Tiffany (00:01)
Hello Kat.

Kat (00:03)
Hello, Tiffany. Doing well, we were just talking about ice cream and now I want ice cream.

Tiffany (00:04)
How are you?

Mm-hmm.

I know. This episode doesn't have much ice cream in it, but...

Kat (00:15)
Yeah,

it's hard to do that with ice cream, I would assume.

Tiffany (00:19)
Yeah. Okay. So I started meal planning out of desperation. This is a true story. Every day around 3pm came my least favorite question from Joseph. What's for dinner? And I didn't know. I never knew. And not that that should be my job and we'll talk about that in a bit, but

Kat (00:36)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (00:48)
I never knew. And it was always like right when I was in middle of something at work and I just wanted to kill him. I was just like, get out of here. And I think that's a lot of people's experiences. Like that's their least favorite question.

Kat (00:56)
Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

I think, I think and it's true, like married couples is just asking, what do you feel like eating tonight forever till you die? Both of you. Like, I don't know. What do you feel like? Nobody feels like anything. No one wants to make a decision. And it's not because it's like, I'm afraid of hurting your feelings. It's because I genuinely don't know what I want to eat.

Tiffany (01:18)
No.

No, it's the worst. It's absolutely the worst. So Joe and I, tried for a long time, like years, we tried to split up. Like I cook this night, then you cook, then I cook, then you cook, then I cook, then you cook. But that didn't work at all because our groceries were all over the place. Just like all over the place. Everything was wasted. Nothing was planned out. You had a million pounds of cilantro.

Kat (01:44)
Yep.

Yes,

my ex-husband would buy a completely new jar of whatever spice he needed to make whatever. I'd like, we have four jars of cumin with one teaspoon missing.

Tiffany (01:57)
Exactly.

Yes. Yes. So frustrating. Yeah. And also we ended up going to the grocery store every freaking day. Like for a long time, we would go every day before we picked up Charlie from daycare and scramble around to try to find something that sounded decent to eat. And it was horrible. And even when we did manage to do a bigger shopping day, I would just panic once I walked in the grocery store.

Kat (02:12)
Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Tiffany (02:29)
because

Charlie's over there like singing and skipping around and we're both just like guessing like we did.

Kat (02:31)
Yep.

Looking at the organic

Swedish fish, cross-eyed, yep.

Tiffany (02:40)
Like, this sauce looks interesting. We wasted a ton of food. It was so expensive and so, so stressful. Enter meal planning. And I know it's like budgeting. Everyone tells you, you should do it, but you just don't want to. And I get that because that's where I was for a long time. But I have to admit, it has made my life so much less hurried and stressed.

Kat (02:43)
Yeah.

Tiffany (03:10)
wasteful also. It's helped with that. So today I'll share what I learned in the last year of meal planning, the method I landed on after trying like 100 different options, not 100, but a lot of different options. I'm even including a free downloadable, which sounds very market-y of me. Like I found, sound like a damn marketer, but turns out I am.

Kat (03:23)
A lot, yeah.

Where you get no kickbacks from this, yeah.

Tiffany (03:38)
But yeah, the downloadable that I created for myself that actually does work for me really well. And advice for how to do it in a flexible way that fits in with a normal family's lifestyle. Cause we over here are a normal family. We're kind of like, yeah, we're, we're all over the, we're chaotic too. ⁓ you will waste less food, you'll save money and you will get back some of your sanity. Welcome to greening up my act.

Kat (03:53)
Bye.

Yeah.

Tiffany (04:19)
Alright, sweet. So...

Kat (04:23)
That was

this, I think this might be the most like imperative verb intro we've ever had. We're like, we're going to solve your problems rather than like, we're just going to talk about a thing. We're going to solve your problems. I'm excited. Yeah.

Tiffany (04:31)
I know. No, I know. That's how I felt. And

it doesn't feel like an over... because I feel like that's how so many marketers frame their thing. Like, here's your problem, we're going to solve it. But that actually, doesn't feel like we're lying today. Yeah.

Kat (04:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

No, we're not. I know it's not lying. It's absolutely not. This

is from experience and you're excited to share it because it worked. Yeah.

Tiffany (04:53)
Yeah, exactly,

exactly. So it's fun. ⁓ Very few sources today, go figure. But ⁓ Rutgers, I use them for, just very briefly about food waste. We've had a whole episode about food waste, which you can go back and listen to, because Kat covered that super well. ⁓ But I just wanted to kind of give us like a refresh. And the EPA, I think it was old EPA, so.

back when they were actually funded. ⁓ RIP. ⁓ Also on food waste, but like the cost of food wasted food, which is kind of amazing. You probably said this, but it's like amazing how much money we throw out. Yes. And then our downloadable meal planner. I'm going to include that in the show notes, the link to it. So if you are interested, you can check it out. So.

Kat (05:23)
aww, R.I.P.

It really is.

straight in the trash can. Yeah.

Tiffany (05:52)
How big? Well, first off, hold on. Reverse. Have you tried meal planning? OK.

Kat (05:58)
Yes, when I

worked, I mean, not any official method, just my own, but it would be something like, like when I biked to work, when I worked in an office, I took a loaf of bread, a thing of like sandwich meat, some lettuce, you know, I stocked the fridge at work. And that was like, I knew what I was for lunch every day, you know, which is a type of meal planning. Yeah.

Tiffany (06:05)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Totally.

Kat (06:27)
But usually for me, because I was a single gal, it would be like, I'm going to make one batch of whatever Monday night and eat it for the rest of the week is kind of how I do meal planning or have done meal planning. Yeah.

Tiffany (06:36)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And that can work. mean, if it works for you, it works. Some people can't stand to eat the same thing over and over and over. I'm not really one of those people. If it's good, I'll eat it. If it's not good, ⁓ let's not kid ourselves. We're going to package it up and then we're going to throw it away. That's the tricky part.

Kat (06:46)
yeah, see that's... yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a thing. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah, but yeah, like...

Yeah, I mean, yeah, and Sean and I just kind of have a couple go-tos that it's like, you know, which is a type of meal planning in itself. We have like frozen salmon. Again, like I've said, salmon, chicken, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, salad sometimes. I made quinoa this week, so...

Tiffany (07:12)
Yes.

Yeah, yeah, that is how some people do it. ⁓ Because there are a million ways to do it, where they'll literally cook the same thing every week or every two weeks. Like, just have that. This is our pasta night. This is our pizza night, whatever. ⁓ Yeah.

Kat (07:27)
Yeah. Yep. Yep.

So it takes the decision making out of it. Yeah, my best friend just

makes like, she's like, I made my chicken and veggies and it's ready for the week, you know, and that's it. Yeah.

