Can’t make the meal you wanted to? Ever run out of an ingredient and you only discovered it while cooking?
Industrial Engineers have solved this problem because shutting down the production line costs somewhere in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per minute. Running out of inventory is preventable. This application will prevent you from kitchen inventory mistakes, saving you time, money, and frustration.
There are two types of systems. A push system is when you plan ahead, predicting how much inventory(groceries) you need. A pull system is when you buy more inventory(groceries) as you are running out.
In our kitchen, we will use a hybrid system as most factories implement. Bulk items use a pull system, only buying more of an item when it gets low. Ingredients that are used in only a specific recipe will use a push system, and will be planned before going to the grocery store.
You likely already do this to some extent, but occasionally mistakes happen. Suddenly run out of a spice and you have another recipe containing it later this week? Industrial Engineers have found ways to error proof this.
This may be obvious, but according to some anecdotes, some people buy groceries based on feeling.
Decide what meals you will eat until your next grocery trip, we write ours down on a physical calendar. At this point, go through the recipes and write what ingredients you need for these meals.
Some possible ways to make this faster are to create weekly templates. Suppose you have 4 weeks of ideas, you can type/write the ingredients for each week, and print/scan a copy. We did this in the original Efficiency Is Everything – In Cooking cookbook, click here.
How often do you check to see if you are running low on a bulk item like Sugar/Rice/Flour/Spices? If you check weekly, you are wasting time. If you never check, you are going to run out of inventory.
For a pull system to work, you need to figure out how much is the maximum quantity you will need of the ingredient between grocery trips. For instance, I will not need more than 20 cups of rice per week, so I will make sure the systems will cue/trigger me to add the ingredient to my list when we go below 20 cups of rice in the inventory.
Here are some pull systems:
0 effort, possible spoilage, 2 bin system: You buy 2 containers of this bulk food. When one container runs out, buy another. Simple, no effort. You run the risk of spoilage, and the inventory takes up some extra space. In the example, the two bags of rice must have at least 20 cups of rice. If you want to save time, this is the best system.
Some effort, draw a line: Take a pen/marker, draw on the container a line that will visually remind you to buy more of the product. You could also do this with storage containers and mark a line that indicates when to re-buy. This doesn’t take up extra space but does take a moment to draw a line.
More effort, save 1 week worth of food in a backup container: Figure out the maximum need between grocery sessions. Put that amount in a backup container separate from your bulk container. When you run out of your bulk container, put it on your grocery list. You now can go into your separate container to last the rest of the week
If you aren’t already using a push system, its a good habit to begin. I especially recommend the premade weeks. The pull system is easy enough that you shouldn’t have trouble implementing it.
If you have a partner, make sure they understand the two systems, they might have further ideas on how to improve it.
The goal is to continuously improve your home processes, if something doesn’t work, change it.
This is my summary of all the cleaning methods I am aware of. This article is important because the first 10 results on google often recommended mixing vinegar and baking soda, aka making water and a salt. Here I will go through the options I use for cleaning the hardest things.
Note: I thought I was going to invent my own piranha solution that wasn’t so dangerous. As a note piranha solutions are not recommended in a lab environment, let alone your kitchen.
For high appearance items, its best to do a test run on a low appearance area. For instance, before you put bleach on the front of your wood cabinet, try it on the inside back corner made of the same material that rarely sees the light of day. If after a few hours it looks fine, you are probably safe.
Its also best to start with diluted or weaker substances before pulling out the strong stuff.
If you are about to try something new, I’d google it. For instance, wood dye is soluble in a non-polar substance- meaning dyed wood will be ruined with acetone. The following are to give you ideas for impossible to remove substances.
I should include water on the list, but its a bit obvious to go into detail. Boiling water is a favorite, but I’ll often use hot water from the tap.
It typically helps to clean as soon as a surface gets dirty. Things get deeper into crevasses, they might chemically react, and they will dry.
Hot stuff makes things softer and more liquid. I continue to be surprised at how easy hot water ~140F can clean something vs cold water 50F. The difference is as simple as changing the temperature of your faucet.
