what?
The real problem
When you are in 2nd grade, and your only point of reference is yourself, assessing a problem can be difficult. Being unable to read hampered my ability to research solutions. I was completely on my own. What were my observations? It was very difficult for me to define letters. I had classical reversals; b’s could look like d’s. I had a great deal of difficulty discerning individual words or sentences; “he said” looked like “hesaid,” and “It is sunny outside today” looked like “Itissunnyoutsidetoday.” I also had trouble distinguishing between lines of text because they merged into a single line without separation. When I looked at a page of text, it was one gigantic soup of symbols all bunched together, changing their shape at will.
When other kids were thinking about lunch, I was thinking about the meaning of God’s injustice or why humans fought in wars instead of cooperating with each other. In other words, I was already an odd kid who learned to hide my differences so I could fit in. Now I had the realization that my brain was malfunctioning, further separating me from my peers. No one could know. I had to hide this defect, just as I had to hide all the other things that made me different. I wanted to be accepted not only by my peers but also by my dad.
The process
I had to come up with a solution; failure was not an option. I knew that I had limited abilities. I was clumsy and introverted. I was blind in one eye, so I had no depth perception. I would compare myself to the other boys in the class who were more athletic, more social, and cooler. I did not measure up. The same comparisons were done at home, with similar results. But teachers kept on telling my parents how smart I was. I could sit at the piano and play a song by ear that my sister had been practicing for weeks. I was already designing experiments to test ideas that my mind would not let go of. I saw connections in everything.
My miswired brain
My wife has joked with me in the past, telling me that I have an autistic brain. She is a clinical psychologist, so there may be some merit in her musings. My brain does seem to be wired differently; I don’t think linearly as most people do. Instead, I see pools of information that intersect, merge, separate, and reconnect. This crazy brain has both disadvantages and advantages. Instead of me processing A + B = C, I see A + B = a dozen possibilities. My thinking process takes much longer than most. Data acquisition is slower and sometimes more painful. I remember taking a physics class in college. I sat down on a Friday night (proof that I’m a nerd) to do my homework, and it didn’t make sense to me. I repeated the exercise on Saturday night. Still, it made no sense to me. Sunday morning, lightning struck, and the solution became abundantly clear as pools of data started to merge, separate, and merge again. The material became simple and logical. One problem led to many solutions, and I became the person who broke the curve in that class, much to my classmates’ chagrin.
The reading solution
Back to second grade. What to do? I already got my glasses, and I was failing at the task. If I told the nun that they didn’t help me, she might think I was really dumb, and I liked the fact that she thought I was smart. It made me feel special. I certainly could not tell my dad, he already had a negative opinion of me. Reading had become an essential part of learning, but I was failing at it. The kids around me were breezing through the text, and I was seeing an alphabet soup that looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Think, Mike, think! God would not give me the gift of intelligence and then cruelly deny me a way to use it. But what to do? The answers eventually came in the backseat of our old Nash Rambler on the way home from church.
I had taken the Sunday comics with me. I couldn’t read them, but their story lines were graphically simple and enjoyable. Could they be the solution to my reading problem? One cartoon stood out, “Nancy.” This was a strip with a very simple storyline. It used easy words, and the creator wrote in all caps. Many of the speech balloons had only a handful of words, with generous spacing between them. With effort, I could separate the words, and over time, I could do this quickly.
Nancy comics were easy to understand graphically and employed simple text, all in caps, and with good letter spacing.
After I mastered “Nancy,” I needed more material, but the options were limited. This was the 1960s, and parents didn’t buy kids books. We did have a bookshelf in our front hall that was loaded with ancient books of all sorts. Old encyclopedias that schools had tossed out, a giant Bible, “The Lives of Saints,” all were too advanced for me, but then I came upon what I needed. On a lower shelf were several readers from the 1940s that had been discarded by schools. It turns out that my oldest sister loved those books, which is why they were preserved. They offered me the next step in my reading solution: three volumes, each representing a different reading level.
You may be wondering why I didn’t use the books I was given in school. I don’t have an answer to that, but I guess that they were too threatening, too traumatic. I had already failed at using them, so I had to find my own path. I needed a solution that allowed me to move at my own pace. These primers were that solution.
Two of the three primers that I used to teach myself how to read. These are from the early 1940s and I believe they cultivated my love for that period of time.
The books were immensely more complicated than Nancy comics, and I had to face all of the issues that I had faced before, but now I had success with the comics, and I didn’t have the pressure of having to read them in front of the class. I came up with many solutions to my processing problems, from cutting out a window in a sheet of paper to isolate individual lines to reading shapes instead of letters. It was agony, but then suddenly it wasn’t.
The books were simple, but much more complicated than the comics. I had to employ other methods, such as creating a slit in a sheet of paper to isolate lines. I also focused more on the shape of a word rather than the individual letters. This seems to help (for some reason) my ability to separate words from one another.
Reading opened up my world and highlighted my talents. I couldn’t get enough information. Those old encyclopedias became my launching pad. The local branch library became my university. In the 4th grade, I took the state-wide achievement test and scored higher than anyone in my 1-8th grade school. In some areas, I was scoring as high as a junior in high school. Reading gave me that advantage. Now the nuns were telling my parents, “Michael is very special, God has plans for him.” That was just the ego boost I needed to move forward and trust my instincts and myself.
But my reading has always been slow and ponderous. I read slowly because I have to do a lot of gymnastics in my brain. I no longer have to do all the tricks I originally needed, but I’m still processing a sea of data. I’m a slow reader, but I have excellent comprehension. That can be a two-edged sword.
My passions
I stated many times in past posts that I have always had three passions that constantly drive me. I love to learn, teach, and create. Every aspect of my life is centered on these three pillars. I have never stopped reading, but I tend to read things that deepen my understanding. It matters not what that understanding is. One day, I may want to compare the Noah’s Ark story with its origin myth in the “Epic of Gilgamesh.” The next day, I may be more interested in the design differences between two breadmakers. It makes no difference to me.
However, such a drive can limit pleasure reading. There are so many novels that are enriching, yet don’t offer overt data. Of course, they offer so much more than just a story, as many question humanity, relationships, and drive on a level no clinical text can match. I know this, but textbook-type information is so much more accessible, so I tend to drift in that direction. Oh, gads, this just came to me: “Mike this is why people tend to eat ultra-processed food instead of healthy food. It is concentrated and more accessible.” See how my silly mind jumps from one topic and relates it to another. That is what I have to deal with constantly!
Reading novels and other non-technical books.
I know that reading beyond informational materials would be beneficial to me, so I have made efforts in the past to do so. I can’t say that I was ever a voracious reader of novels, as I’m a slow reader who tends to overprocess. With that said, I found reading non-technical material was both enjoyable and broadening. I especially liked it when an author could introduce me to information that changed my opinion about something. That was always exciting.
The medical school dilemma
Medical school ruined my pleasure reading. The first two years are didactic, and the amount of information that a student is expected to learn is astronomical. Tests are not based on broad concepts; they are based on footnotes. Students are selected for their academic prowess, so the test discriminates at the level of minutiae. This was vastly different from my graduate student days, which were more focused on concepts rather than memorizing random facts.
I found that I started memorizing everything I read, which ruined reading for me. That horrible process plagued me for many years.
The drive doesn’t end, and a new problem
I am always acquiring knowledge. I am always learning. I am always thinking. I guess you would call me a dilettante, since everything interests me, and I go from one topic to another. In my professional life, I had to be an expert; in my retired life, I can learn as much or as little as I choose to on any topic. This flexibility has been immensely pleasurable for me.
The Internet has opened up a world of data, and I have been greedily gathering it. One day politics, the next making meals in a pressure cooker, the day after that quantum theory.
YouTube has been both a blessing and a curse. Its algorithms draw me in by presenting one topic after another. I can get trapped in hours of viewing, but if I stay too long on the platform, it seems to have a deadening effect rather than an enlightening one. It is very hard for me to stop watching, which has affected me on multiple levels. My viewing can prevent me from doing necessary household chores, exercising, or exploring creative outlets like photography or writing. I call this the ice cream phenomenon. A bowl of ice cream is delicious, but a carton of ice cream makes me feel sick. Yet there are times when I want a carton of ice cream, and I have to use willpower to keep myself from eating it. Like eating a carton of ice cream, I have had to use psychological techniques to limit my YouTube use. A little YouTube enlightens me, but a steady diet of it actually dulls me and prevents me from living my life.
The sleep issue
I used to be a deep sleeper, but this changed with the birth of my first child over 40 years ago. Suddenly, I would wake at a pin drop. This has continued to this very day. My sleep is always disturbed, but usually manageable to some degree.
When I was working, I had sleepless nights, but I thought that would change when I retired, since my days would be mostly stress-free. However, my sleep can still be terrible, often waking for hours in the middle of the night. Something had to be done.
As you can tell by the preamble, I’m a problem solver, and I explore possible explanations for any given problem. What was the cause of my insomnia? I don’t drink caffeine products in the evening, and I do the usual sleep hygiene things. Yes, I may need to get up to use the bathroom once or twice, but I have developed ways to make that less obtrusive. I also know a number of psychological tricks to fall back on when I wake, but I’m often too lazy to incorporate them. If I could identify a root cause, I might be able to find a solution.
One thing I did was watch YouTube videos before bed. Initially, I thought the videos were relaxing as I would fall asleep watching them. However, I soon realized that they were stimulating my brain in unwanted ways. The bright blue light from my laptop screen wasn’t helping, nor was YouTube’s algorithm, which always seemed to hook me into watching the next video. When I woke up at night, I sometimes opened my laptop and watched more videos. It was a never-ending cycle.
I started to notice a pattern: my wakeful periods were getting longer and longer, sometimes lasting from 12:30 AM to 4 or 5 AM. Initially, this insomnia would last a day, and I would sleep well the next day. However, they eventually transitioned into several consecutive days.
I had some ancient Klonopin in my medicine cabinet. The pills were over 10 years old, and in desperation, I would bite off a bit of the pill in an effort to reset my sleep. This would work, but I soon found I had to do it for several nights in a row to reset. Eventually, the pattern would return. The Klonopin was not the solution, plus I only had a limited supply. I needed to explore other options.
Options and solutions
I intuitively knew that YouTube was a major contributing factor, but I didn’t want to give it up. In some ways, it was a bit of an addiction. The more I watched it, the more I wanted to watch it. Depending on the content, it could really crash my mood. This was especially true of political shows. Yet, YouTube gave me a lot of good things, too. Clearly, I needed to take control.
My solution was simple and consisted of both biochemical manipulation and behavioral intervention. I knew that Klonopin had to be an emergency-only option. I decided to take a dose of magnesium and a microdose of melatonin at night. Neither had a dramatic impact, but they seemed to be calming.
I also knew I needed to give up late-night YouTube for a multitude of reasons: the content was too stimulating, the algorithm was too engaging, the computer screen was too bright, and the screen refresh rate (60-120 Hz) was too aggravating.
Instead of looking at this as a problem, I decided to approach it as an opportunity. Stopping nighttime YouTube cold made little sense. I needed a substitute, and that substitute was reading.
I love technology, so it was a no-brainer to go with an e-reader instead of a physical book. E-readers use a different method to control their lighting and a different screen technology called e-ink. E-ink only refreshes when you change pages, not at 120 Hz like computer displays. E-readers illuminate the front of a page like a physical book, not the page itself, as on a laptop. Front illumination is more natural.