Tiffany (07:41)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally. This goes, like mine goes a little bit, like one step further because it helps you with your list. And I think like the list at the grocery store is the biggest thing. Because if you don't have a list, you're gonna lose your mind and you're gonna spend a lot more money than you normally would. And time and energy, brain power.

Kat (07:53)
Yeah, that's huge. Yes. Yeah.

And time, which is Sean's dream. Yes, he loves going to the grocery

store. Yep. I have to have a list. yeah. I have to have a list. cannot. He loves the grocery store. He loves.

Tiffany (08:10)
Sean does?

Hmm. That's funny.

I used to be like that and I'm not anymore. I think it just stresses me out now. I used to like I, cause I studied abroad a couple of times and I never felt like home until I went to the grocery store. And I think I still would feel that way. So there is something homey about it, but.

Kat (08:19)
Mm-mm. Yeah.

Yeah,

especially your home grocery store where you know everything is. Yeah.

Tiffany (08:37)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

But now I'm much more like militant about it. Yes.

Kat (08:43)
in and out. I I used

Instacart for a long time because I was just like, I'm not going to the grocery store. Like, I don't want to deal with the parking. I don't want to deal with it. Yeah.

Tiffany (08:47)
Yeah. Yeah. And some people say, yeah,

some people say some people swear by that actually. I did that for a minute. Yeah. I did try that for a minute where I basically the idea was to set foot in the grocery store as little as possible because you're going to spend less money doing that. And I tried it and I just found

Kat (08:56)
If it helps you. Yeah.

Yeah.

Tiffany (09:14)
For me, having somebody else shop for me, they always got something wrong.

Kat (09:19)
Messed something up.

Yeah, I've definitely had, I ordered triple sec and got butterscotch. Doesn't make for a good margarita. I've definitely, I wanted like peanut butter cup ice cream and they brought me butter pecan, which sounds the same, but is not. You know, things like that. Yep. Or you have like a certain kind of, you need like a certain size of squash or you know, there's, there's definitely things that could go wrong.

Tiffany (09:25)
What?

You

huh, huh. And when you're really craving peanut butter cups, not gonna-

Yeah. Yeah, for me, yeah,

for me, it's always like the real kickers are the ones where it's like the sugar free stuff and I can't do sugar free. I hate the taste. The fake, yeah, fake sugar. So they accidentally grab the sugar free one or they could grab the gluten free. Like we got chicken nuggets and they grabbed the gluten free ones and they were literally like cardboard. Some gluten free food is fine. Chicken nuggets frozen are not fine. Maybe.

Kat (09:56)
Yes. Yes, when they just replace it and yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I can

see that. ⁓ sure. Right. No, it's definitely true. Yeah. Yeah, there's sometimes when it's just like, yeah, especially when you have a kid and you're not sure what they're going to eat. Like, I can live with butter pecan ice cream. It's fine. But yeah, the bad chicken nuggets. Yeah.

Tiffany (10:13)
Probably fresh homemade ones are fine, but not the frozen ones. Ugh, even Charlie was like, these are god awful.

Yes.

Right, Yeah.

Yeah. And then you have a bunch of stuff that you either have to take, go to the grocery store anyway and take back and return, or you just have it sit in your, most people are just going to have it sit in their pantry because they don't have time to like return it. And so I just, ⁓ I just, decided I'd had enough of like, and I'm not blaming anybody who I wouldn't, I would hate, I probably would make those mistakes all the time, but I just want to just do it myself.

Kat (10:56)
yeah, I mean, yeah, you're shopping for someone

else you don't know what, especially if it's in another language and all this stuff. Yeah, for sure. I have the empathy for it. Yeah.

Tiffany (11:01)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, totally. So I just decided, you know, it's, yeah, for me, I need to just do it. And so my meal planning looks like, and I'll get into it more detail, but broadly speaking, I sit down with my printable and I sit down with, I do this once a week.

Kat (11:10)
It's worth your time. Yeah.

Tiffany (11:30)
I sit down with that and I sit down with my handwritten ⁓ recipe book because I'm realizing about myself, I cannot do digital stuff. And we will talk about that in a minute because there are a lot of digital ways to do this. I just can't do it. ⁓ And I have my recipe book and I have my printables and my backlog of printables, which is a big part of it. And it takes about 30 minutes at most.

Kat (11:40)
Yeah, that's a thing.

Yeah.

nice. Yeah.

Tiffany (11:59)
and then my whole week is planned and I have

my entire grocery list. yes. So before I talk about my exact meal planning system, I wanted to just sort of give some sad reminders about how bad food waste is in the US. This is specifically the United States, because we actually are the worst in the world, ⁓ which is probably not a super big surprise, but it is a good reminder.

Kat (12:03)
That's huge, yeah.

Tiffany (12:28)
The USDA estimates that about 30 to 40 % of food is thrown out in the United States. And it has been increasing, food waste has been increasing at an alarming rate since the 1970s with a 50 % increase in food waste since the 1970s.

Kat (12:44)
Jesus, that's like fast fashion,

fast food waste kind of. Everything's disposable. Yeah.

Tiffany (12:49)
Yes.

Exactly. Exactly. And it's definitely like a mindset thing because you don't see that many people who I remember distinctly certain people that I've met, like one woman, I went to Chipotle and she ate most of her burrito. Most people would shove it in the trash, like wrap it up, shove it in the trash. She wrapped it up and was going to take it home to finish it later. And you see it so little, that kind of behavior that it's

Kat (13:15)
took at home. Yep.

Tiffany (13:21)
stood out to me and that was 10 years ago. So it's crazy actually.

Kat (13:23)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's funny. Yeah, you don't think about it it's like Chipotle. It's one of those things where it's like, only have like a couple of bites, like and part of it is because the portions at these places are so enormous. Yeah, so you don't and it's like. OK, is this burrito going to be like, yeah, you can heat it up again, you know, there's it's not impossible, you know, it's just something that we're kind of like.

Tiffany (13:30)
Yeah.

my god. It is, it's true. Yeah.

Yeah,

I know. Yeah, and I would often get the bowl at Chipotle. This was mostly out of... I'm not against eating not great leftovers to save a buck. ⁓ So was mostly because I was broke, but I would get the bowl and then ⁓ that I found was a decent leftover, even if it's cold. It's not great, but it's not bad.

Kat (14:13)
Yeah, yeah, because the, the,

yeah, the because the burrito it's like you only have so much tortilla left and it's soggy and it's yeah, I totally get it. And if you don't do the tin foil exactly right, how do you wrap it up? You know, ask him for a box. Yeah.

Tiffany (14:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, But yeah, I yeah,

I think she said she was gonna eat it for dinner. So she didn't save it for too long. You know, was like only a couple hours. So but yeah, we're pretty bad at it. So ⁓ yeah, and Americans waste 10 times more food than their South Asian counterparts.