There are some other options, the hottest easily available is using an oven. My gas oven can get to 500F, although I hear some ovens have an oven cleaning setting that gets to 800F. Before you turn on your oven cleaning setting you should take note of what you are trying to clean, if it can handle those temperatures, and that maybe a lower setting might do the job.
If you need heat to clean something that cannot be put into an oven, boiling water can help. If the surface cannot touch water, a blow dryer or heat gun can make a hot surface.
This is typically a double edged sword. Yes you can use steel wool, but it might damage the surface you are trying to clean. Even a soft sponge may take off tiny bits of Teflon on a pan.
My rule is to typically use water, soap, and the softest cotton rag before I put a sponge on anything that is delicate.
There is a rule of thumb I don’t recommend, to only use weaker substances to scrub than the material you are scrubbing on. For instance, use a sponge on metal, use a rag on wood. I don’t totally buy this. A sharp plastic edge and some elbow grease/strong muscles can damage a metal surface. If I use a sponge, I make sure everything is water hot, soaked, and then lightly scrub before I start putting additional force into it.
We are getting into the ‘last resort’ territory. The following may react with surfaces in an undesirable fashion. Do a test surface.
The idea behind soaps is that you can have an fat/oil/non polar substance attach to a soap and have soap attach to water. Then you can rinse the surface with water and that will wash everything bonded to the soap away.
Typically these contain a soap, but what makes them different is that have a surfactant. Surfactants make water ‘wetter’, and reduce the surface tension of a liquid. This both forces molecules around, but it also lets substances get into tinier crevasses.
If water can dissolve polar substances like table salt, a non polar substance may help dissolve/mix with a nonpolar substance. You may see these casually described as Solvents. (Water is also a solvent, but its polar, these are not the same.) Isopropyl alcohol, mineral spirits, and if you have none of the above handy, glycerin.
Using soap/detergent after is a great 1-2 punch as soap will bind as described above.
You are about to chemically react things here. Before it was about physical removal and dissolving, but now there is going to be a chemical reaction.
The idea here is that by bombarding an substance with Hydrogen ions, its going to react into something that isn’t as sticky or will dissolve in water.
Cooking vinegar is an easy first stop. Oxalic acid is the stronger, ‘bar keepers friend’. And you can get all the way to sulfuric acid at the hardware store.
The concentration is a critical aspect here. Diluting an acid wont make it as strong.
Mixing an acid with a base(vinegar and baking soda) creates regular boring water and a salt. Its totally stupid, don’t do it.
If you hear people talking about alkaline, they are talking about hydroxide ions. If Acids have lots of extra Hydrogen ions(+1 charge), bases have lots of hydroxide ions(-1 charge). Doing an acid cleaning, then washing away the acid with water, and a base cleaning, is a 1-2 punch that effects many substances.
On the less harsh end is Baking soda and water. On the strong end, NaOH ‘Lye’. All available at the hardware store.
This bombards your surface with electrons.
Some common types are Ascorbic Acid and Oxalic Acid (as mentioned in the Acid section, this is the main ingredient in barkeepers friend).
As with the Acid and Base sections, make sure your surface has no other chemical on it, because it might interfere with a reducing reaction.
“HI ITS MICHAEL KIRK HERE WITH OXYCL” Yeah that one. This is typically seen as household bleach. Bleach isn’t a single chemical, but rather the generic term for something that oxides. This is the opposite of a reducer, oxidizers suck electrons from whatever surface you apply it to.
Chlorine based bleach(typically used for whitening), peroxide based bleach(Commonly called color safe bleach), and hydrogen peroxide are common.
Test less critical locations of whatever you are cleaning. Start with gentle suggestions before harsh. If you see progress using a method, you can continue by repeating, or trying a different substance in that same category. Google might help too, or maybe you will find a ‘mix vinegar and baking soda’ SEO blogger that will waste your time. On a similar note, its a shame this website isn’t the first link when you search ‘save money on food’- the top results suck.
I recently saw someone say ‘We did the math and sending the kid to daycare would be break even’. When I inquired further, it turned out ‘break even’ meant they could have profited $12,000/year. Nothing wrong with being a stay at home parent, but a profit of $12k is not close to break even.
Disclaimer, we send our kids to daycare, expect pro-daycare bias.