E-readers offer an unlimited number of reading options, including many free and inexpensive ones. I could download books from my library using Libby, get free out-of-copyright books from sources like Project Gutenberg, or buy books from online bookstores like Amazon, Kobo, or Barnes & Noble.
At this time, I am reading “50 Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die” from Amazon. These 50 books are all out of copyright, so the entire collection was less than $2 to download.
An e-reader was the solution to my reading problem as it combined technology with reading. It also gave me flexibility, as I could download virtually any book and adjust any parameter of that book, from the font size and type to the screen brightness.
Transitioning to reading at bedtime was initially difficult. The experience was too slow-moving and not stimulating enough. I wanted to watch YouTube. My first few nights were frustrating, but that is now improving.
I don’t feel a need to stay up all night reading, and I find that reading a chapter or two is usually sufficient. Currently, I’m reading “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, which he published in 1906 (it actually was serialized in 1905, but it was published as a book in 1906). It is a story about immigrant abuse and the horrors of working in Chicago’s stockyards at the turn of the last century. I’m a Chicago Soutsider, so the stockyards are very familiar to me. The topic is timely as we continue to deal with immigrant abuse in 2026.
It appears that my sleep is slowly normalizing and that my treatment plan was correct. I’m very grateful for that. This solution highlights another point. We never need to wallow in problems when there are solutions at hand. Those solutions may vary based on time, situation, and need. Lastly, solutions can do more than just solve a problem. They can expand our knowledge and experience. They can enrich our lives and help us grow. That is, if we let them.
We live in a world of instant gratification. A time where we can have what we want without problem-solving. This will likely get worse as AI becomes more prevalent. However, as humans, we need to grow and solving problems is part of that process. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” A quote to remember.
Images are my own or from the internet and are used for educational purposes only.
Inflation is crazy, and my heart skips a beat when I go grocery shopping. Yet cooking at home still offers significant savings compared to eating out in any form. I’m a huge fan of one-pot meals because they are simple to make, tasty, and often provide leftovers for later.
Both my sister and sister-in-law do me a favor. When they serve a ham for a holiday event, they save me the remnants and the ham bone. I vacuum seal them and freeze them for future soup meals.
Today, I’ll be making a ham and lentil soup. The recipe is from AllRecipes.com, but I’m doing a looser version. Soups and stews are flexible, and a little artistic license has little impact on the end result.
I like lentils because they cook quickly and they don’t require pre-soaking. This Instant Pot recipe called for an 8-minute cook time with a natural release of at least 10 minutes. My lentils were old, so I wound up cooking them for around 15 minutes. You could make this recipe on the stove in a large pot, such as a Dutch oven. However, you would need to extend your cooking time to around 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. Not a big deal.
Lentils are nutritional powerhouses. They are high in plant protein and fiber. They are loaded with minerals. They are high in iron, so they can help with certain types of anemia. They help regulate your blood sugar and strongly support a healthy gut. Lastly, they are dirt cheap to buy and last forever on your shelf.
Lentils come in a variety of colors, and each has a slightly different cooking time. Most stores carry brown lentils, but there are also green, yellow, red, orange, and black varieties. Each has its own characteristics, but I successfully substitute whatever variety that I have on hand. One pound of brown lentils is often under $2 and contains around 2 and 1/4 cups. Most recipes use one cup of dry lentils, so you can see how economical cooking with lentils can be.
This recipe uses leftover ham that was gifted, about $1 worth of dry lentils, and some inexpensive vegetables, and it makes a ton of soup. Let’s get into the recipe!
I’m not going to follow the amounts exactly; instead, I’ll do my usual approximations.
I sautéed a chopped onion and a couple stalks of celery in some oil for around two minutes.
I added about 3-4 sliced carrots and sautéed the mixture for about 5 minutes.
I then added a generous spoonful of jar garlic. You could use real garlic or even powdered garlic.
Here are the spices that I used. I used about 1/2 teaspoon of each ground spice and a couple of small bay leaves. I briefly cooked the spices with the vegetables (about 30 seconds). If you don’t have all of these spices, use what you have. Oregano is a good one to have around, as it is useful in many dishes. Don’t use too much oregano, as it can impart a soapy taste to some dishes, if used excessively.
This is the hambone from my sister. I cut off the remaining meat and chopped it up. There was quite a bit of meat remaining. Less would have been fine. I could have cooked a few strips of bacon instead of the ham, then sautéed the vegetables in the bacon fat. It is easy to substitute similar for similar! The ham was added to the soup.
I added around 8 oz of tomato sauce, 4 cups of chicken broth, and I cup of water. If possible, use low-sodium chicken broth. I used bouillon. The soup was a bit salty from the bouillon and ham, but still delicious. You could also use water instead of chicken broth.
Add one cup of dry lentils. I like to rinse my lentils as they can sometimes be dusty.
Pressure-cook on high for about 10 minutes. I added an additional 5 minutes (15 minutes total) as my lentils were old (I bought them in bulk and have been using them for over a year). Let them release naturally for at least 10 minutes before depressurizing the Instant Pot. My electric pressure cooker isn’t an Instant Pot, but they all work the same way.
You can smash some of the lentils to make the soup thicker if that is what you like. I also added a little cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken ours. However, that is totally optional. Now taste and add around 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of pepper and salt to taste. I didn’t need any salt as my soup was already pretty salty from the ham and bouillon.
A little acid helps liven the flavor. I’m using around a tablespoon of sherry, but you could use some lemon juice or even a splash of vinegar.
I also added a few squirts of hot sauce (optional). This is the Aldi clone of Frank’s hot sauce.
I made a small loaf of whole wheat bread in my bread maker. I just tossed in the ingredients, and 3.5 hours later, I had this delicious warm loaf.
Dinner is served! Hearty and filling ham and lentil soup that was extremely inexpensive to make. I’m serving it with a little sour cream, but that is optional. My wife and I ate our fill, and there is so much left over that we have an extra meal, and I’ll still have plenty to freeze for later. The homemade bread made the meal special, and it was much tastier than anything from the grocery store.
Estrangement seems to be a popular trend. In fact, it is estimated that about 10% of adult children are estranged from their parents. I can certainly understand breaking off contact with a parent who was physically, emotionally, or sexually abusive. Likewise, I can understand a parent ceasing contact with a threatening or destructive child.
In my psychiatric practice, I witnessed parents who had no idea why their children broke off contact with them. These were people whom I had known for years and didn’t seem to present with significant abusive pathology. A typical scenario would go something like this: “I saw my son/daughter over Christmas, and everything seems great, then two months later, I got a text message telling me to never contact them again.” You can imagine how devastating such a text could be. Certainly, parenting can be difficult, and some parents can be difficult. However, does that justify completely cutting off a relationship, often without conversation or any hope of resolution?
I have also witnessed what I call partial estrangement when the child doesn’t completely break off contact; they just let it wither. Holidays and milestone dates go by unnoticed or barely noticed. There is a lack of interest in or engagement with the parent’s life, and, in many subtle and overt ways, the child makes it clear to the parent that the parent is unimportant.
As a parent, I know that we all make parenting mistakes. However, beyond those that I listed above, how many are unforgivable? What I discovered during my work life is that many adult children continued to seek the approval of parents who were clearly abusive toward them, and often, the reasons that some adult children broke off relationships with their parents were for “softer issues,” such as a parent who was overly controlling or critical, or had different political views. In many of these cases, no effort was made to talk things out or clear the air. The relationship ended with no hope of healing.
I have also seen situations where a married child eliminates contact with a parent due to spousal influence. This can stem from imagined insults that the spouse believes the in-law directed at them or from the spouse’s psychological pathology.
Let me be clear. There are situations where a parent does have some culpability. Some parents continue to try to control their adult child or have unrealistic expectations of the relationship. Some parents can act like jerks towards their child’s spouse. Some parents can continue to be critical of their children or play the comparison game with them. I’m not saying that limits shouldn’t be placed. However, it makes little sense to completely sever these relationships without a few serious, honest conversations.
I think estrangement is becoming more popular for a variety of reasons, from therapists suggesting it to social media that promotes it. I have seen posts on social media where parents pour out their hearts, wondering why their child suddenly cut off all contact with them. The comments in the post frequently contain hateful responses from individuals who have no knowledge of the situation, but are happy to add additional cruelty to the grieving parent. What is that all about?
I have also seen prideful parents who won’t reach out to an estranged child, expecting that some miracle will happen to bring them back into the fold. What does it take to say, “Can we talk about this?” Or, “I was wrong.” Or, “I’m genuinely sorry.” Pride before the fall.
A situation that I have witnessed is what I call the “You should know” phenomenon. This is when a parent asks what they did wrong or why their child is angry, and the child responds, “You should know what you did!” The parent has no idea what they did and therefore has no hope of resolution. This is a form of cruelty. It says that the child wants to maintain their ill feelings and does not want a resolution. Why? There are many reasons, but few are reasonable.
None of us can say what the future holds, including me. However, I know that two ways to keep a relationship thriving are to allow open communication and maintain frequent contact. When it comes to open communication, acceptance is the rule. Adult children have to live their own lives and have their own triumphs and failures. It is not a parent’s job to highlight their adult children’s mistakes unless asked. I’m not saying that a parent should never intervene. Of course, there are situations that require action. However, some parents are excellent at finding every flaw and then magnifying it.
I’ll question my kids if I feel they are heading in the wrong direction or if I have significantly more experience or knowledge in a particular situation. I want to emphasize the word question. I don’t try to force my opinion on them. My actions have changed over time. When they were children, it was my responsibility to make sure that they were safe and moving in the right direction. However, that is not the case with my adult children. Frankly, it is a relief to pass on that responsibility to them.
My mom would always say, “Friends come and go, but you will always have family.” I believe that there is wisdom in that statement. We can have friends that become family, but those situations are rare. If we can maintain healthy relationships with our relatives, whether they be siblings or children, we are better off. One way to do that is to have regular contact with them. This can be done in many different ways, but it should include time for conversation. In my family, we do this on multiple levels.
As my family of origin aged, we drifted away from our cousins. Was there an event or reason? I don’t know of one. However, about thirty years ago, we found ourselves together at a funeral, where we decided to reunite. That reunion led to others and now consists of multiple planned events every year, including a picnic, a campout, and a Christmas party. These get togethers continue due to the efforts of my cousin, Kris, and her husband Bob. They are the organizers and thereby serve an important function. Most relationships require an active force, and it isn’t reasonable to expect an equal distribution of responsibility in these situations. Someone needs to take charge and shoulder the burden of leadership. Many of my nephews and nieces attend these events, and it is an awesome way for me to catch up with them, too. I want to know what is going on with my relatives’ lives, and I want them to know what is happening in mine.
Every year, we schedule multiple events where cousins and their children can gather and connect.Here we are at a recent campout.