Kat (14:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

⁓

Tiffany (14:47)
Yes. And you know, there's food waste at every level, the, you know, farmer's waste food, ⁓ packaging food gets wasted, whatever, but most of the food waste happens at the consumer level. So it's mostly us. So that's a good, yeah. So that's a good reminder. ⁓ For a household of four. So how much does it cost? For a household of four, it can cost.

Kat (15:02)
Yeah. Restaurants and home. Yeah.

Okay, yeah.

Tiffany (15:18)
And it costs an average of $56 every week, which is almost $3,000 a year.

Kat (15:22)
jeezzy crazy

Tiffany (15:28)
Just out the window. Yeah? Yeah. Well, 56, you pay $56 for your car. ⁓ a week. You're right. That's still a pretty good payment, actually, $200.

Kat (15:30)
Wow, that's like a car payment every month.

A week?

I mean, I pay $115 a month for a carpet and

that is very low for I think I have a used car and I pay $115 a month, you know, but that and that's low and that like new cars are like $30,000. Yeah, it's like 500. Yeah. I know it's so crazy.

Tiffany (15:49)
that's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah. Average new cars cost like 50. It's insane.

It's horrendous. Plus, there's subscriptions now on cars. If you want the things that do the things, you have to freaking pay every month. That's insane. This country. Yeah, it's horrid. But anyway, that's a whole we should like have a whole topic about that. But

Kat (16:04)
I know, I know.

heated seats or yeah it's like I can't stand it I know late stage capitalism yeah

yeah

Tiffany (16:19)
But yeah, 56 bucks a week.

Kat (16:22)
That's crazy.

Tiffany (16:23)
That would

be like you... I'm trying to think, like what's around 50 bucks?

Kat (16:29)
I know what's 50 bucks anymore.

Tiffany (16:30)
Like, can you imagine just taking like, it's like taking a $50 bill and just burning it every week. Every Sunday, just set it on fire. It's crazy. That's a lot of money. Yeah.

Kat (16:34)
Just throwing it away. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like two cocktails.

Two cocktails in New York City. No tips though. ⁓

Tiffany (16:47)
Yeah, right. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK.

So there's good, good reason to at least try. And like I said, there's a million and one methods. Like you have your own method. ⁓ You can always sort of hodgepodge them together, like mishmash different methods. That's kind of what I've done. And I just found what works for me. So what works for me? ⁓

First off, let's talk about how it started. maybe, let me see. Yeah, I'll take a break here real quick. And then I will talk about how it started and sort of the process I've been through.

Kat (17:22)
Okay.

Okay.

Tiffany (17:47)
Okay, sweet. ⁓ Okay, so I started, like I said, about a year ago, and I would sit down once a week, and usually on Saturday or Sunday, pen and paper in hand and slog through my recipe book and my memory of what have we cooked that we liked? And the brain power

Kat (18:07)
⁓ my god. ⁓

Tiffany (18:16)
was immense. It just took so much energy and brain power. But I was like, well, this is an okay way to do it, right? It took forever. I mean, I think I was taking an hour and a half or maybe two hours sometimes on planning one week out for food. ⁓ I started, so I have this planner that has sort of a

Kat (18:32)
wow. Wow.

Yeah.

Tiffany (18:46)
pre-programmed concept of meal planning in it, but it just didn't work for me. There was a template, but in some parts of it I liked, ⁓ but I didn't like that it was in a book. So was sort of like hidden in a planner and I was never going to open that book. So what happened is Joe would be like, what's for dinner? And I'd be like, well,

I don't know. And I would use my brain power, this is a theme because we need to use less of it for this type of thing, ⁓ to try to remember. And then sometimes I would forget, ⁓ I bought, I did buy ingredients for soup and I totally forgot that that was a thing. And it was just, it was too much on the brain. ⁓ I did like that in this planner, the list had aisles.

Kat (19:14)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

see, that's nice, yeah.

Tiffany (19:43)
I know it wasn't the aisles that I would choose, but I will, I fixed that on my downloadable. ⁓ But that is really helpful and I'll get back to that in a minute, I think. Yes, I will. ⁓ So yeah, so I just, didn't, wasn't really utilizing that meal plan even though I had it. So.

Kat (19:47)
Yeah.

Tiffany (20:11)
Then I tried Notion. I don't know if you've heard of Notion.

Kat (20:14)
Yeah,

yeah, I've tried it for a couple things. I can't get into it.

Tiffany (20:18)
Yeah, think for me, so Notion is this, it's an app, but it's really like a website. I don't know what you would call it even, but that's sort of like a simplified version of Google Sheets or Google Drive, because it's got a bunch of different templates and stuff and you can make sheets or whatever. It's a little bit too simple for me, but...

Kat (20:34)
Yeah.

Or you have

to spend a lot of time. I've used definitely try to use other people's templates. And the problem was like, if you didn't understand how the templates went over, it'd be like this whole, I didn't, I didn't understand how to do it. So it was like.

Tiffany (20:49)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓ It's a lot of work. And I was thinking, OK, I'll have clickable links to the recipes. That was my plan. was like, OK, can have a... It wasn't really totally easy to do, even with the meal planning template on Notion. Because you're right, you have to just figure it all out and like...

Kat (21:20)
Yeah.

Tiffany (21:22)
fix it and I spent a lot of time trying to fix it and I did have the clickable links but it just wasn't it just wasn't working for me and I realized it's because I freaking hate digital planners so that didn't last very long it was like maybe three weeks that I use that ⁓ I also got the idea from a podcast about sitting down once every two weeks and shopping for two weeks and I liked that

Kat (21:35)
Yeah, in the same way.

Mm.

Tiffany (21:51)
I did like it because I was thinking like, ⁓ all of my produce or whatever is going to go bad, but you just kind of utilize the freezer and there are ways to get around it. By the end of the two weeks, things are bare. Really bare. But it did work. I just noticed that it started feeling very overwhelming when I would sit down to plan. And so I stopped because I was like, I don't want to feel overwhelmed by this.

Kat (22:00)
Yeah.

Yeah, you're like down to nothing. Yeah.

Yeah, you gotta

bite off the chunks you can chew, you know?

Tiffany (22:21)
Exactly. So was like once per week is good. But I mean, if you don't get so overwhelmed by stuff like that, then I think it could work well.

Kat (22:29)
think

my sister does it once a month, so. They have an extensive pantry and they keep a spreadsheet of everything that's in the pantry and the fridge. Yeah.

Tiffany (22:31)
Dang.

That's awesome.

Okay, that's awesome. I have tried

to do that by hand and I never updated it, so it didn't work. But I do think that's really like if you are the type of person who will update them, that's great. That's super helpful. ⁓

Kat (22:45)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I'll forget.