If you are reading this and have an agenda, to prove that whatever you are currently doing is the best: Just do that. This article’s purpose is to be rational from a monetary perspective. If you are afraid daycare is going to teach your kid bad habits, money won’t change that feeling.
Here are your options to consider
While there is a monetary value to each option, there are some intangibles that should be considered.
During coronavirus, I ‘lived the dream’. Me and my 1 year old spent every day together, I built bridges and towers with his megablocks, we went outside, and… quickly this wore off and his fuss drove me to putting on baby phonics and count to 100 videos.
We typically see our stay at home mom friends have a Disney movie on TV in the background of our snapchats.
Recently I got a taste of the stay at home life as I had coronavirus and I watched my kids all day. I think stay at home is fun in bursts, and it may be fun when the kids are a bit older and can play more independently or tell you what they need.
Pros:
Cons:
I won’t put ‘daycare costs money’ as a con, because daycare allows me to work and make profit.
To calculate if daycare is profitable, find out the cost of daycare. 5 days a week is approx $15,000 per child per year in my area. Then find your after tax earnings (as an estimate take your yearly income and multiply by 0.7). Do yearly after tax income – cost of daycare. If your number is positive, daycare is not ‘break even’, it’s profitable. Consider that the experience you gain from working will pay dividends as well.
Example outputs, assuming 15k/child/yr, a tax burden of 30%. This doesn’t include daycare tax deductions, which were $8,000 per kid in 2021 and only $3,000 per kid in 2022.
1 kid x 15,000= 15,000, after tax income to profit $21,000
2 kids x 15,000= 30,000, after tax income to profit $42,000
3 kids x 15,000 = 45,000 , after tax income to profit $65,000
Enter your yearly cost of daycare:
Enter your yearly post-tax income:
Gain/Loss =
To add qualities, here are pros and cons:
Pros:
Cons:
We use this to some extent, for 2 days a week, we have our parents watch the kids. There are pros and cons. Grandparents spoil the kids, but they get that 1 on 1 attention that they wouldn’t get from daycare. I also enjoy having our parents over, I like those days as much as the weekend. It also reduces our daycare bills slightly.
I’ve been offered support from friends and neighbors as well, mostly in the form of trading days of watching kids. This would require finessing around work schedules, so we end up using daycare instead. However, my job is flexible enough to do something like this. I’ve personally been impressed enough by my kid’s socialization at daycare that I don’t think I’d trade it for $20,000/yr… Hmm… when I put it that way, maybe I do need to consider ‘The Third Way’.
If you want to be a stay at home parent, why are you reading this article? You know in your heart what you want.
If you want to make profit and have 1 parent with a flexible schedule, you may be able to set up a system of friends, family, and neighbors to watch your kids.
If you want to make profit, do the math to figure out if daycare is a profitable choice. Even a slight profit will pay dividends with a stronger resume. On a similar note, make sure you are using rational decision making when choosing jobs, benefits disguise how low a job actually pays.
Watching TV can be either a full focus, mentally intense activity or the TV is background noise. A show like LOST, where missing 15 seconds could make you completely not understand anything is full focus. Re-runs of The Office can be background noise. (Don’t watch LOST, save your time)
You can swap ‘Watch TV’ with listening to audiobooks for these.
From “highest TV” focused to “mostly activity” focused:
A casual stroll on a stationary bike or treadmill walk/light jog is nearly mindless. Your head can still fully face the TV at all times. You burn calories, condition yourself, and hit that recommended 30 minutes of exercise per day that everyone talks about. This wouldn’t be my only exercise, I’d definitely want 2-3 days per week of much more intense workouts, but 30 minutes of easy cardio keep you loose and burn calories.
As a note, the faster I run on the treadmill or more intense I go on the stationary bike, the louder I need to make the TV. Closed Captions help.
This may be a bit more intense than light exercise as some stretching causes you to look away from the TV. Changing positions or counting require mental activity that isn’t focusing on the show for a few seconds. I wouldn’t let this deter you. Most shows have redundancies to clear up confusion.
Do remember there is a difference between Active/Dynamic and Passive/Static stretching. You may find Passive/Static is better for watching an intense show.
Thank you to my wife, a Doctor of Physical Therapy, for correcting my terminology in this article.