I have only two siblings remaining, and they are very important to me. I have taken on the active role of staying in contact with them and make a point to call them very frequently, sometimes daily. We are all retired, and our lives are routine. When you talk to someone multiple times a week, you rehash the same topics over and over. That is fine with me, as the purpose of the calls is to have contact, not to explore the meaning of life, although we sometimes do that too. A number of years ago, we realized that the only times we saw each other were during major events and holidays. We established “sibling breakfast.” We meet roughly monthly over breakfast along with my wife, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law. They are family, too. For many years, we went to local restaurants, but that became harder for some of the older members, so now we meet at my sister’s house. We all bring what we want to eat. I may stop at McDonald’s for a #1 meal; my wife usually packs yogurt and fruit from home; my sister-in-law may bring a nutritious shake, and so on. This bring-your-own-breakfast rule makes our get-togethers simple and carefree. Our purpose isn’t to eat a meal; it is to be with each other. In this situation, my sister Nancy and I take charge of scheduling the next meeting. My sister Carol hosts the event. We try to schedule our next breakfast before we leave. If someone can’t make the next date, that is OK, as we know we will see them soon, as this is a monthly affair, and there are likely other events beyond our sibling breakfast where we will have contact. We have made scheduling and attending these meetings as simple as possible. The easier it is, the more likely we will continue.
We meet monthly for a sibling breakfast. Everyone brings their own food, making the event extremely simple to host.
I have been married twice and have three kids from my second marriage and one from my first. I have had children living with me for many years. In fact, I was nearly 50 when I had my son. I’m very used to having a close connection with my children, and I like it. My kids also seem to like it, and they like each other. However, they are now leading adult lives. My daughter, Grace, came up with a solution based on the sibling breakfast concept. We have established a “family brunch” where we meet about once a month, rotating from house to house. The host makes a brunch, but since the meal rotates, no one has total responsibility. Towards the end of the get-together, we sit down and schedule the next meeting. It has been wonderful. We are all reasonable people, and by meeting regularly, petty issues fade away. We are all a bit different, and we make an effort to accept our differences instead of trying to change individuals to conform to what we think that they should be. Beyond family brunch, we stay in touch via other activities: impromptu Sunday dinners, holidays, and a group chat where we can share our lives and photos. So far, this has worked out well.
I get together with 3 of my kids (my oldest lives away) every month for a family brunch. Of course, their boyfriends and girlfriends are included.
So what is the bottom line?
Separation breeds discontent. It is easy to amplify differences and turn minor hurts into major wounds.
Beware of friends and therapists who like to amplify this discontent rather than promote reasonable solutions.
Are there times when it is appropriate for children or parents to end contact with the other? Yes, but in many cases estrangement happens when there are clearly other less destructive paths that could be implemented.
Efforts need to be made to keep in contact with those whom you love. Often, this will be a one-sided responsibility; that is the way it is. Contact can happen in many ways, including regular meetings, email, text messages, group texts, and scheduled FaceTime calls. The best contacts are in-person, but any contact is better than no contact.
Problems arise in all relationships, and how differences are resolved often determine the outcome. Can you talk about an issue, or do you punish the other person with “the silent treatment”? Are you one of those us-vs-them individuals who tries to get others on your side in a conflict? Are you great at bringing up past offenses from years gone by? Those are just a few of the many possible ways to poison relationships.
It is imperative to realize that the rules are different for children vs. adult children. Parents who want the same level of control that they formally had are asking for resentment from their adult kids.
Relationships are not a one-sided street. Adult children also have options that go beyond total estrangement. For instance, is your parent a shamer? Why not confront them honestly and unemotionally? “I feel like you are shaming me. I don’t accept that shame.” For some parents, their behavior is so ingrained that they don’t even realize that they are doing it. I’m trying to illustrate that there are many alternatives beyond removing an otherwise decent parent from one’s life. It is not necessary to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
It takes little to say, “Can we talk about this?” Not comfortable with that? Try an email.
Do you want to convert the other person to your way of thinking? Well, you won’t have much success, so stop that.
Are you willing to accept the other person’s feelings and find a compromise? Now we are talking!
Avoid hot topics. I remember seeing a sign when I was growing up that said, “Don’t talk about politics or religion.” That is good advice. By the way, when did political beliefs become a religion?
Did you do something that upset someone, even if you didn’t realize it at the time? Say you are sorry, mean it, and try to adjust your future behavior.
In summary, practice the following behaviors:
-Have regular contact with those you love.
-Have open communications with those you love.
-Be willing to say you are sorry and mean it. If you are a “my way or the highway” person, you have already lost the battle.
-Try to see the adult child’s complaint from their point of view instead of trying to justify your past actions. Accept that others may have different opinions from yours.
-If you see a pattern in your behavior that consistently causes conflict in others, own it and change it. As humans, we are imperfect. Do an honest personal inventory. Are you too critical? Are you a shamer? Are you a comparer? Are you too demanding? Are you (fill in the blank)? Do you have destructive ways of dealing with conflict, such as blaming? Are you a splitter who causes disharmony between your kids? If the answer is yes, work to change those bad characteristics. If they caused estrangement from a child, they are most certainly impacting other relationships in your life.
-Seek outside help if you can’t implement that change yourself.
-Be flexible with your expectations of the other person. They are not clones of you. Focus on the positives of the relationship.
What can a parent do when a child has cut off all contact, and the parent has tried to reach out to resolve the issue but are met with silence? That depends on the situation. However, in some cases it isn’t a bad idea to continue a back channel. I treated a divorced dad who was estranged from his son due to the poisonous actions of his ex-wife. Through my advice he sent his son random correspondences through the years. A thinking of you card, a funny comic, a birthday wish. His ex destroyed many of these, but some got through. Eventually, the son grew up, moved out on his own, and was no longer under his mom’s influence. The father and son reconnected because the son knew his dad cared, as he continued to try to contact him. Sending a card or a greeting takes little effort, and it may eventually result in a resolution. Naturally, every situation is different. In some cases any continued contact could be considered a threat. I’m just suggesting that it helps to think outside of the box.
At times a parent has to accept the situation and move on. A lot of energy is wasted pursuing dead ends in relationships of all types. Put the bulk of your energy into those who are there for you and who do love you. If you do this, you will be a happier person.
There has been an insidious practice going on for decades. That is the practice of transferring wealth from the lower classes to the upper classes. The movement started subtly, but it has escalated dramatically over the last decade.
For a generation, there has been a push for normal consumers to consume more, update what they have, and modernize items that are still functional. If you are old enough, you remember the must-have avocado-colored refrigerators that became “out of style” and needed to be replaced by must-have copper-tone-colored refrigerators that became “out of style” and needed to be replaced by the must-have almond-colored refrigerators, and so on. Needless changes in appliances, fashion, automobiles, and even furniture drove the economy forward while depleting consumers’ bank accounts.
Then there is the “You deserve it” campaign, fueled by high-interest-rate credit cards, easy-to-obtain loans, and now BNPL companies like Klarna. These vehicles change the physical presence of money to an abstract concept. They removed the friction of taking money out of your purse or wallet. Now all you had to do was tap a card or fill out a form. It became easy to spend “a little more” to get something perceived as of higher value. You wanted to spend $100 on a winter coat, but the $250 one is so much nicer! Use your credit card. You live paycheck to paycheck, but don’t your kids deserve that $10,000 trip to Disney? Use Klarna. Your neighbor just got a new car, now you want one too, but they are so expensive. The salesman will help you out by lowering your monthly payment by extending your loan to 8 years. Who cares that the interest rate is 20%? By the way, the average car payment is now $767/month, the average loan term is around 6 years, and 35% of car loans are now over 6 years. Think about that, then add costs such as repairs, normal operating expenses, and insurance.
Planned obsolescence is another method to get you to spend more. In 1924, the companies Philips, Osram, and GE formed a secret group called the Phoebus Cartel and reduced the lifespan of lightbulbs from 2,500 hours to 1,000 hours. They fined each other for manufacturing longer-lasting bulbs. It is known that Henry Ford would send his engineers to junkyards to see which components of his cars lasted the longest, so he could shorten their lifespans.
My house was built in 1984, and I bought it in 1989. The former owner left the original almond-colored fridge. I felt I needed a stainless steel one, so I moved the old fridge into my basement, where it served as a second fridge until last year, when it finally failed. That was over 40 years of service. I’m currently on my 4th stainless steel fridge upstairs, and one of them lasted only 3 years before I had to replace it.
If you have a perfectly good Windows 10 computer, you are now out of luck, as Windows 10 is no longer supported. Just upgrade the software? Well, probably not, since your device likely doesn’t have the newer computer chips required for an upgrade. You will need to send it to a landfill, even if it is working fine. You will be forced to buy a new computer.
I have heard the same for cars, which have become ever more complicated with features that most don’t need or want. Major components like the CVT (transmission) regularly fail, with astronomical repair costs. Some feel it is just easier to buy another car after a catastrophic failure. They will roll their negative equity into their new car loan, placing an even greater debt burden on themselves.
Companies are making it ever more impossible to repair things. Do you want to save a few bucks and replace your iPhone’s battery at a non-authorized repair shop? Good luck; it will never calibrate as well as one that was more expensively replaced at Apple. When you go to Apple, you may be told that it would be just easier to buy a new phone for $1000. Want to get that failed CVT transmission replaced at a better price by going to a local mechanic? Well, that may not be possible, as the install requires “calibration” using a computer and very expensive, exclusive software that only the dealer may possess. I had a stove that was around 10 years old that stopped working. When the repairman came out, he noted that the problem was the main computer board. The bad news was that those boards were no longer available. I had to buy a new stove. My mom used the same stove for 25 years, and it then moved with us to become a basement stove in our new home. It was very simple and 100% mechanical. It just kept on working. Her simple stove and my computerized one did the exact same thing: they cooked food. However, mine was unfixable. Was that worth a digital display? I don’t think so.
We are constantly barraged by ads, with the average consumer seeing anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 per day. They are everywhere, from social media sites to email to text messages to regular media to posts that look like content but are actually ads. They all want you to buy items you don’t need and likely won’t make you happy beyond a short dopamine burst when you buy and receive the product. Psychologists call this the Hedonic Treadmill. You buy something and feel good. That fades, so you buy something again and repeat the process over and over. Each hit has a smaller happiness return, so you need to buy more and spend more. Can’t afford it? Use your credit card!
We are moving into a new phase of selling as we are all now being monitored and cataloged. Devices like computers and smartphones record our searches, the web pages we visit, the posts we write, and how much time we spend looking at each item. We are conned by influencers to buy products, and by advertisers who push us to do the same in any way possible. We buy unnecessary things on credit cards that have an average interest rate of 23%. The average consumer has around $11,000 in credit card debt. If their credit card has a 23% intereste rate, they will owe an additional $18,000 in interest if they make the minimum monthly payments. Think about that: that $100 item will actually cost you $280, and it will be long gone by the time you pay it off.
We are constantly being psychologically pressured to buy, often for items we think we must have but that have little ability to improve the quality of our lives. Money is being siphoned from those who have less to those who have more, and they use that money to influence our politicians to escalate this process further. That is certainly the case with the “Big Beautiful Tax Bill,” which gave some small, very temporary concessions to the average citizen, but permanent, large tax benefits to the rich. How did this do this? By taking away money that helps the less fortunate. Cuts in SNAP, cuts in Medicaid, cuts in lunch programs for kids, cuts in hospice care for the poor, cuts to agencies that keep us safe, and so on. Everyone is not a welfare queen; the vast majority of people are just trying to get by. However, it is convenient to find a negative poster child if you want to divide the country. How sad it is that it is so easy to hate.
Our current government has eliminated extended student loans for many expensive-to-obtain professions, including advanced practice nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, physician assistant, speech-language pathology, architecture, and social work. If you are not wealthy, you may need to dash your dreams or subject yourself to predatory private loans. Beyond the impact on the student, this result is the overall reduction in the number of these professionals who better our country with their skills and training.