I'll forget that I took that can of garbanzo beans out and then... Yeah.

Tiffany (22:57)
100 %

yeah exactly. So I tried all of these things and there's probably even methods I forgot about in the last year but tried all these different things. Finally I was like screw this I like pieces from all of these things so I'm just gonna make myself as printable. ⁓ So what it looks like is it's got every day of the week and it has a list of ingredients separated out

Kat (23:16)
Yeah.

Tiffany (23:27)
by aisle. Like I said, yes. So that when you're writing out, like say you're writing turkey burgers and veg or something, then you just write it out and then write down what ingredients you need. First, you have to look at your pantry though, because you have to just take a quick glance. What do I have and what do I need? Write all the shit down that you don't have. ⁓ And then...

Kat (23:29)
Where they are in the grocery store. Yeah. Okay.

Yes.

Tiffany (23:56)
Yeah, just go day by day. And... ⁓

I'm trying to think of how to explain this most clearly.

Kat (24:05)
I wish you could like share your screen and show us.

Tiffany (24:07)
I know it'll be in the show notes. but, oh, that's true. I don't have it ready though. Yeah. Yeah. That's good to know in the future though. We should try that. Um, so basically, okay. So I printed out once a week. Each week I keep.

Kat (24:11)
You can check your screen here on Riverside.

Okay. And you're like, and there's my chat window and my Google notes and yeah. Yeah. I think you have a presentation.

Tiffany (24:37)
I keep them.

Kat (24:38)
so you can replicate them.

Tiffany (24:40)
Yes. And I got that idea online and unfortunately I can't remember where, but it was, I heard about this woman who decided she wanted to make her future self love her more.

Kat (24:53)
Yes,

be kind to your future self. Yes.

Tiffany (24:55)
Exactly.

And so she wanted to create basically a year-long meal plan that she can just replicate year after year. I know. Yes. And so that's what I'm trying to do. And I've only, in like, I did this over the summer and now I'm in fall. But basically you print it off and you put the date at the top or you could even just put the month because that's sort of all that matters.

Kat (25:02)
Ooh, I like that. Then you get the seasonal stuff and the...

Tiffany (25:25)
And then I store them in this little folder. It's like a, I was using it for budgeting or something, so I already had it, but it's a folder that has several different files. No, 100%. Yes, it was like, yeah, it was like sitting here doing nothing. So I was like, screw it. So then I just put each season and then I have some spare sheets in the back. And so it's easy, easy, fricking peasy. So now I have, you know,

Kat (25:37)
I love our failed analog attempts being organized. Yeah, I know you got to reuse it though. Yeah.

that's cool.

Tiffany (25:54)
10 sheets in the summer. so summer's good. And I think seasonally, like use our seasonal produce advice. Yep. And ⁓ also like what's nice to eat. Like you're not gonna want to eat like a hot chili on a 90 degree day. So that kind of makes it, it's going to make it easier in the future. ⁓ But yeah, I look.

Kat (26:03)
chart. Yep.

Yeah. Right. Yes. Yeah.

It's like

when do I buy eggnog? You know, when is it okay for me to buy eggnog? Okay, it comes out in the stores on this date, but I don't usually buy it until December 1st and then I could be like, yes, it's eggnog time. Yeah.

Tiffany (26:23)
Yes.

Yeah,

yes, or like corned beef and cabbage, that kind of thing. yeah. And then I keep my recipes, like I said, in this, have a specific recipe book that my mom gave me a long time ago and I hand write them. And it takes time, but it's sort of this ritual that I like and only the best go in there. Like I know if it's in there that it's good and it's tried and true and we both really liked it and it went well.

Kat (26:33)
Yeah, that's in March. Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

My mom made us all when we graduated from high school, a recipe box. And mine is sitting at my parents' house and I keep forgetting to bring it back. It's like handwritten, her recipes, our father, my mom and my dad's mom are both really stellar cooks. And I think some are her mother's recipes too. But it'll be like, the desserts that we all love, I need to get that from my dad.

Tiffany (27:14)
Awesome.

Yeah, that's so special. And they're all hand- wait, she made them for you and she hand wrote them all? Dang. That's impressive.

Kat (27:22)
Yeah. She hand read them. You know, my mom was a real,

she was a real handwriting. I have a lot that I got rid of a whole bunch of like handwritten notes from people and letters and stuff. And the ones I couldn't get rid of were like from my mom. And I have like hundreds of pages of stuff written from my mom. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (27:39)
Wow, that's so special.

I found, did I tell you that when I went to my grandparents, well, I went back to Indiana and my grandparents' house was being auctioned off, which is so sad, ⁓ but it's just what has to happen. ⁓ They found my grandma's handwritten recipe book underneath one of the couches. And my aunt was like, do you want this? And I was like, yes, please.

Kat (27:52)
well. Yeah.

wow.

Yeah.

Tiffany (28:09)
So a lot of it is like jello molds and whatever, it's like a lot of it's her handwriting and it's just really special. yeah. So that's what I do. I think a lot of people would probably print this stuff because they prefer it's faster. Yeah.

Kat (28:11)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love that.

Yeah, well, sometimes, yeah, just, yeah, sometimes. I mean, I

use like a notes app, I do, when I'm doing plannings, like I always write my to-do list out for the day in my notebook. You know, I need, yeah, I think especially like you were saying, somebody who might have ADHD, if it's in a book somewhere, you're not gonna look at it. Yeah.

Tiffany (28:40)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, some people might find that easy. It was not easy for me.

Kat (28:53)
Yeah, I mean, I, yeah,

my sister and her husband share a spreadsheet and that's, you know, so if one of them goes grocery shopping, they know we're like low on tomatoes. Cause it's, you know, it'll, it'll, I think it flags it as red or something, you know, like they have it all zhushed up. Yeah. They're, they're techie techie people. Yeah.

Tiffany (29:00)
Yeah.

Yeah.

That's amazing. That's, yeah, that is impressive. I think that's

why digital stuff stresses me out because it feels very overwhelming to me. Yeah, and even just to look at it, I'm like, ugh, I just like instant stress. So that's why I prefer the handwritten.

Kat (29:18)
Yes, to like program it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's funny because I do meal plan for holidays and stuff. have a set list of things that like. Sean will be like, so for Easter, like I said, I do a lamb. And he'll be like, well, why don't we try this this year? I'm like, no, I get a fricking leg of lamb. And I make it this way. And it's because I've got this sorted out. I know this works.

Tiffany (29:56)
What's tradition?