This is basically on the same tier as Stretching, with slightly less looking at the TV if you use a foam roller/tennis ball.
Similar to Stretching, you can do Dynamic massage where you are moving back and forth. You can also do Static stretching. Each has different physiological effects, I personally do both.
This is typically quick and mindless enough to continue to focus on whatever you are watching.
We are now approaching the point where you can ‘miss something’. Cleaning a single room with a TV in it would be rare. However, transporting objects from one room to another is a common activity during cleaning, your back will face the TV and you may leave the room entirely. You may be able to coordinate this in a way where you never leave the room, or are doing things like dusting/picking up kids toys/folding laundry. You can likely empty and load the dishwasher while watching TV and miss little, as long as you can see and hear the TV. This is one of the few cases where sound becomes an issue.
We have crossed over into the ‘I’m doing an activity, and the TV is in the background’.
Back when I used to watch (Detroit Lions) sports, I would have a guitar in my lap and practice a difficult technique or finger position. For a difficult technique, you are focused on pulling off the technique and learning from your mistakes. You are doing trail and error, seeing if you can figure out something new that works. If the crowd/announcer goes wild, you can watch the replay. You can also stop practicing when teams are close to scoring or it’s the end of the game.
The best way for me to watch sports is if I’m doing something else productive or visiting friends(which is also productive).
When you know… you know..
The first time I learned how to crochet, it was a full 100% intense activity. Today, I can mindlessly make many different toys with a mere occasional reference to remind myself the order of operations. My favorite are making simple snowballs. At this point, no reference needed. My wife knits blankets.
Cooking gives you long breaks but also critical moments of full focus. After stirring tomato sauce, you might have 5-50 minutes before needing to do anything else. Or you might be frying potatoes/cooking crepes/toasting a quesadilla and 30 seconds of inattention causes your food to burn. Or maybe you are cutting vegetables and can listen to the dialogue of a show.
I wouldn’t put anything attention intense on, but you can always jump back a few minutes if you missed something on TV and are done with time critical cooking.
This one can really go both ways. This year we were processing ~1000 peaches from our peach tree and had to get rid of gross spots and the pits. That was pretty mindless, even if our eyes weren’t fully on the TV.
This is really reserved for TV shows that don’t matter. The news and sports come to mind. You can generally get the gist of what is going on from a quick glance.
There is another downside. I don’t think your workout will be at the intensity you could achieve. Intense hype music before a heavy lift will get me to do more reps than if I was listening to a non-fiction podcast/audiobook. My 2-3/week hard workouts are to achieve progress, and I’d be disappointed if I didn’t achieve my goal because I needed to watch TV. However, any workout is better than no workout. You decide.
You are watching TV for enjoyment. Finding any secondary benefit provides an ROI that would otherwise be 0. Find something you find either physically or mentally mindless that works for you.
Being sick sucks, and if my cocktail of 500mg Acetaminophen, 200mg ibuprofen, and 120mg pseudoephedrine (plus any caffeine for caffeine users) doesn’t get me feeling better than ever:
Lower your expectations and have a backup plan.
You may have some warning shots, your spouse/kid/friends you hung out with are suddenly sick. Some article I once read said that taking vitamins before you are sick might help. I have, but I still get sick.
Create some reasonable expectations for when you are sick. Survive work? If its just a cold, sure. Fever? Get caught up on some TV/youtube. Get something done at home… ugh probably not, but bonus- and celebrate that win.
You might be able to grind out the 9-5 job on cruise control and make money. That is a pretty good win considering the circumstances.
If you work in-person, your social responsibility is to stay home. But with work from home and masks being socially acceptable, it might be alright to continue working.
Non-fiction is the gold standard.
Despite getting an engineering degree, I never quite understood the difference between voltage and current until I was sick. Sure I could calculate each, but I didn’t really ‘get it’. I queued up 5 videos about voltage and current and by the end of video 2, I understood the difference between voltage and current.
Watching videos on topics you want to learn about is a great way to spend your sick sulking. You sack around, not moving more than a finger, and you brain consumes new knowledge. This is why I wrote this article – you might not be mentally and physically able to accomplish greatness, but you can knockout lesser things that you haven’t had the time for.