There is another wealth drainer that has entered the picture: the subscription service. This device isn’t new, but it has grown and mutated over the last decade or two. In the past, we may have had a newspaper or magazine subscription. Every day or month, we would receive a tangible object at our home. That seemed worth it.
When I was growing up, virtually all television was free (with advertising). We only had a few channels, but they were enough. Cable TV was reserved for rural parts of the country where TV signals were weak. Cable was then a subscription service that used large antennas to receive weak TV signals and rebroadcast them to consumers who would otherwise be unable to receive any TV. In the 1970s and 1980s, a new type of cable TV was introduced. Exclusive channels available only with a subscription. Now, you need cable TV to watch the latest documentary or TV show. Something that was once free now had a charge. Yes, there was the promise of more choices, but I remember many times when I surfed through all 100+ channels only to realize there was nothing worth watching. I gave up cable TV over 10 years ago and have not missed it.
Cable has been replaced by streaming services. Netflix was under $10 and offered an amazing number of movies and shows. Over time, the price has crept up, and we now pay almost $20/month for less content and have to subscribe to additional streaming services to supplement Netflix.
I’m a photographer, and in the past I used Adobe products to edit my photos. Adobe Photoshop was an expensive program, but once you owned it, you had it for life. In 2013, Adobe moved to a subscription model in which users were charged monthly to use the software. I saw a dangerous trend and switched to different software. Adobe has continued to push this trend with escalating prices and hidden fees that can add up to an astronomical amount if you decide to cancel your subscription. Part of the subscription deal allows Adobe to use your images to train Adobe’s AI software. You pay to use the service, but Adobe uses your creative content for free? Yep.
The popular word processor, Microsoft Word, launched a subscription program in 2011. Now there are many subscription programs, including Apple products that were once free, like Pages and Keynote. Companies may argue that this means that you always have the latest and greatest software version. However, word processing programs were perfected decades ago. Most additions amount to options that are neither needed nor wanted.
Everyone wants to get into the subscription model as consumers continue to rent items they previously bought. Here are some other egregious subscription examples.
-BMW now charges $18/mo if you want their seat to heat. $10-$15/mo for the steering wheel to warm, $15/mo for automatic high beams, and $50/mo for adaptive cruise control. My former 2014 Ford included all of these features in the purchase price.
-My Subaru requires a subscription if I want to remotely open my car doors with an app. That subscription is also necessary to receive service reminders with important prompts, like when it is time to change the oil. My former 2008 Honda Fit included free service reminders.
-Want to use your Samsung TV to display art? That will cost you $50/year to view their curated JPEG images.
-On Tinder, but not being noticed? For a mere $499/mo, you can become an elite member with a chance that Tinder will push your profile a bit more.
-Pantone colors are the standard in printing. They are often used to maintain a brand’s integrity. You always see the exact same blue and yellow when you look at a Best Buy Ad, or the exact same red in a Target Ad. Those are Pantone colors. Many use Adobe software to create all sorts of printed material that must be standardized across many documents. Pantone colors were available in the past, but are now a subscription if you use an Adobe product. Now you have to pay an additional $15/mo, or all current and past work will turn black. This is on top of the standard Adobe fees, which now can be as much as $100/mo.
-HP printers tried to charge home users a per-page subscription to use their printers. You could buy the printer, have ink in it, and still not be able to use it if you reached the number of pages your subscription allowed.
-Do you want your $100,000.00 Mercedes to have full acceleration? Releasing the remaining 25% of the engine’s power will cost you $60- $90/mo. That is just a software switch. The subscription doesn’t add any additional hardware to the car.
There is also a model for subscribing to use a car. This would be different from a lease.
Most of these newer subscription types charge you for things you once bought and used forever. Now, you have an everlasting ongoing charge.
When I was growing up, my parents operated on a cash-only basis. Bank cards were being introduced in the 1960s, and many companies were mailing them at random. I remember my father cutting them up and throwing them in the trash. The concept of automatic credit just didn’t make sense to him. We didn’t update things; we fixed them. When some things broke, we did without. When clothes became worn, we patched them. We had food, shelter, and clothing, and I never worried if there would be dinner on the table. It was always there. We had an old fridge with a tiny freezer. Yet my mother managed to feed 7 people every day. That fridge was only updated when a relative replaced their larger fridge sometime in the 1970s. Why did they update it? Because it was seafoam green, and that color had gone out of fashion. We continued to use that fridge for years and celebrated the fact that the freezer compartment was not only bigger, but even had its own door.
My dad usually bought my uncle’s old cars. They weren’t stylish, but they ran. If you wanted coffee, you didn’t go to a cafe; there was a pot brewing on the stove. Birthday cakes came from our Sunbeam mixer, not a bakery. A winter coat may be a Christmas gift, and that was if you were lucky. You learned how to delay gratification and didn’t depend on a new purchase to make you feel better about yourself.
If you look at all of the above consumer tactics, they either make you feel bad about yourself or what you have, or they offer a solution. Solutions often for a problem that you didn’t realize that you had.
It is easier to extract the maximum amount of money from a consumer if you can separate them as much as possible from the actual process. Tapping a credit card is not the same as pulling bills from your pocket. Buying something on credit eliminates delays and allows the consumer to spend well beyond their means. Subscriptions of any type are easily forgotten, and it is simple to slowly increase their costs over time. The average person pays over $1000/year in subscriptions, and that number feels low to me.
It is critical to remember that all of these services exist to benefit shareholders, not the consumer. They are designed to make you spend more and to increase the cost of an item well beyond a normal purchase price. Klarna, a BNPL service, lends you money that you pay back in installments. The service is free, or is it? If you default on making a payment, you will be charged a late fee. How many miss a payment? Over 40%. If you need to take out a longer loan, be prepared for an interest rate up to 35.99%! That is higher than credit cards, which have an average interest rate of 24%. Those companies want you to be late on payments, as it means more money for them. They get richer, and you get poorer.
Debt traps you. People stay in jobs they hate, live in places they would rather not, and feel hopeless even when they earn a decent salary. Take a massive mortgage, two huge car payments, all the regular payments from utilities to health insurance, and add Klarna debt, credit card debt, and payday debt. Mix in the costs of kids’ summer camps, sporting camps, music camps, and all of the expenses needed to raise a child in modern times. Add loans needed to remodel so you can keep up with the Joneses. Add student loans or unpaid medical bills from an emergency room visit. Mix in all of the subscription services, some that you still pay for but have long forgotten. Now sprinkle in inflation, increased gas prices, higher taxes, and utility bills. You can see that a simple problem that costs money to fix can throw a typical family into economic ruin. Cars break down. Car repairs are often well over $1000, and many are much more. Only 45% of Americans have enough savings to pay for a $400 debt. Think about that, it is easy to spend $400 at Costco; most emergencies are much more expensive than that.
So what can you do?
-First, you must do a fearless inventory of your debt. Write down where your money is going.
-Start to reduce your expenses. Eliminate all unnecessary costs. Get rid of all unused or rarely used subscription services. Look at ways to reduce your other costs. I have several posts on how to reduce expenses, a number of which emphasize simple tactics such as cooking at home.
-Focus on reducing your debt, rather than that next new purchase. There are many tools available, some of which are free.
-Remove buying apps, like Amazon, from your phone.
-If you decide to buy something online, institute a 24-hour wait period before you press the “buy” button. Before you press the button, ask yourself, “Do I really need this?”
-Move towards non-subscription models. There still exist non-subscription word processors, photo editors, and presentation programs. Over-the-air TV and radio are free. You can drive a car without heated seats.
-Consider eliminating subscription services that you do use. I currently have Apple News, which I like. However, I can get the same news for free by doing a little hunting and using free services, ranging from websites to over-the-air TV and radio.
-Avoid BNPL options like the plague.
-Consider putting your credit cards in a drawer, reducing their availability.
-Move more and more to a cash model. If you are using cash, you are forced to reconnect the product with the cost.
-Need a vacation? Save for it. Can’t afford Disney? Go where you can afford. Your kids will not be traumatized for life if they don’t have an audience with the mouse. Some of our favorite vacation memories involved camping trips.
-Use what you have.
-Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. They don’t care.
-Stay away from influencers and reduce your overall screen time.
-Find free/low-cost experiences. Play a board game with your family. Have a potluck dinner party or movie night with snacks, or go to a free concert. Explore options like inexpensive plays at your local high school or college. Utilize your public library, which can not only lend you books, but also DVDs, magazines, audio books, and even music CDs (if you have a CD player).
-Check your credit card statement and think about each purchase that you made and how you may want to change in the future.
-Understand the psychology of selling. Understand that an unnecessary purchases will yield a very temporary “feel-good” impact. In the long run, they will likely make you feel worse.
-It is better to have fewer things of good quality than many things of poor quality.
-Critically assess large purchases. Do you really need a new car? Is there a more economical way to get that college degree? Do you have to update your furniture?
-Put your energy in people/relationships rather than stuff.
Times are tough. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for rising prices. These increases impact consumers on all levels, but some can be temporarily avoided. It is possible to delay the purchase of clothing or hard goods, such as furniture. However, other items need to be bought regularly, including food, cleaning, and hygiene products.
I recently wrote many posts on ways to save money, from easy recipes to savings tips for seniors. Today, I’ll talk about actual ways that I put these habits into practice. I am not a frugal guru; I still spend money needlessly. However, over the years, I have adopted many frugal habits and learned how to make them a seamless part of my life. With a little planning, time, and care, they have become natural parts of my day. I don’t feel like I’m giving up anything. They do not feel like sacrifices, and I think that is the secret to implementing them. These changes have occurred over the years and have often happened for reasons other than penny-pinching. Usually, they were a more practical way of approaching life’s problems. They took hold, and the rest is history.
Part of this transformational process is to abandon ad culture, which constantly pressures all of us to try something new or stick with a brand name. It is important to go back to basics and to focus on needs vs wants. That is especially true of wants artificially created by marketing, including those pushed by influencers.
Rule One: Buy what you need, not what you want. In the digital age, we are constantly being profiled. Advertisers know who we are, what we like, and how much we are willing to spend. As a person who has been susceptible to marketing, I know how easy it is to be influenced. One of the most effective ways is through para-social relationships. If you regularly watch an influencer on social media, it is normal to have some sort of connection with that person. However, that connection is completely artificial. Yet their messaging can be a powerful motivator to buy something. My best advice is to avoid product reviews unless you really need something, and to avoid influencers who are constantly selling something, whether it is a “course” or any product. Manufacturers pay influencers big bucks to gush about a new skin care routine or vitamin drink. Frankly, most (if not all) are BS. If you don’t watch, you won’t be influenced. Years ago, my sister-in-law was trying to figure out what she wanted for Christmas. She felt like she didn’t need anything, so she started to look at all of the Christmas-focused ads. Suddenly, she wanted everything! That is the power of advertising.
Rule Two: Unnecessary stuff won’t make you happy. When we buy something new, there may be a bit of excitement and a dopamine rush that makes us feel good. However, it is temporary and artificial. This rule excludes things that you really need. When I moved into my own home over 30 years ago, I bought my first washer and dryer. Having my own washer and dryer did make my life better, made me happy, and still does. When I turned 50, I “treated” myself by buying a Mercedes. I felt great that first month. Then it was just another box on wheels, and once the warranty expired, it became an incredibly expensive toy to maintain. I eventually sold it and bought a Honda, which, in every way, was a better car.