Kat (29:57)
And that's how tradition starts is that it's something I don't have to think about. I can just autopilot it. And that's, and I think I have like five or six recipes. I made lasagna this last weekend and it's the same thing every time, you know, and I know the grocery list by heart and I can just send him to the store. can just, I just know where to get it all, you know, like, and I'm only planning for like two of us, you know, ⁓ not a family, but it's, it's like,

Tiffany (30:01)
Right? Totally. Totally.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's

only really like two and a half of us, but even that is overwhelming. So.

Kat (30:27)
Yeah, still. Yeah.

No, especially when somebody and like he likes to eat later than I do, which is rough. Like because my thing was like, ⁓ like I'm not working very much during the day right now. So like, why don't I just have meals ready when he gets home and he'll be like, I'm not hungry yet. I'm like, are we going to eat together or not? Because I would prefer to eat early, you know. But so, yeah, like. Yeah, I'll just make I'm like, guess what? We're having spaghetti tonight, you know, because I want it.

Tiffany (30:36)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, uh-huh. You're like, you will eat now!

Kat (30:56)
But yeah, that I just have, there are tried and true things I know work and I don't need to try anything new. And that's how, and then some nights it's like, okay, we're gonna do something special, you know? But yeah, I have my chili recipe, my green chili chicken soup. And when the weather turns cold, you know, it's like, posole I know how to make this. I know how to buy it. I know how to, yeah.

Tiffany (31:17)
Yeah.

Kat (31:19)
And it is nice. I would I would like to be the kind of person who plans, but I am.

Tiffany (31:25)
I mean, it sounds like you do in your own way.

Kat (31:27)
I do. I am an order Muppet and my boyfriend is a chaos Muppet. So he will throw a

Tiffany (31:32)
That's funny.

How you've described him, he seems like an order muppet. Yeah.

Kat (31:37)
I know you think so, but he is,

we, I think we're both switches to use a kink term thrown into regular everyday life. ⁓ And we, we chaos each other up in different ways. Like, like my work, my work week is chaos for him, you know, ⁓ or my, my variety of jobs that I do is chaos. Like he has a nine to five, you know, ⁓ and then

Tiffany (31:43)
Okay.

Yeah, don't we all?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Kat (32:06)
way that he does meal planning is chaos for me, you know. But yeah, he can be very regimented about some things, but...

Tiffany (32:09)
Yeah, totally.

Yeah, OK. That makes sense. That makes sense. ⁓ Yeah, so it's this idea of creating, like doing the work for one year. And I do think you kind of need to do it for one year if you want to be seasonal. But you don't necessarily have to do it for one year.

Kat (32:14)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I like the intention of it also. Cause like what I was saying is it just kind of happens and I don't realize that it's like, yeah, certain dates of the year I do very specific things. But then throughout the year it's like, yeah, when it gets cold, I want to make chili when it gets, know, there's like right now it is 95 degrees in Texas. So we're having like salad for dinner every night, you know, but that's

Tiffany (32:34)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yup.

Kat (32:56)
One of the problems here is that we can't plan for the seasons because they don't exist right now.

Tiffany (32:59)
Yeah,

I know. Ugh. Yeah, no, that is very true. Just pull one out of your summer then. Look back on summer.

Kat (33:09)
Yeah, right. Yeah, just summer

keeps going for another six weeks. At least. Yeah. But yeah, I think that's that's really and again, just removing any decision you have to make remove stress from your life.

Tiffany (33:13)
Oiii... Yeah...

Yes, exactly. That's the whole point. ⁓ And the funny thing is, like that one year of work is actually less work than doing it any of the other ways that I tried. So it's like sitting down with this specific list takes me like 30 minutes max. Yeah. And I think it's because

Kat (33:34)
Yeah.

Cause you know it. Yeah.

Tiffany (33:47)
I'm pulling from what I've already done recently. And so like maybe when I'm switching seasons, it's gonna be a little bit harder, although I don't, yeah, I don't really think it's gonna be that hard, but maybe a little bit. ⁓ But yeah, it's like, I kind of have my go-tos and it jogs my brain into gear. So even if there's stuff that I didn't make recently, I'm like, yeah, Charlie said she wanted grilled cheese.

Kat (33:56)
They're like, wait a minute. Yeah.

Tiffany (34:15)
But it's like at least it's start and my brain gets going and it's a tool.

Kat (34:19)
Yeah, and so you're not, it's

not three o'clock in the afternoon and you just want to murder your husband. Yeah.

Tiffany (34:24)
Yes,

yes, exactly. I like actually can't believe we used to live that way. It sounds so horrible because I was. ⁓ And so like sometimes I will try new recipes and I'll throw those in, but lately I've been so overwhelmed that I haven't been. And so there's like, we have our tried and true. We have our turkey burgers. Yeah, like chicken and veggie. We have

Kat (34:29)
I know it's wild, right? Well, what do you want? Yeah.

Thank God you have that, yeah.

Tiffany (34:52)
veggie soup that we'll do and we have like some rice bowls that we'll throw in there and Do we get bored of stuff? Yes, we actually have recently had to expand our sides We're like trying to find new sides because we're really sick of steamed broccoli and pearled couscous Yeah, I know they're so good but when you eat them like once a week it just gets so old and

Kat (35:09)
I can see that. Hey man, quinoa telling you just did it.

Yeah, you're just like, all

right, yeah.

Tiffany (35:19)
A lot of it is like that's those are two things Charlie will eat. So we need to also just expand her palate. So

Kat (35:25)
Yeah,

it doesn't take little kids like a long time to watch you eat something before they'll accept it. Yeah.

Tiffany (35:29)
It's like 100 times sometimes.

Literally 100 is studied. They have found you have to give it to them a million times before they'll be like, oh, I'll try this. But then Charlie will pick up, the other day she picked up raw cauliflower and started munching on it. And I was like, what in the hell is happening? She's like, huh, nothing good.

Kat (35:39)
Because it was.

Okay, you go girl.

Well, I think the other thing is

it doesn't have to be like, you're not talking about like, yes, I made a four hour beef bourguignon, you know, it's like, it's not, you're not going through Julia Child's cookbook and it's simple. It's stuff, you know, I think that's a daunting, like my dad was just saying that he hasn't cooked really for himself in 50 years, you know, since, since he married my mother. And he's like, I got to remember how to make eggs and stuff. And it's like,

Tiffany (35:58)
Yes.

Whoa.

Yeah.

Kat (36:17)
Make

this as simple as possible for you, because my mom was like a really good cook, but you can do very simple things. know, casseroles for me are freaking easy. You just layer them up, throw them in the oven, and it's, and you can eat it for a week, you know? Yes. Yeah. Chicken on rice with veggies. Done. Piece of cake. Yeah. Crock-pot, Instant Pot. I throw, I will throw frozen.

Tiffany (36:24)
Yes.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, there's like sheet pan dinners are so good.

Mm hmm. Yes, exactly. Yes, yeah.