Depending on your state, you might be might be able to think somewhat clearly. You can read books and articles that you have set aside.
I had this happen a few times during k0v1d nint33n. I felt good enough to be a normal human, but I had a terrible headache. This gave me an opportunity to lift weights, following my workout plan. It also allowed me to clean the house and do yard work, living life on cruise control.
The point I’m making here is to use what you have available and know what tasks are available to you. Evaluate your current state and do whatever feels best but also accomplishes your goals.
I once read a quote that said something like “If you only do work when you feel good, you wont accomplish much.” I don’t think this person was talking about illness, but I like the idea to a lesser degree. Give yourself a break, but do it in a way that also knocks out your never ending to-do list.
Want an excuse to browse that website that rhymes with interest? Do it, but do it so you can solve a future problem.
Did your friend recommend watching some movie and you’d hate to tell them ‘no thanks, your tastes suck, I don’t have time for that.” Do it while sick.
You have a few hours when you know you are about to become sick, this is your time to plan. Visualize how you are going to be lying on the couch, visualize what you are going to watch. Make your productivity inevitable.
Lead Engineer, Michael Kirk-
On this website, we will use things like Calories, Vitamin A (g), Amount of 4G data/$. These qualities can be measured.
Or I can use it in my personal life. Label Maker- Hooks up to PC(True/False), inkless(True/False), doesnt use proprietary label paper(True/False), Cost($), size of label(inches).
These allow things to be compared objectively and without bias from brands and their marketing. Or if you do drink cooperate koolaid, this can help ensure you get the best product they offer.
Suppose you need to buy a computer, consider what you want in a computer.
Do you want a fast computer, one that doesn’t slow down under movies, most video games, CAD, Photoshop, a video editor, and mobile? Do you only need something that runs Excel and a Browser? You can use qualities to find you the highest quality option at the lowest cost. There is even a situation that someone might have to give Apple money.
Qualities can be as simple as True/False or more complex/specific with numerical values. This depends on how much effort you want to put into collecting data. More time spent collecting information will give you a better end result, but this may not be necessary if you are buying something in the $0-$20 range. This may be more important when buying something in the $100-$1000 range.
When choosing a fast computer(as described above), you can choose the quality metric- Dedicated Video Card? (True/False). Or, you can use a numerical value of a standard Video Card Benchmark. Choice is yours to how you want to spend your time.
You could include RAM(GB of Memory), Storage Space(SSD or HDD). Deciding if these qualities are necessary to your decision is up to you.
Apple may meet your quality metrics, but they have the highest cost. This causes them to fall into last place quality per dollar (Not to mention their support for Chinese dictatorships), you wouldn’t buy an Apple product unless you had to. Suppose you need to compile an App for iPhone owners. In that case, there would be a quality called, Can compile for iOS (True/False). In that event, you are forced to buy an Apple product, you can still apply the previous advice. You don’t need video editing or fast speed, you need something that lets you compile.
These qualities can be compared to help you choose a $600 gaming laptop, a $200 used computer, or a $1000 barebones used Mac Mini.
Start by brainstorming what qualities matter. In engineering this could be the max voltage for a transistor, at home it could be the number of inches a TV is. Don’t worry exactly how you will measure it, or the units. Focus on the problem you are looking to solve, and consider what qualities you need to achieve.
Time to consider dimensions. It helps if there is an ‘objective measurement’, inches for a TV is generally something you are going to care about. You can extend this quality into multiple measurements. Diagonal in, width in, height in. Your decision how detailed you make your study. This can also be a simple Boolean True/False, ‘Does this allow me to connect via USB?’. (Also I have stopped making the Boolean/Bouillon joke, I get too many emails.)
You can even use subjective values, like a 0-10 ranking. Consider ‘coolness’, you could do a subjective 0/10 to 10/10. Its not perfect, but any measurement gets you closer than emotion.
After looking at lots of t-tables, it seems like there is a fantastic benefit in certainty to take even 2 samples. I personally recommend taking 3 samples because you get a 3x benefit in certainty by taking 3 samples over 2 samples. All that being said, if you want to actually be correct, you can take a larger sample. The most time conscious person should check 2 options, but I highly recommend 3 for lazy people. Weirdly enough confidence increases, but the diminishing returns are early. Fun fact, your airbags are officially tested 3 times.