In 2008, I sold my Mercedes and bought this little Honda. It was a fantastic purchase. I eventually gave it to a family member, who still uses it to this day, eighteen years later!
Rule Three: Remove emotion and bias when making any purchase. Another car example. We had a 12-year-old SUV that I wanted to last forever. However, the engine suffered a catastrophic failure, and, along with other repairs it needed, it was clear that it had reached the end of its life. We had to buy a new car, but what? If we really wanted to, we could have purchased a luxury car. However, see Rule Two. My wife and I were more interested in a reliable car that met our particular needs. The most cost-effective choice would have been to buy a 3-year-old car with around 50-60K miles. However, we wanted a new vehicle for other reasons. We narrowed our search to three brands: Honda, Toyota, and Subaru, and found models in all three brands that were suitable. Our most important needs were based on safety and reliability. We found a Subaru that was a dealership loaner with only 4K miles on it. It was technically new, but classified as certified pre-owned, which extended its warranty beyond that of a new car. We approached the sale the way someone would purchase underwear. In other words, no emotion. If the salesman didn’t give us what we wanted, we would walk. With that said, our wants were reasonable. We refused garbage add-ons, like nitrogen-filled tires. We didn’t place value on things like the color of the car. We didn’t get excited about the purchase. We simply wanted the best price. We also chose a car that we could afford. In the end, we got over $8,000 off a “new” car with a free extended warranty (the certified car thing). The dealer wanted to sell us a “dream,” but we didn’t want a dream; we just wanted a vehicle. By making an emotionless decision, we maintained as much control as possible when dealing with a car salesman.
When we needed to replace our car, we decided to go with one that met our needs and offered the best value. We knew that a car was just that, and not a tonic to make us feel good about ourselves.
Rule Four: Give up brand loyalty if reasonable. Sometimes it is better to buy a brand-name product. However, that is true only if the brand name offers a better cost-to-quality ratio. Our 20-year-old washer and dryer were on their last legs. There were so many modern-looking front loaders available. However, research indicated that most of them were junk and would fail in 3-5 years. We decided to go with standard Speed Queen machines. These are the machines that you see in laundromats. They were more expensive but have an estimated lifespan of around 20 years. We also went with their simpler models that had standard controls. Why? Our laundry needs are pretty simple, and fewer options mean fewer points of failure. In this case, buying a brand name made sense.
However, there are other examples where you are paying for that brand’s marketing, rather than its quality. In those cases, we have no brand loyalty. We usually buy our toothpaste at Costco, which always has a sale on one brand or the other. If Colgate is on sale, we buy Colgate. If Crest is on sale, we buy Crest. I think I prefer Colgate’s taste to Crest’s. However, both brands get my teeth clean. The taste factor isn’t enough to make us spend more.
Rule Five: Little savings add up. When I was a medical resident, I had $20/week to spend on groceries, and I used cash. I was acutely aware of what I bought because it had to last the week, and I didn’t have a cash buffer. If one loaf of bread was twenty cents cheaper than another loaf, that is what I bought. In today’s world, many people use credit cards when buying things. Using artificial forms of currency separates the consumer from the product’s actual cost. It is easy to buy the imported Parmesan cheese for only a few extra dollars, or that winter coat for $50 more than you wanted to spend. By separating purchasing from real money, stores have made it easy to overspend, and that trend is escalating with buy now, pay later (BNPL) options like Klarna. That unwatched streaming service is only $9.99 a month, so you put off canceling. Those brand-name canned tomatoes are just 30 cents more than the house brand. That fancy shower gel is 20 bucks more than Sauve, but it smells so nice. You deserve it, right? Nope, not if you want to become financially secure. There may be some products that really matter to you, even if a cheaper option is available. If that is the case, go ahead and buy them. However, if you need to upgrade everything, then you need to re-evaluate.
This shower gel is $100 for less than 12 ounces. Really??
I will go out for coffee when socializing with friends, but that is a treat. I always make my morning coffee. It costs pennies, not dollars, for a cup, and it is delicious.
Rule Six: Eating out in all forms is now a special occasion event in our house. Eating out has gotten so incredibly expensive, including at fast-casual and fast-food places. We used to eat out all of the time. Not anymore. Most restaurant food quality ranges from average to poor, and the cost just doesn’t make sense. That goes for specialty shops like cupcake and cookie establishments, too. It feels criminal to buy a box-mix cupcake with fancy icing for $5, and then the person handing it to me wants a 20% tip. Do we ever eat out, or even buy a crazy expensive cupcake? Yes, we do, but rarely.
Heck, I can make my own fancy cupcakes for a fraction of the cost, and they actually taste better, too!
Rule Seven: Buy house brands when feasible. If you have read my posts, you know that I love Aldi. However, there are certain products that are not worth buying there. Once, I purchased their TP. Let’s just say you want TP to be strong enough so your fingers don’t punch through. However, we strive to buy house brands when possible. We find Kirkland TP (Costco) is sufficient. Tide laundry detergent is the best, but it is also the most expensive. We live sedentary lives and don’t have messy young kids, so we don’t need all of the enzymes and conditioners that Tide has. We are perfectly happy purchasing laundry detergent that is a tier or two lower, like Kirkland brand or All. The same can be said for dishwasher detergent. Powder is the most cost-efficient, but we like the pods. Kirkland pods don’t have all those fancy colors, but they work as well as the brand-name prettier stuff and are much less expensive. That is what we buy.
Kirkland laundry detergent is less expensive than Tide, but works just as well for us.
Kirkland dishwasher pods don’t have all of those fancy colors of brand name products, but who cares when it works just as well.
Rule Eight: We have simplified the cleaning products that we use. COVID brought shortages in everything, and we couldn’t get common cleaning products. Prior, I had a cleaner for every purpose: granite cleaners, stainless steel cleaners, cabinet cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners, you name it. During COVID, I would go to the store and find the shelves bare of essential items, so I had to adapt. Guess what? I didn’t need all of that junk. I add a scant teaspoon of dish detergent to a 24 oz spray bottle and fill it with water. It is a great general cleaner for all surfaces. I use a squirt of dish detergent to clean my toilets. If it is good enough to clean the dishes that I eat off of, it is good enough to clean the vessel where I poop. I have dramatically reduced the amount of paper towels I use in lieu of reusable microfiber towels. If cooking oil splashes on a piece of clothing, we found that a drop of dish detergent applied before dropping it in the washer does the job. When we couldn’t get liquid hand soap, I pulled out some old foaming containers. Did you know that 20% liquid hand soap and 80% water will make foaming soap when placed in a foaming pump? Bonus, there is no dripping soap to gel on your sink!
My go-to surface cleaner is a scant teaspoon of dish detergent in 24 oz of water. Works great!
I use reusable microfiber kitchen towels whenever possible to reduce my paper towel use. However, I always use paper towels when dealing with a greasy spill. Once you get grease on a microfiber towel, it is almost impossible to wash out.
Rule Nine: We cook from scratch whenever possible. When you start cooking from scratch, you may think it is more expensive than going out, since you need basics like cooking oil, spices, and the like. However, once you have established these products, it is significantly cheaper. If you have never cooked, it may be intimidating at first. Just keep at it, and it will become simpler over time. Cooking from scratch, in our definition, means we can use some prepared products. We often use frozen vegetables, which can be less expensive than fresh ones. I’m not opposed to using a can of cream of mushroom soup as a quick substitute for a cream sauce when making a casserole. We still buy chicken nuggets because my adult son likes them as a snack. I did a bunch of chores before I started to write this. I’m tired, so tonight we will have a frozen pizza for dinner. Being frugal should not be a punishment. Remember, balance in everything.
Homemade copycat Panera squash soup, a salad, and homemade bread. A very nice meal!
A nice Sunday dinner. Chicken made in the Instant Pot.
My daughter has her own place. She will often make a family-sized dinner and then divide up the meal into dinner-sized portions for the rest of the week.
Hmm, it looks like I’m getting ready to make some sort of cheesy pasta dish in the Instant Pot.
Rule Ten: We have a small stockpile of basic food items, like spaghetti and frozen chicken. We also have a deep freezer. I usually treat my family to a beef tenderloin for Christmas dinner, but I decided to end that tradition as they now cost $175 at Costco. My sister-in-law told me that a local market was having a spectacular sale, and I picked one up for $75. That isn’t frugal, but we are talking about a once-a-year treat. I vacuum sealed the meat and froze it. It will be fresh and delicious when I thaw it for Christmas 2026. Deep freezers use very little electricity, especially if you have a manual-defrost model. Having stuff on hand makes us much less likely to buy fast food or make imprudent grocery purchases. It also lets us buy things when they are on sale.
We have had a deep freezer for decades. It is a great way to stock up on food when an item is on sale. Deep freezers use very little electricity.
Canned goods have an amazingly long shelf life. Perfect items for so many impromptu dishes.
Rule Eleven: You need very few tools to cook. A pot and pan, a decent knife, and some utensils, and you can make a thousand different dishes. I like watching videos of working-class people in China using a hotplate and a water boiler to make delicious meals in their makeshift, tiny apartment kitchens. Likewise, I enjoy similar videos from folks in the States who make real food using only a mini-fridge and a microwave. Setting up a kitchen can be extremely expensive or very cheap. I know some who spent 100K on a kitchen remodel who don’t cook. My mom had an ancient fridge/stove and no counters (she prepared food on the kitchen table). She was a fabulous cook who fed seven people every day. My adventure/camper van has an induction burner and a microwave, and I often make full meals in it.
You need very few tools to cook. Here I’m using a Dutch oven, which can be used to make 1000 and 1 different meals. However, any large pot could be used. Soups, stews, and casseroles are the budget stretcher kings.
You can make amazing meals using a simple hot plate. Here I’m making a coconut curry in my adventure van.
Here I’m making a pork chop dish in my mini electric pressure cooker while camping in my adventure van. You can often find small appliances at thrift shops for pennies on the dollar. Just make sure that they work before you buy them.
Rule Twelve: It is OK to expand your kitchen equipment if you can afford it. True confession, I love kitchen gadgets and appliances. Crazy, I know. I have just about anything you can think of, but don’t forget that I have been cooking for 50 years, so I have had plenty of time to accumulate a lot of stuff. The items that I think are most valuable are a slow cooker, an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot), a vacuum sealer, a microwave, and a bread maker. Your mileage may vary. Having small electrics speed up my cooking. I can toss some ingredients into a slow cooker and come home to a hot meal. With the Instant Pot, I can cook something in 1/3rd the time that it would normally take. These small electrics are also very energy efficient and use considerably less energy than a standard oven.
Slow cookers are very inexpensive and super versatile. Toss in some ingredients in the morning and come home to a delicious dinner in the evening.
I’m a huge fan of electric pressure cookers (AKA Instant Pot). Here I’m making a one-pot spaghetti. Next to the ingredients is some homemade herb bread that I made in a bread maker, another fantastic gadget.
I have saved thousands of dollars over the years using a vacuum sealer. I buy food in bulk and then freeze it for future meals. Pro tip: You can buy generic vacuum-sealer bags for much less on Amazon and other online retailers.
I make most of my bread, rolls, and buns using a bread maker. You can pick up one at a thrift store for next to nothing. I have a few and have gotten them for as little as $4.99. Making your own bread is not only less expensive, but it is also better tasting. Plus, you can modify your bread to your particular tastes. I make all sorts, from white to whole wheat to cheesy herbal, and more.