Kat (36:45)
I use chicken thighs because they're cheaper and they taste better. Yeah, they're not dry. So frozen chicken thighs. I'll do a cup of brown rice. ⁓ Like a cup of water. Frozen broccoli, frozen chicken thighs, throw it in the instant pot for meat. So like 40 minutes. It makes a mush. It's not. But I mix it all together, throw some cheddar cheese in there, some green chili in there, and it's like brown rice.

Tiffany (36:48)
yeah, and they're actually better? Yeah, they are. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (37:15)
You know, it's, call it chicken mush, but it's got protein, it's got, you know, the broccoli's probably overcooked. It's not, but it's like brown rice keeps its texture a little bit better than white rice and like, it's got fiber, you know, throw some garlic powder. Sometimes I'll throw an onion in there. If I don't feel like chopping, I will just do this. And like, I can eat that. Just, ⁓ you know, and it's.

Tiffany (37:16)
Why not?

That's fine. But it's food. Yeah, brown rice is good. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (37:42)
If I'm really stressed out, I can just have it and like, I don't have to worry about it. It's food in the fridge and I can eat it. Yeah. It can be super simple as long as you like it.

Tiffany (37:42)
Yes.

Yeah, exactly, Yep. And the other

nice thing about meal planning like this is that you go, ideally you go to the grocery store once a week or twice, once every two weeks. You're going as little as possible, like I said, for both your brain space and your wallet space. You don't want space in your wallet. Anyway,

Kat (37:59)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Tiffany (38:12)
you, you can mix. like not mix, but like you can choose. like, we have taco stuff. have burger stuff. We have pizza stuff. have chili stuff. Like, what do we feel like tonight? We have it all. It's all here. We can, which one do we feel? Yes. Yeah. Like which one sounds best?

Kat (38:16)
yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. If we don't feel like if it's too hot for. Yeah, exactly. Yes. You can mix and match.

Yeah.

Tiffany (38:34)
Yeah,

so I think a lot of people think of meal planning as, don't know what I want to eat, but if you have five options at your fingertips.

Kat (38:42)
But in better five than 150, right? Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany (38:44)
or seven depending on.

Yeah. 150 is too many. Cause then you're like, Oh my God, Oh my God.

Kat (38:49)
Yeah, it doesn't have to be

planned out to the hour every day exactly what meal you're going to eat. It can be just like, this is what we have for the week. So.

Tiffany (38:55)
Yeah. Yeah,

totally. And I did want to mention ⁓ two things. One, I think you can eat more healthily. It actually I think has helped our eating habits sort of naturally because first off, it's you know, protein and veg, probably. We're definitely going to have some kind of veggie side or some kind of veggie involved in the meal in some way.

And you can look at your full week and be like, okay, we have a lot of meat going on. We need to add in some soups and we need to add in some rice bowls or something. And so it's a lot more balanced and because you can kind of see it ahead of time, you're not just eating like burger, burger, burger, burger, burger. So in that way, it's been really good. ⁓

Kat (39:33)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Right, yeah.

I do like that.

Cause I say like your nutrition is not, you shouldn't base your nutrition on just the day. It's the week. Yeah.

Tiffany (39:54)
Yes.

Yeah, totally. So, I was trying to think if there's, ⁓ so there is a difference with like meal prepping. And I talked to my friend about this because meal prepping is where like every Sunday you sit down and you chop up all your onions, you chop up all your, you cook all your omelets that you're going to eat in the morning. You cook, you cook everything is what meal prepping is.

Kat (40:05)
Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's what my friend

does with her chicken and veggies. Yeah.

Tiffany (40:24)
Yeah, and I think there's nothing wrong with that, but I was talking to my friend who's been meal prepping for like probably a decade. They've been doing it for forever. And she was like, honestly, I think it's good to have a mix of the two.

Kat (40:31)
well.

Yes, because

there's no spontaneity in that.

Tiffany (40:41)
Well, yeah. And she says, you sometimes you cook way too much of something and you don't, you're never going to eat it. Like you're never going to finish that many sweet potatoes or whatever. And, but yeah, it also, definitely is like not at all spontane. Like there, there can not, maybe you can have some spontaneity, but I don't know. I think

What she was saying is like a good mix would be like cook your hard shit on a weekend if you want to. Like I tried to cook a freaking chicken, a whole chicken last night and I almost burnt the house down. You know, it was like a Monday. I was like, what was I thinking? But yeah, so like do that on a Sunday. Cook your whole chickens on a Sunday, but you don't have to like make sure everything is chopped. don't, you can, but.

Kat (41:10)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, so I think like if you cook a whole chicken on Sunday, you can incorporate it into meals for the next three or four days is the other thing. So you have stir fry and then you have, you know, chicken bowls and yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (41:38)
Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's what we're doing. We've got

salad stuff or chicken salad. Yeah. Yes. So yeah, so you don't have to do, you can do meal prepping. You don't have to. So I have never yet. And maybe I will incorporate that at some point, but not yet. ⁓

Kat (42:03)
Again, I've

never done it for like, I do it for like lunch at work maybe, but not dinners and stuff.

Tiffany (42:08)
Yeah.

And that's the other thing. I think it's good to start with one meal. So start with dinners. Don't try to meal plan everything all at once, because you're going to get overwhelmed. your breakfast, lunch, and dinner is meal planned, then you're going to be like, my god.

Kat (42:20)
That's fair. Yeah. Well,

I also feel like breakfast tends to be like the same thing, you know, like it kind of plans itself. You're like, yeah, we do cereal or we do. We always do oatmeal. We always do an egg. It's not like you're like every day, do you want waffles today? Do you want? It's like, all right, we have time for this. And this is you're getting yogurt and fruit, you know.

Tiffany (42:27)
Yeah. Yeah. Breakfast is easy.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, lunch I don't meal plan much yet. I do want to

Kat (42:44)
I just kind of

grazed for lunch. I eat leftovers for lunch or something.

Tiffany (42:48)
Yeah, that's usually what I do. Sometimes I get like lunch meat or something, but ⁓ yeah, lunch is still kind of a struggle for me, but maybe I should incorporate that in my downloadable. Put that in my printable and then it'll be fine. Solves everything. ⁓ I do have some optimizations that I want to still try. Like I want to label leftovers with a dry erase marker for the day that I cooked them.

Kat (43:03)
Yeah.

Yes, that's smart.

Tiffany (43:17)
Cause I'll put them in

like a container, but I I'm sort of like, again, I want to use less brain power. So I want to not have to remember when the fuck did I cook that chicken?

Kat (43:20)
How old is that? Yes.

my God,

I would love for my fridge to be so organized that it's like, you know, first in first out. And so if I have something, I have to pull that one forward before I put the next thing, you know, like that. Yeah, mine too. Sean even just reorganized it and cleaned it and it's already chaos again.