Sometimes you need to get creative, if all you have available is the average caffeine content of coffee per liter, you might need to use it and make a note of how you came up with it. If the deciding factor comes down to this estimation, it may be worth spending more of your resources to figure out a better estimate.
Now that you have numbers, you can begin to compare. Its common to sort by max/min, but you can also do other useful things. Inches of TV divided by Cost of TV is the unit In/$, which later can be sorted for max/min. Other units I’ve used, mg Vitamin A/Calorie, mg Vitamin A/Gram of Broccoli. Protein per Second.
After you sort the data, you should learn a lot about the options. You can eliminate poor performers and begin focusing on the difference between the best options.
Ideas- Phones, Food, Contractors, Colleges, Degrees, Cars, Video Game systems, Laundry Detergents, and more. This website is full of comparisons, the best ROI I’ve seen on comparing quality per dollar was health insurance.
Next time you spend money, especially on big purchases, consider what quality metrics you care about. This will prevent corporate marketing from using psychology tricks on you. You save money, you get the best product.
The decisions you make at 18 years old changes everything. A veteran contacted me having no college debt and $400k in mortgages at the age of 23. We have 3 others compete to beat ‘5 years to the American Dream’.
American Dream Per Dollar– Efficiency Is Everything studies Career paths, change your life and make money in years.
Bonus Shoutout: Dr. Alex Harrison has a DIY Gatorade for endurance athletes
Read books/play musical instruments while watching your favorite sports. (~6hrs/week)
Eat more $1.50/day recipes, try once a week until you learn the recipes. (Saves $100-$10,000/yr + delicious healthy food)
If you must go to restaurants, dollar menu/loss leaders (400 Calories Per Dollar vs 100 Calories Per Dollar)
Bored and ready to buy entertainment? Save money and watch Philosophy videos on youtube. (Stoicism and Tao Te Ching are popular)
Invest.
Wish you the best,
Michael Kirk
Lead Engineer
I was talking to an Efficiency Is Everything User who is the owner of multiple homes and a college degree with no college debt, age 25.
I was curious what the most optimal path to this ‘American Dream’ of being college debt free and owning a 400k USD home. Note- I personally don’t know if I support personal home mortgages, but this can otherwise be viewed as-
We have Michael and Mandy Kirk, Austin, and Francesca racing to 80k.
I saved a few thousand dollars by being stingy as a child, knowing I’d need to pay for college. I worked a retail clothing job making ~9k yr until I got coop job turned midnight shift job paying 38k/yr. This worked out as I took 60 credits at the community college and 68 credits at our local university, living off campus(19k/yr expense). Year 2 my parents loaned me $9k USD to pay for college and I was able to pay it back by graduation with the help of my process technician job.
From there it was engineering money. And both the costs and the benefits of my wife’s Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. We finally bought our house 9 years after high school graduation. Speaking of benefits, Dr. Mandy now has over 40 patients per week.
9 Years.
Suppose in 2012 I didn’t buy a wedding ring and doctorate degree. I hit 80k+ savings year 7.
7 Years.
A veteran Active Duty Marine uses benefits to get free college and VA loans that require no down payment. The catch is that you need 4 years of Active Duty. (Austin did 5 years Active Duty)
Austin then found a college that you could take tests to get credits toward the degree. He could study for the tests, take them, and get credit for the classes. The total cost of his bachelor degree was $~7200, the government paid for almost all of it by being in the Air Force or Army Reserves. In 2020 Austin finished his Bachelors degree and got a pay raise to $115,000/yr. Or so he expected, until he was called upon in the reserves. Its both a pay cut and cost of living cut as he no longer needs the place he currently rents. He currently is getting the government to pay for his masters degree.
This is a way to get the same outcome and meets the goal-line. Reminder, this could be shorter with 4 years active duty or using reserves.
7 Years.
Our conversation started off with her teaching piano lessons and saving money since she was 13. Even with us only tracking her from 18 on, she had Money figured out. After her first year of college she worked a intern job, taught piano, and did school. When you make ~20k profit per year before graduating college you are going to win this race.