Here I made some dinner rolls using the bread maker. I kneaded and raised the dough in the machine, then formed it into rolls, which I baked in the oven. You can use this technique for many different bread products, from pizza dough to challah.
Rule Thirteen: I do most of my shopping at Aldi and Costco, but for different reasons. I’m a huge Aldi fan. Overall, their food is less expensive than Walmart’s. If I want tomato sauce, there’s only one brand: theirs. This leads to less decision fatigue. The stores are small, so it is easy to get in and out. Costco has many bulk items at a good price. However, I tend to overspend at Costco and sometimes buy products I don’t use up completely. I need to be more careful at Costco. I do shop at other stores, but only for those items that I can’t find at Aldi or Costco.
Aldi is not only cheaper, but it is also easier, as there is less decision fatigue and the small stores are quick to go through.
Rule Fourteen: I often substitute ingredients. If I don’t have noodles, I’ll use another pasta, rice, or potatoes in a homemade soup. I’ll substitute ground turkey for hamburger in chili. I’ll substitute frozen vegetables for fresh in a casserole. I’m not cooking for a king, I’m just making tasty food for my family.
I’m making some chicken soup and using whatever starch that I have on hand. In this case, it is orzo.
Rule Fifteen: I have a very simple hygiene routine. OK, I’m a guy, and that makes things easier. Women are constantly sold the idea that a product will make them look 20 years younger. That is not the case. Most hygiene and cosmetic products are more similar than different. One way for a manufacturer to make more money is to differentiate products into new, and often unnecessary, categories. How many different face products does one need? Most dermatologists will tell you that the best product you can use to prevent aging skin is sunscreen, and the best products that you can use on your skin are the mild ones that are colorless and have a light fragrance or are fragrance-free.
Expensive makeup may be in a trendier hue or blended a bit more to make it slightly smoother. However, most of the expense is from marketing costs and hype. I am in no position to tell women what makeup routine they should do. However, I’m here to say that most men do not like the look of elaborate makeup. We are used to light makeup and have been conditioned to believe that a little makeup is normal, but when makeup becomes elaborate, it makes a person look fake. It is not attractive. Many men refer to this as clown makeup (or use more negative terms), and it is a turnoff.
I always wear cologne and discovered that the most expensive part of a bottle was the sprayer, then the cap, then the bottle. The actual ingredients that make you smell nice are the least expensive. Let’s look at some of the hygiene changes that I have made.
I used to use shower gel, but had a nostalgic moment and bought some bar soap. I discovered that I prefer bar soap, which is also more environmentally friendly. A YouTuber compared inexpensive Dial bar soap with inexpensive Suave shower gel and found that bar soap was about 4.5 times less expensive. Those costs go up further when you buy more premium shower gels.
I like these very gentle soaps, which are often on sale at Costco for around $13 ($0.24/ounce). However, Amazon sells the exact same soap for almost $38! That is no bargain.
Regular anti-perspirants make me itch, and typical deodorants don’t work very well (including natural ones). Decades ago, I discovered “deodorant crystals.” This bar will last me years. I apply it to my slightly damp armpits after my daily shower.
Years ago, I became frustrated with having to wait for a haircut, and I went out and bought some clippers. My haircut is very simple since I’m pretty bald, and I can cut it in less than 5 minutes. My friend tells me he pays around $50 for a haircut (including tip). These clippers cost less than $40.
I started shaving during the era of shaving systems. Three-blade, four-blade, five-blade systems, it was never-ending. Each brand had different models, none of which were compatible with the others. I would buy a handle and several packs of blades. When I ran out, I never remembered what handle I had, so I would repeat the process, and those blade cartridges were $3-4 each!Decades ago, I invested in a high-quality, old-fashioned, double-edge razor (Merkur brand, around $30-$40). It looks as good as it did the day I bought it. It uses standard double-edge razor blades that cost between $0.05 and $0.10 each. It shaves better than my old expensive systems, and the blades are universal. You can use a double-edge razor with regular shaving cream, but it is fun to use a brush and some real shaving soap. Pro tip: You have to angle this type of razor at around 30 degrees. Use extremely light pressure or none at all, or you will cut yourself. I almost never cut myself, but at first, I did because those multi-blade systems distribute pressure across all the blades, so you need to push down when you shave. If you do the same with a double-edge razor, you are applying all that pressure to one blade. Don’t do that! If you are interested in trying a DE-razor, watch some shaving videos on YouTube, as they will walk you through this shaving method.
Most Double-edge razor blades are made in other countries, not in the US. That is because these types of razors are still popular worldwide. You can buy sample packs to find the blade you like best.
I have dry skin, so I always use a moisturizing cream after I shower. This stuff is great and lasts a very long time. The secret is that I put it on before I dry off. A little bit goes a long way, and by the time I’m finished applying it, I’m dry enough that I don’t even need to towel down.
Rule Sixteen: You DON’T deserve it if you can’t pay cash for it! A line in advertising is that you “deserve” their product. This is a manipulation, so don’t fall for it. If you can afford something and really want it, it’s OK to splurge. However, if you have to pay for it using credit, you need to re-evaluate your decision. This goes for everything from buying a car to going on that “once in a lifetime” Disney vacation. Don’t be a sucker for advertising hype. If a little bit of pleasure leads to months or years of financial pain, it is a very poor bargain.
There you have it, the real things that I do. You may find that they work for you, or you may need to find your own system. Once you have it, it becomes a way of life. Most of these methods are more environmentally friendly, too!
Peace
Mike
Note: Images are my own or taken from product pages on the internet. They are being used for educational and entertainment purposes only.
If you have been reading my posts, you know that I’m a person who likes to get into the weeds. I want to know the why and the how of just about everything. My wife has chided me that I have an autistic brain; by this, she is implying that it just doesn’t function typically. Why is it that I can understand the most complicated concepts, yet I often can’t seem to spell the simplest word? Clearly, my wiring is a bit wonky.
This getting-into-the-weeds habit recently hit on the topic of bread makers (I told you I like obscure topics). I pondered how they had changed over the years and why you could buy a perfectly usable machine for under $100, while others cost as much as $500. In my usual fashion, I not only called upon my own experience but also on any additional information I could locate, to the point of examining teardown and repair videos to better understand the mechanics that made one machine cheap and another expensive. To find out more about this subject, read my previous post (April 16, 2026). It is LONG. Why say something in two pages when you can use twelve!
I’m a psychiatrist, and I understand human behavior. Anytime you compare or rate something, it will create conflicting views and even anger in others. People become invested in their beliefs and can take offense at even mild opposing views. Additionally, there is the phenomenon of confirmation bias, in which humans tend to accept information that supports their beliefs while rejecting information that doesn’t, even if the opposing information is equally or more compelling. Lastly, there is the power of social influence: our peer group shapes how we think. A person who only watches Fox News will have a very different reality than someone who only watches CNN. Both will be biased, but in different ways.
I didn’t think many would read my long September 17th post, but I knew that at least a few would. Given the above, I addressed the many factors that impact purchases, including performance, cost vs. value, construction quality, and the psychological pleasure a product provides. Unfortunately, we now live in a world where people view things in absolutes. Gone is the grey zone where just about everything really exists. In reality, two people can have opposing opinions, and both can be right. My wife has a walk-in closet full of winter clothes, and my winter wardrobe consists of 5 flannel shirts. Who is right? We both are.
Most of the replies to that post were positive, with one strongly negative one concerning my opinion that the Zojirushi Supreme bread maker offered a high-quality product at a lower price point than the flagship Zojirushi Virtuoso bread maker. I was told that I was doing a disservice to suggest this. The commentator felt that the Supreme’s top browning ability was grossly inferior to that of the Virtuoso. My experience with both machines did not support her statement.
Normally, I would have attributed the person’s comment to one of the reasons listed above. But there was a twist. She had used both machines; in fact, she stated that she had used a Supreme for 20 years and was never happy with its top browning capabilities. This wasn’t someone basing their opinion on ad copy or on groupthink. Twenty years of baking experience yield many data points. The tops of my breads were adequately brown, hers were not. Who was right? Possibly both of us. Clearly, I had to pursue this question further.
I have made many loaves in both the Supreme and the Virtuoso, but never in a controlled setting. Time to get sciency! Would a controlled bake show a significant difference in top browning between the two models? Would it show a mild difference? How could two observers have such a different interpretation? Dear readers, let’s get into the weeds as we explore history, marketing psychology, and actual data!
History
Bread makers were developed in the late 1980s by the now Panasonic Corporation. Bread makers have not changed much in their basic design from those early days, which is why many early models can still make an excellent loaf of bread.
The invention of the bread maker was made possible by the availability of microcontrollers, which are essentially computers on a chip. Bread makers were among the first home appliances to use microcontrollers, as were high-end microwave ovens. Now, microcontrollers are in almost every home appliance, from refrigerators to blenders, as they have become less expensive and more capable.
The process of making bread follows a sequence of steps. It would be possible to complete these steps using a wholly mechanical machine. Old automatic washing machines implemented a sequential set of steps using a mechanical timer. However, doing this for a small appliance would have added both bulk and cost. The microcontroller solved these problems.
Early microcontrollers were limited in their capabilities. Programs had to be short. Additionally, electronic displays were expensive, so many early machines had a simple 3-digit LED display with a colon. Over time, both components decreased in price and increased in capabilities, enabling manufacturers to add features at little cost.
When bread makers were introduced, they were considered a luxury kitchen item, since most people bought their bread. However, as they gained popularity, less expensive brands entered the market. This trend has continued to this very day, and it is wholly possible to purchase a machine that makes a decent loaf of bread for under $100.
I purchased this fully functional bread maker for less than $50, new. But, can it make a loaf of bread?
Yes it can!
Some newer units have achieved a very low price point by taking shortcuts in manufacturing, consolidating R&D, and using less expensive parts. Over time, the cost of electronic components has decreased, making it cheaper for manufacturers to add value-added features such as additional programs and more informative displays.
Many early bread makers were built to high standards. Ongoing efforts to create more affordable units rely on shortcuts and lower-quality components. However, since the basic design of breadmakers is simple, these units can still work well, but their longevity will likely be lower, and more in line with other current small electrics.
This Breadman Ultimate is from the 1990s. It is built like a tank and offered many advanced features like a fruit and nut dispenser and the ability to modify exisiting programs and to write new programs.
The race to differentiation
Small appliance manufacturers are in business to make money. To make money, you have to sell products. Many options are used to accomplish this goal, and some of those tools are under marketing’s control. Marketing is applied psychology. I could write quite a bit about this, but for now, let’s look at two aspects. The phenomena of “new,” and the phenomena of “improved.” I’m sure you have heard those terms often when dealing with products.
Humans are attracted to both; we are novelty seeking. Bread maker cases can be remade into different or novel shapes or packaged with a different finish, such as stainless steel. These changes would fit into the category of “new.” Additional programs can be added, or bread pans can be re-configured from a vertical to a more traditional horizontal pan. These changes would fit into the category “improved.” It is more important for a product to be perceived as new and improved than for it to really be new and improved. There have been times when these titles have been used to grossly manipulate consumers. Have you ever bought a box of cereal that proudly proclaimed “NEW!” only to discover that what was new was that the box had less cereal in it? That was a new change, but not one that benefited the buyer.
This mid-2000s Sunbeam has a “new” shape very different from the rectangular boxes of the first machines.