Tiffany (43:39)
⁓ yeah, my fridge is chaos.

dang. Did you hear my back crack? That was twice. Sorry. It's kind of gross. I didn't mean to do that. ⁓

Kat (43:48)
Yes I did, that was very audible. Wow.

It's okay, I've

been swallowing water into the microphone all night. We have a really ASMR podcast going on here.

Tiffany (44:01)
Yeah, accidentally.

Yeah, and yeah, I think that's become a new social media thing where people have 1000 organizers for their fridge, and they also have like giant fridges like bigger than my closet. And yeah, and everything is perfectly organized. I'm like, this is

Kat (44:19)
Yeah. ⁓

Yeah, I know. I know.

Tiffany (44:29)
weird people. We should take pictures of our fridge and be like, this is normal fridge. My fridge also sucks asshole. It's one of those like long skinny ones, like two long skinny doors, and it's impossible to get into anything. I hate my fridge with a passion. It's the first thing to go once we have money.

Kat (44:31)
Yeah, it's too much.

Yeah.

Yeah. I can't...

I leave my back door open for my dogs, because I have like the kind of screen- not a screen door, but like a storm door. That's where the dog door is. And so then the main door, which is like a front door, is left open and I can't open one half. Like I have to close that door if I want to open the fridge. It's like this whole thing.

Tiffany (44:58)
huh.

Yes,

yeah, my fridge door bangs into the wall. It doesn't open all the way. So I feel yeah. Yeah, it's the worst. It's fine. It's real life. It's normal ass life. So.

Kat (45:11)
Yeah. Yeah, I can't open all the way either. Yeah.

It's cool. Yeah,

I don't have one of them bespoke fridges.

Tiffany (45:23)
No, or kitchens for that matter. Yeah. So, so yeah, that's meal planning. Yeah. And I don't know. I think take, if it seems helpful, or if you want to just test it out, like give it a shot, you know?

Kat (45:26)
Yeah.

I love it.

Yeah, or let us know how you do it.

Tiffany (45:42)
Yeah, I'm curious. love, it's weird. I like love reading about this stuff and hearing other people's strategies. Cause you can always optimize.

Kat (45:48)
I can't wait for my tw-

yeah, can't wait for my twin sister to write in and be like, that's not how our system works, it's not- the spreadsheet. She's like, we have a dry erase marker board and- and we didn't talk about like, whose job it is to do this, but I think- yeah.

Tiffany (45:54)
Yeah, you were wrong. We don't have spreadsheets. Yeah.

⁓ I did want to talk about that though, actually.

Because, okay, yes, this is a big topic because...

Okay, ⁓ this is a whole thing. We could do a whole Patreon on this really, but...

Kat (46:18)
Yeah.

Tiffany (46:22)
I am realizing that I do it.

because I have taken on that role. And Joe has offered a bunch of times to do it for us. And I honestly think it's because I don't think he's gonna do it right. And that is not fair because of me.

Kat (46:44)
And it's the hardest thing to,

yes, is to relinquish control over something, especially when you've got a system and you know how it works and it would be way harder to explain it. That's very difficult.

Tiffany (46:50)
Yes. I know.

Yeah, and he's not me. he's I've already I've I intentionally went into it. Back up a little bit. So my life is absolutely crazy right now. I have a bunch of like shit with my family. So it's crazy. And I was like, Joe, I need you to do this meal planning for me. I need you to do it. And it's actually really funny because I knew he wasn't going to do my system. And I so I intentionally went into it thinking he's not me. And it's okay. He

is never like he's just not that kind of person he's never gonna do this ever even if it's so easy and it will would make his life easier in my opinion and that's okay so it's funny because we went to the grocery store and i played his role i played like sat in the back and i was just like i didn't say anything i almost did and i didn't

Kat (47:45)
Yeah, pushing the cart. Yep.

Tiffany (47:54)
And I did joke with him. was like, it's amazing that we're going into this with no plan. Like that was sort of a snarky thing to say, but he was like, figured out it's fine. And so, but then we got there and I knew it. He realized, he's like, this is crazy. What was I thinking? And so I think it's just like, like any normal human being, men have to learn through experience. Exactly.

Kat (48:20)
And you have to let them fail.

Yes. And I know as women, we're so wound up with, I mean, because it is like, yeah, feeding your family. You're not going to die. It's going to take you an extra hour at the grocery store, max, maybe 20 minutes. You know, it's not the end of the world, but we're like, I can just do it better. And men are like, OK, you can do better. And it also like takes the confidence from them too. Like if you're like, I'll just do it, you know, they never like.

Tiffany (48:36)
Yes.

Totally. Totally.

Kat (48:48)
The reason you have confidence in doing it is because you've done it so many times. So if they can't do it so many times, right, right, right, it takes practice. Yeah, and so it's like, yeah.

Tiffany (48:52)
Right, mean, I was a total failure at this like early on, like as I've mentioned, so yeah. And we've had weeks where I'm like, fuck, I didn't go to the grocery

store, know, like that just happens.

Kat (49:04)
Yeah,

I mean, it's so great that he's volunteering. That's huge. So.

Tiffany (49:09)
Yes. Yes.

Yeah. So I'm like, I'm accepting this and maybe not forever. Like I might, I do so I would love to have this like food meal prep, you know, novel or whatever. Yes. Yes. Yes. Like my whole, my whole year, I'd love to finish out the year, but it's not, that's not what matters at the end of the day. So, um, yeah, I'm kind of, I'm just like curious to see.

Kat (49:22)
chain thing going yeah right yeah

Tiffany (49:38)
how he does it and it's already was so much less stressful. I was just like, this is chaos in the grocery store and we both know it is, but I'm not in charge. I don't give a shit. Yeah.

Kat (49:48)
Yeah, I can relinquish this. Yeah. One last thing I have to

think. Yeah, I love that Sean loves the grocery shop and like sometimes it's our date. Like on Saturdays, we go to Total Wine where they have taste tasters. That's our happy hour. And then we go to the grocery store where they have samples and that like he loves and that's like Saturday. Yeah. And I'm trying to like, but it's not like he's at the grocery store right now, you know, doing the shopping and I don't have to worry about it. Yeah.

Tiffany (50:03)
nice.

Yeah, it's a really nice ritual. totally.

He's like, see ya. Yeah.

Kat (50:18)
Well, he needs pretzels for his, he eats pretzels at work. So he had to get pretzels. So, and then I just tell him what I need, you know, and if I, I can go to the grocery store myself, but you know, he's like, do you want salad, stuff? we, So it's nice that he does that for me because yeah.

Tiffany (50:20)
Oh, there you go. Okay. Gotcha.

Yeah.