Although the design of bread makers has remained the same, there have been tweaks over the years that would fit in new and improved categories. A very common one was adding more programs. Different bread types may do better with different rise or bake times, but how many are really necessary?
Some programs add features that are not bread-related but take advantage of a bread maker’s stirring and heating ability. Examples include jam and yogurt-making functions. Other programs tweak bread-making algorithms. For instance, a whole wheat function may allow for more soaking time or a longer ferment time.
The sweet bread function is present on just about every modern bread maker. Premier Zojirushi bread makers have memory capabilities for different programs, but did not slot in one for a sweet course. Apparently, they felt that this was unnecessary. Another poster (sorry, I can no longer find the post) compared all the Virtuoso Plus’s many courses to the more standard functions of the Supreme. Her finding was that there was little to no difference between breads made with a new course vs. those made with an older course. The only outlier was the gluten-free setting. That makes sense, as gluten-free bread really isn’t a bread; it is more of a cake that uses yeast as a leavening agent.
Manufacturing decision choices
The majority of the original breadmaker manufacturers have either ceased production or opted for cost-cutting measures. Breadman was an innovator in bread makers. The brand is now under its third ownership. I recently tested the Breadman TR520 machine. It makes a decent loaf of bread despite being mostly fantastic plastic. However, it doesn’t compare in innovation or construction quality to the excellent Breadman Ultimate, which I purchased new sometime in the 1990s.
This old Toastmaster still has what it takes to make a good loaf of bread.
There are many lower-cost Chinese brands on the market that make good bread (I have tested a bunch). How have they been able to do this? Cheaper components, more plastic, and the use of ODM manufacturers. An example of a very inexpensive ODM machine is the BM1333 bread maker, which is sold worldwide under various brand names. In the US alone, I found it rebranded as Kitchen In The Box, Rosewill, and Wolfgang Puck machines. The BM1333 makes a decent loaf of bread, and it is full-featured. However, with regular use, it will likely last only a couple of years before being retired to a landfill (my opinion). For many, that is good enough.
The BM1333 bread maker is sold worldwide under different names. In the US, I found it sold under the Kitchen In The Box, Wolfgang Puck, and Rosewillbrands. The inner workings are very basic, but it still can make a decent loaf as the base bread making technology hasn’t really changed.
A different approach
A few manufacturers have decided that quality is the way to go. Notably, they are Panasonic, Breville (branded Sage in Europe), and Zojirushi. From everything I can research, these machines are still being built to the high standards of the bread machines of yore. You are going to pay much more for a machine with high-quality components that was designed by that company rather than an ODM manufacturer. What do you get in return?
Is the bread better? Taste is subjective, but there is some evidence that the loaf structure is better.
Will the machine last longer? Most certainly.
Will it have more innovative features? Possibly, depending on the manufacturer.
What you are paying for is a machine that will probably last longer with regular use, which may offer some advantages to the loaf itself. Yes, premium bread makers are worth the extra money, but not everyone has the extra money. Cheap bread makers offer reasonable options for cost-conscious individuals.
Breville, along with Panasonic and Zojirushi, have continued to make very high-quality machines. Naturally, you will have to pay the price to own one.
What is Zojirushi’s philosophy?
I am not a mind reader, so I can only speculate. Zojirushi has avoided some potentially useful features, like a fruit-and-nut dispenser, while embracing others, such as the ability to write custom bread programs. They have an overall superior build quality. I believe they are targeting the elite customer. That person who has a little cash to burn, who will only settle for the best. A second client would be the serious bread maker who bakes regularly and plans to keep baking for a long time. In other words, a “Buy once, cry once” type buyer.
Everything about Zojirushi bread makers echoes this philosophy, from the size and weight of their machines to the quality of their bread pans to the thoughtfulness of their recipe guide. Unfortunately, Zojirushi buyers represent only a small segment of the market. A segment that will likely keep their machine for a long time. Shunning planned obsolescence puts Zojirushi at a disadvantage.
What can Zojirushi do?
Pivot on its strengths. Use its marketing muscle. Emphasize its premium status. Entice existing customers to upgrade.
Premium brands can command a premium price based on the perception that they are premium. At times, charging a premium price elevates a product in a customer’s perception. A prestigious college will charge an exorbitant tuition, a T-shirt will be tagged at an astronomical price because of a graphic or logo, or a trendy restaurant will command big bucks even though it is serving the same Sysco food as the less expensive eatery down the block.
Companies can intentionally cripple their cheaper offerings to encourage upselling. I bought my first DSLR, a Canon Digital Rebel (300D), in 2003. That camera was the first sub-$1000 DSLR to hit the market. In many ways, it was a clone of the much more expensive Canon 10D. It could potentially do many of the same things as the 10D, but they were intentionally hobbled on the 300D. If you wanted those features, you had to pony up to the much more expensive camera.
I’m not saying that Zojirushi does the above tactics. I’m just noting them as they are common practices that manufacturers do to sell their products.
If you have invested in a Zojirushi bread maker and use it, you are likely happy with it. It will probably last a long time, so the need to replace it will be low, unless there is a compelling reason. Perhaps a design change that makes it look more modern, like a stainless steel case? Maybe adding a few more features, like additional custom programs? So many cheaper brands feature a dozen or more programs for special options like soft bread and sandwich bread. It looks like the good people at Zojirushi took notice, but with a twist. They still don’t have a sweet bread course, but their top-of-the-line model offers exotic options like Multigrain Bread and Vegan Bread. Just between the two of us, how different is the program of the Multigrain Bread course from the Whole Wheat course? And to be honest, I often make excellent bread using water and olive oil, using the Basic Bread course. That sounds like vegan bread to me.
The Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus updated the Virtuoso with a cleaner user interface. It also offered a number of new courses (programs). However, how varied are they under the hood? Your opinion may be different.
I want to emphasize that Zojirushi has valid reasons for charging more for its products than lower-cost brands.
-They do their own R and D instead of relying on an ODM manufacturer. That is expensive.
-As a well-known brand, they do marketing. That is expensive.
-Their components and construction seem to be of much better quality than those on less expensive machines. That is expensive.
-They maintain their own manufacturing facilities, where many other small appliance companies use third-party manufacturers. That is expensive.
-It appears that they have their own recipe testing facilities and don’t just copy and paste recipes from other sources. That is expensive.
-They invest in the entire experience. Even their operating manuals are beautiful. That is expensive.
-They have repair facilities, where when other machines “die,” they are simply discarded. That is expensive.
-They stock replacement parts for their machines. That is expensive.
Are the Supreme and Virtuoso significantly different from each other?
Companies use similar components across different models because it is the most cost-effective approach. Why buy and source two different motors that do the same thing when economies of scale would tell you that it is more cost-effective to use the same component in multiple models?
However, if a product has been on the market for quite some time, a company may make design tweaks. Perhaps a motor shows excessive bearing wear, so a different model gets subbed in. Maybe a heating rod can be found that is equivalent, but at a lower price. How about making a small change in the diameter of the paddle’s mounting post for slightly better torque or durability? Usually, these changes have little significant impact on the end result unless they are implemented to correct a design problem. Additionally, some manufacturers substitute a less durable component for cost reasons or to create a planned obsolescence scenario. There is the famous story of Henry Ford sending his engineers to junkyards to see which parts of his cars were still in good shape. It turned out that the radiators were, so he purposely designed them to fail sooner. However, cheapening products would be contrary to Zojirushi’s philosophy of designing high-quality products.
Available specifications suggest a strong similarity between the Supreme and Virtuoso machines. Their motors are the same wattage; their heating capabilities are very similar (600 vs 640 watts); their pan mounting mechanisms are identical; and so forth.
So are you saying that they are the same machine?
No, just looking at the two will show you that they are similar in design, but hardly identical. The Virtuosos is larger and bulkier. The lid is completely different, and the bottom heating element is configured differently. The control interface differs, as do several design and operating tweaks. That said, they are both very high-quality pieces of kit with many similarities.
Here is a Zojirushi Supreme flanked by a Virtuoso Plus and a Virtuoso. It is clearly smaller but carries many of the design cues from its more premium relatives.
Mike, can you finally talk about that lid heater?
In my September 17, 2025, blog post, I stated that the lid heater offered a marginal improvement in overall browning compared to bread made in a Supreme bread maker. I didn’t find the lid heater compelling enough to upgrade on its own, in my opinion.
Every bread maker has a way to brown the top of their loaves. All bread makers use an inner metal lid to capture heat and radiate it back to the top of the loaf. Different bread makers achieve top browning through one or more additional methods:
A single heating element is located at the bottom of a bread maker. Heat from that element rises and is drawn upward by a vent in the lid.
This is an example from the Breadman Ultimate. Clearly, this very simple system can brown the tops of a loaf.This is a very common method for top-browning.
Slots are opened in the top separator between the oven pan and the outer wall of the bread maker. Corresponding slots are made in the lid of the bread maker. Air heated in this space rises passively and is channeled into the lid. This is the method the Supreme utilizes. It is combined with option #1.
This Panasonic uses slits between its oven and outer walls to direct heat to the lid. This is likely the most common way bread makers brown the top of loaves, and it does a good job. The Zojirushi Supreme also uses this method.
Here you can see the Zojirushi Supreme in action. It has made a beautiful loaf.
Two separate heating rods are incorporated at different levels of the bread pan to improve temperature uniformity in the bread oven. Additionally, option #1 and option #2 are also incorporated.
This Rosewill unit incorporates twin heating elements. In addition, it also uses methods #1 and #2.
Another beautiful loaf. I don’t see a particular advantage to the baking process/top browning compared to the other methods listed above. However, Rosewill notes that it bakes a bit faster using this two-heating-element design.
A small accessory fan is incorporated to circulate and mix the air in a style similar to a convection oven. Additionally, option #1 (and sometimes #2) is used in this configuration.
This Cuisinart unit uses a small fan to turn its oven into a convection oven. It also uses method #1. The idea of using a fan isn’t new, Oster had a machine in the 1990s that had a convection fan.
A secondary heater can be placed in the lid of the bread maker to help brown the top of the loaf. This is what the Virtuoso does. Option #1 is also utilized, and is likely the main source of top browning.
The Zojirushi Virtuosos (Plus) uses a 40 watt heater in its lid plus the method used in #1.
The Plus does a nice job browning the top of a loaf, but is it objectively better than the other methods?
Mike, do you think that Zojirushi deliberately made the Supreme’s top browning capabilities worse to sell more Virtuoso machines?
No, that would be contrary to their branding. Anyway, if you can buy a decent Chinese bread maker for less than $100 that browns the tops of breads perfectly well, it would not be in Zojirushi’s best interest to make a $350 bread maker that performs poorly. However, I’m getting ahead of myself. I need to construct an experiment to demonstrate whether my hypothesis is correct or incorrect.
The hypothesis
The Zojirushi Supreme does an acceptable job in browning the tops of bread.
We are interested in comparing options 2 and 5. Also, why isn’t option 5 used by other manufacturers? The most obvious answer is that options 1-4 provide sufficient browning, often at a lower cost. However, other issues are at play. Let’s explore some of them:
The heater in a Supreme has a power rating of 600 watts. The bottom heater in a Virtusos is 600 watts, while the top heater is only 40 watts. That is roughly a 6% increase in heating power. In other words, the top heater provides a heat increase roughly equivalent to a 40-watt refrigerator/appliance light bulb. An Easy-Bake oven requires a 100-watt light bulb to bake a tiny, thin cake in a minuscule oven. The average mid-sized slow cooker uses between 150 and 200 watts. Forty watts does not provide much heat, only about 136 BTUs in an hour, compared to the 600-watt heater, which produces 2027 BTUs in an hour (almost 15 times more heat). The majority of any browning action will be accomplished by the main heating element, not by the extremely puny 40-watt lid heater. It’s possible the designers realized the additional size/build of the Virtuoso needed that extra small boost.