Yeah, totally. But you agree that it's like sometimes you get in that mind space where you're like, I can just do this better. So I'm just going to do it.

Kat (50:42)
I mean, I think we do that at work. It's not just with our significant others, like with an intern or something, and you have to let them fail, you know, and they're not going to fail. It's not like they're going to burn the building down or something, but it's this like, if you, you know, if you want it done right, you do it yourself. But yeah, but if you want other people to learn how to do it and you want them to be better at their jobs and you, I mean, that's, it's

Tiffany (50:46)
Ugh, you're right, you're right.

Yes.

Kat (51:11)
it's I don't know if it's like a girl boss attitude that we have as millennials if that was like bred into us but it's like you know it's not always weaponized incompetence on the part of men sometimes it's weaponized competence on our part where we're like this is just faster for me and it will be but it's like if they're willing yeah yeah yeah but it right but if they're gonna

Tiffany (51:16)
Yeah, I don't know.

Totally.

you're gonna hate your life and you're gonna be resentful, which is how I felt. Yeah.

Kat (51:38)
They're willing to help and they want to help. Yeah, you just got to let them learn the lessons that you learned, you know, and

Tiffany (51:43)
Yeah, and like would

I want him telling me how to do stuff? No, I want to figure out my own way.

Kat (51:47)
my God. I'm

I weaponize incompetence all the time now because he ⁓ vacuums better than me, you know, and like, yeah, I'll let you clean the house. He insists on taking the trash out, you know, he mows the lawn and I could do all this stuff. I mean, we do have a good split, I think of, know, but, you know, I handle the finances and pay the bills and he handles cleaning and.

Tiffany (52:02)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Kat (52:14)
a lot of coo- I mean we split cooking, but yeah like this is all-

Tiffany (52:16)
Yeah,

but that wouldn't be even, you wouldn't even bat an eye if that was a woman doing all that stuff, which is the crazy part. You know what I mean?

Kat (52:22)
Yeah.

Yeah. Well, yeah, I think that's I did with my ex husband. It was a lot of eye batting. And, you know, I'm like, I'm not. This isn't my job. You know, you've got to do some of the labor here, especially with. ⁓ Because he wasn't interested, but yeah, I, you know, I agree. I mean, I think a lot of women do feel that it's like.

Tiffany (52:33)
Mm-hmm. well, yeah, yeah.

Kat (52:49)
Life is just easier if I just do it. Often because the man isn't interested in doing it. But sometimes the man isn't interested in doing it because you shot him down so many times for doing it wrong, which that's a whole conversation. I don't know. It's.

Tiffany (52:51)
Yeah.

Right.

Right. Mm-hmm.

It is, that's what

I was saying. We can have a whole, but yeah, I, it's sort of my, my first foray into being not my first. It's not like I do everything, but it's my like, ⁓

Kat (53:09)
Yeah.

Tiffany (53:20)
It's an experiment and I'm like really trying to chill the fuck out.

Kat (53:26)
Okay, I like that. And you need you need more space to chill the fuck out and he's trying to give you that. So that's good.

Tiffany (53:29)
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And I'm like, what else can I give him? Oh

my God. So many things. The world feels more open now. I'm like, wow. I have said, so I was telling Kat before we recorded that my dog is not doing well and will probably be gone soon, but.

Kat (53:40)
Could you wash my hair?

Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany (53:55)
I have said if there is another pet that enters this home, I am not going to be responsible in any way, shape or form. I don't know if I'm gonna stick to it though. That's what I'm worried about. Cause I love pets. You know, I'm like so excited. I know. And I'm not going to be like, I absolutely will never feed this cat, you know? But I don't want to do the vet. I don't want to do the medicine.

Kat (54:09)
That's the hard part. Yes, you will take care of the cat. You will.

Right.

Tiffany (54:23)
I don't want to do the ordering of the food. I don't want to do any of that. So. Oh, that is awesome. That's awesome. Yeah.

Kat (54:24)
the grocery or the the food yep no my god it's so great Sean does all that for our dogs ⁓ well I take them to the vet but yeah

because I don't have a stringent day job where I'd have to take off work to take him to the vet so but yeah

Tiffany (54:38)
Right. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah, my world, my eyes have opened. That's all I got to say. Yeah. Gross hamsters. Just kidding. They're fine.

Kat (54:45)
Yes, you take care of the hamsters.

my god, they're fine.

You take care of them, like any pet.

Tiffany (54:55)
They're fine, they're just like so boring. I had gerbils and they were like the worst pets because they were just so boring. mine, well, yeah, mine were like pet store, they were gerbils, so.

Kat (55:02)
really?

Yeah, ours

were too, but you gotta socialize them, right? And there's personalities. I don't know, I loved my hamsters. We had great times with our hamsters. Yeah.

Tiffany (55:11)
There are. Yeah. I also had rats and they were awesome. One of them

was awesome. The other one was uninterested in me. One of them was just like cool, like sweet, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, dribbles are just a little bit. Not for me, but maybe people love them. I'm sure I know people do.

Kat (55:18)
Yeah. Yeah, they're like dogs. Yeah.

I could see that. Yeah, there's some, just,

and you know, just like with any relationship, you're not going to vibe with everyone.

Tiffany (55:34)
Exactly, and they are less work than a lot of pets though, so that's nice. alright cool, well that was fun. So hopefully that was helpful for anybody out there.

Kat (55:36)
Yeah, yeah, it's true.

Yeah, I love it.

Next week we're supposed to be talking about PFAS and food, which I don't know.

Tiffany (55:51)
⁓ it was

good that we had a couple of light light hitters.

Kat (55:55)
Yeah, I don't know. might,

I might. We'll see. Because we've done PFAS in water and stuff and I'm not sure, given the state of the world.

Tiffany (56:00)
Okay.

Okay.

Yeah. Like it, yeah. Is that we've already done microplastics. So if we don't want to kill ourselves, yeah, that's fair. Yeah. We can keep the light. Keep the mood light. I don't know what that was. Little dance. Yeah. Why not? All right. Sweet. I hear the dogs, so that means it's time.

Kat (56:08)
but we'll see.

Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how we feel. Yeah, because it's getting close to Thanksgiving season two.

You

Some dancing. Yeah.

All right, I think I think

my boyfriend is home with the ice cream I requested so Ding-ding make me a bowl darling. Yes. All right Yeah, follow us on Instagram if you don't we're at greening up my act Yeah Give us or you know what review us give us five stars. Give us a like and or tell a friend

Tiffany (56:37)
I love perfect timing. Perfect. Perfect. Cool.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

On Spotify, on all of the, Apple, on all the podcast places, just, write something nice if you have time, because that counts even more. Extra credit. Okay. Bye.

Kat (56:59)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that helps a lot. Yep. All right, see ya.