You can see from this specification sheet that the Virtuoso model’s top heater is a very small 40 watts, and that most of the baking is done by the main 600-watt heater.
The power requirements for the Supreme are similar to the Virtuoso, with a 100 watt motor and a 600 watt main heater.
You may ask why Zojirushi didn’t use a bigger lid heater? I can only speculate, as a larger heater would certainly have a greater impact on top browning. However, doing so presents engineering problems:
A powerful top heater may make it more difficult for end users to use recipes that have not been specifically calibrated for it.
A powerful top heater could pose a fire hazard if the dough came into contact with the lid.
A powerful top heater could melt the plastic lid. If the lid were changed to metal, it would then become a burn hazard (users touch the lid a lot). If extra insulation were added to the lid, it would increase the lid’s cost and make the unit even bulkier. The Zo’s are already huge; few people desire an even bulkier bread maker. Additionally, adding insulation would likely require a redesign of the entire unit, resulting in greater expense with little actual performance gain. Remember, I have already shown that simpler designs produce nicely brown breads.
What can be expected from a light-bulb-level heater that adds 6% more heat? Well, hmm.. Perhaps a slight increase in even browning.
The experiment and choice of test equipment
The original Virtuoso and the Supreme list detailed timing information for their courses. For white bread, they are very similar, with slightly longer fermenting times being used by the Supreme. There is also a slight variance in the amount of yeast used. This suggests that the Virtuoso uses a slightly different fermenting temperature, but it is pretty close to those used by the Supreme.
Why not use the newest Virtuoso Plus, which I also have? The Virtuoso Plus manual removes precise course time information. Why would they remove such information? It’s possible that several of the new courses are very similar to each other. Was the addition of some of these courses based on adding useful features, or was it a marketing decision? I don’t know.
The Original Virtuoso includes timing details about each cycle. Very useful information if you want to write a custom course (program).
The Virtuoso Plus eliminates this information.
I always weigh my bulk ingredients, but measure light ingredients like salt and yeast. I believe the degree of error of kitchen scales is significant when weighing items under 10 grams. However, I do possess another scale that registers with a 10-milligram resolution (0.01 grams). For this experiment, I’ll weigh any ingredient under 15 grams using that scale rather than measuring spoons. Additionally, I have checked the accuracy of both scales using standardized weights. They are home-use scales, not lab equipment. However, they are both accurate enough for this test.
I used a precision scale for any ingredient that weighed under 15 grams. This scale has a resolution of 0.01 grams (10 miligrams).
I’ll use Zo’s white bread loaf as listed in their manuals. The only difference in the recipe in the two manuals is a tiny change in the amount of active yeast. This is likely due to the slightly different fermenting temperatures of the Virtuoso.
I don’t have access to an instrument-grade colorimeter, so I made my own manual one. It will act as the browning standard for this experiment. Due to design limitations, its resolution is set in 10% increments.
I didn’t have access to a colorimeter, so I made this manual one so I had a physical standard to compare the bread tops from the Supreme and Virtuoso machines.
Lastly, the breads will be made simultaneously to negate any environmental differences.
Let’s begin!
Let the experiment begin!
Both machines were set to the basic course, medium crust, with preheat on.
The standard ingredient loading protocol was followed, and each bread pan was loaded identically. Ingredients were the same, except for a slight variation in the yeast per each manual’s instructions. The Virtuoso may have a slightly higher fermenting temperature.
Here we have the loaf from the Zojirushi Virtuoso. I would say that the level of browness is around 45%. Note the camel hump pattern which is common with two paddle machines.
Here is the loaf from the Zojirushi Supreme. The top of the loaf is uneven, which (in my experience) can happen with any bread maker, including the Virtuoso. The general darkness is also around 45%. However, there are some areas that are closer to 50%. I think this is due to the unevenness of the loaf’s top. However, it may be due to the browning method, so a purchaser should take that into consideration, though it does not affect the quality of the bread produced. With that said, I have baked Supreme loaves with evenly browned tops and Virtuoso loaves with unevenly browned tops.
Discussion and Conclusion
This experiment shows that the Supreme is capable of browning the tops of bread baked in it. I believe the uneven browning is due to the loaf’s unevenness, as an earlier photo of a loaf baked (see above) shows perfectly even browning.
I have also shown that there are multiple ways to achieve top browning, and they all seem to work well. Why one designer choses one over the other is unclear. Perhaps the shape of the bread pan requires it, or the size of the machine, or some other unknown problem that the designer was trying to solve.
It is also important to recognize the commenters’ observations and to assume they are valid. She clearly had a very different experience, and that experience went well beyond novice error (20 years of use). Some possibilities include:
-She had a very early machine that was programmed differently.
-She had a defective machine.
-She has a different standard than mine. I’m a guy who eats bread. If it looks like bread and it is baked through, I’m happy. I have been baking bread for almost 45 years, using everything from a food processor to a KA to a Bosch Universal. I have been using bread makers for over 37 years. Despite all that, I would not consider myself an expert baker. Generally, I make bread, and people eat it. That is as far as it goes.
I did this experiment for my own interest. But I also did it for other Zojirushi Supreme users. Many have the X20 and C20 versions of these machines. I think this experiment shows that the Zojirushi Supreme can make an excellent loaf of bread. That makes sense. Why would anyone spend $350 for a Supreme that didn’t work well when you can buy a brand new Chinese bread maker that works great for around $50?
I’m not saying that the Supreme and the Virtuoso (Plus) models are the same. The Virtuoso models have further refinements, and those refinements may be what some users want. I’m just saying that they are both great machines. If you are a Supreme owner, be proud. You own a superior appliance.
I welcome others to run this experiment if they have both machines. If there was a pattern of difference, we could explore this topic more and perhaps come up with a reason for that difference.
It is important to explore any contrary opinion using critical thinking. So many people formulate opinions on just about everything based on limited information or others’ opinions. This is off topic, but I think that it is important enough to emphasize that if something doesn’t hit you right, it is easy to investigate further. The other day, I was assaulted by advice-giving “doctor” videos on YouTube. As a doctor, I could easily tell that what they were saying was inaccurate and misleading. It turns out these very real-looking doctors were created by AI. They were totally fake. Please don’t be influenced by one-sided arguments or groups/individuals who are manipulating you for their own ends. You deserve more than that. OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
I’m a planner who projects multiple scenarios into the future and then plots the best course of action. That sometimes works out well for me. However, some of the best decisions that I have made were based on a feeling, and those feelings were often contrary to my best laid plans. Strange, don’t you think?
I’m a person who loves being in my head. It gives me pleasure to dive deeply into obscure topics. I can sit and think or write for hours and completely lose myself. I’m not anti-social. I have to have my alone time, but I also need to have people in my life. I am beyond fortunate to have an immediate family who loves me, extended family who are awesome, and true friends who I know will stand by my side no matter what. However, I’m not a person who values volume over quality. I have never needed to be the most popular kid on the block. In fact, that would be too much for me as it would take away my thinking time, which I value greatly.
I met Tom 13 years ago when he replaced a roof that another contractor botched. It was a short time together, perhaps a week, but I instantly liked him. Two years later we needed our bathrooms remodeled and I called Tom and two other contractors. Tom was the first one to estimate the job and against the logic of getting at least three quotes, I hired him on the spot.
During those days I was able to do tele-medicine two to three days a week from my home, so I was constantly running into Tom and we would talk. Tom is exceedingly bright and very creative, so it was always a pleasure. I think the whole project lasted around 6 weeks and I found myself in a quandary. I was really going to miss our chats, but what to do? Dear readers, I never pursue friendships, not because I think I’m so great, rather because I’m a bit of an odd duck. I am intense, committed, and very loyal. I think that I can be (unintentionally) a bit intimidating. That can be a bit much for someone who just wants a friend to drink beer with. My friends accept me and embrace those quirks, but not everyone can do that. That is why I always let a person make the first (or third) move before I’m certain that they want to connect. That was not the case with Tom.
As the job completed I sat Tom down and formally asked him if he would consider being my friend. It was super awkward, and I was super awkward. Tom looked at me and said, “Yes.” I had a sense of relief followed by a lot of self-doubt. The next day when I was working I would have flashes of Tom laughing with his construction buddies about that crazy guy who asked him to be his friend. Of course, that did not happen, but I had just done something that put me into a very vulnerable position, and if you know me you know that I never do that intentionally.
Tom and I are completely alike and completely different at the same time. We both like to get into the weeds when thinking about ideas. We both like to figure out creative solutions to problems. We both tend to marvel at things that most others would ignore. Yet, we are different. Tom is very spontaneous, where I’m plodding. Tom tends to be pretty free with money, where I’m the guy who saves for the future. When Tom bought a pickup truck it was well over 6 figures. When I needed to replace a car I bought a sedan that was a demo with 4K miles already on it so I could save around 20% off the sticker price.
Often, our differences have benefited each other. Tom is an expert in all things mechanical. I’m an expert (sort of) in many technical things. As a doctor, I have extensive medical knowledge, and as a psychiatrist, I understand psychological topics, such as marketing and how to deal with difficult individuals. We are constantly helping each other, and that is a very new feeling for me. I have always been the person people came to for help. You have no idea how great it is for me to ask someone else for help, especially someone who has expertise in areas where I don’t.
Recently, our sunroom was leaking when it rained heavily. I knew that I needed to get up on a ladder to assess the problem. However, I am very uncomfortable being on a ladder, and that feeling has only worsened as I have gotten older and less steady. I asked Tom if he would give it a look and an opinion so I would have at least some knowledge before dealing with a roofer. Tom did this and said that the problem wasn’t the roof, it was the junction between the house and the sunroom. That was great news, and I thanked him.
This morning, Tom showed up with tools and caulk. Thirty minutes later, the job was done. Who knows what a roofer would have recommended or charged? How great it is to know someone who “knows.” I tried to thank him and offered to take him out to lunch. Tom just shrugged and said he had other things he needed to do.
As I sit and write this, I am so grateful for those around me who accept and love me for who I am. We live in a society where success is measured by the square footage of your house, the branding on your car, the numbers on your paycheck, and the title of your job. How silly that is. For me, success is mattering to others and having them matter to me. Why is it that we have become a country where hate of others is celebrated, and acceptance of others is considered a weakness? It makes no sense to me. I’m glad I took a risk and embarrassed myself by asking Tom to be my friend. It was one of the best decisions that I have made. I think both of our lives are better because of our connection. Life is short; sprinkle others with kindness, not hate. Differences can be a strength, not a weakness. On the surface, Tom and I are very different. Underneath, we are very much the same; all we had to do was take the time to look.
Peace
Mike
Tom, patching the junction between my sunroom and house.
Tom and his son on a camping trip that we took together.
Julie enjoying one of Tom’s famous tacos.
On the job.
I’ll often grab a professional camera (I’m a photographer too) and shoot some of Tom’s finished jobs so he can use them in marketing. I took this artsy shot during one of those shoots.