Some notes about this lifestyle. She said her parents were annoying and work was more tolerable than being home. And one time she almost fell asleep teaching piano lessons.
5 Years.
Here is the raw data. Francesca wins the race by the numbers.
However, is the race to a downpayment on a 400k house a good metric?
Upon finishing the race the Engineer and Dr of Physical Therapy has a revenue close to 300k/yr, Francesca makes teacher pay.
Marry a doctor.
Possibly join the reserves as they have $5k/yr or higher benefit toward school plus access into potentially high paying ‘top secret’ government jobs. It takes ~39 days per year x8 hour days, a benefit of about 16$/hr.
Or maybe you get a factory engineering job and learn about Industrial Engineering while attending engineering school.
The trend is having no time and high value degrees. Anecdote: I thought the weekends and money was nice.
Bonus note: Western Governors University allows you to test out of classes, saving money. Might be worth considering a college that lets you do this.
Hope this was engineering enough, but for such a critical life decision as a career it seems necessary for Efficiency Is Everything to cover it. Completing a suggested path is going to be difficult, but consider it like exercising a muscle in toughness- wait, that’s not engineering.
Wish you the best,
Lead Engineer
Michael Kirk
Our Intern Josh has collected data to find the best dates, given various quality metrics and cost.
This data uses specific pricing, and has gas costs calculated using a common location. While the description on this website is generic(Coffee Date), the detailed description(Atomic Coffee Royal Oak, 2 Cinnamon Dolce Latte) can be found in our raw data – Click Here.
Classy, Creative, and Public were subjectively decided on a scale from 0-10, and based on that given a True/False value. This is considered Boolean, as it has only 2 possible values.
Given how specific this data is, but how varied prices and distances to locations in your own life, the data should be compared on a scale. For instance, 100-400 Minutes Per Dollar are similar. 7-10 Minutes Per Dollar are similar. There is a drastic difference between 5 Minutes Per Dollar and 20 Minutes Per Dollar. This is mentally doing Logarithms with the data.
Note: Clicking the Column names will sort, and if you click in a specific order, IE: Minutes Per Dollar, then Creative, you can see a comparison of qualities without opening the raw data.
Date | Cost | Minutes Spent | Minutes of Date Per Dollar | Classy | Creative | Public |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Park | $0.30 | 120 | 400.0 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Animal Watching | $0.30 | 45 | 150.0 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Tennis | $1.20 | 120 | 100.0 | FALSE | FALSE | FALSE |
Hike | $7.50 | 180 | 24.0 | TRUE | TRUE | FALSE |
Cooking Date Night | $10.00 | 180 | 18.0 | FALSE | TRUE | FALSE |
Party | $18.00 | 300 | 16.7 | TRUE | FALSE | TRUE |
Mall | $10.60 | 140 | 13.2 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Beach | $16.00 | 180 | 11.3 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Fair/Festival | $17.00 | 180 | 10.6 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Long Distance travel with 2 night hotel | $282.50 | 2880 | 10.2 | TRUE | TRUE | FALSE |
Zoo | $36.40 | 300 | 8.2 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Store | $14.90 | 120 | 8.1 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Apple Orchard | $16.50 | 120 | 7.3 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Drive in | $37.00 | 240 | 6.5 | FALSE | FALSE | FALSE |
Swimming | $21.50 | 120 | 5.6 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
72 Mile Roadtrip | $21.75 | 120 | 5.5 | TRUE | TRUE | FALSE |
Museum | $21.80 | 120 | 5.5 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
DIA | $32.80 | 180 | 5.5 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Netflix’N’Chill | $10.99 | 60 | 5.5 | FALSE | FALSE | FALSE |
Coffee Date | $11.50 | 60 | 5.2 | TRUE | FALSE | TRUE |
Downtown Free | $13.00 | 60 | 4.6 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Fair/Festival all day(Drink,booth,etc) | $82.00 | 360 | 4.4 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Science Center | $42.80 | 180 | 4.2 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Mini Golf | $14.50 | 60 | 4.1 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Picnic with drinks | $15.30 | 60 | 3.9 | TRUE | TRUE | FALSE |
Fair/Festival with 2 drinks each | $53.00 | 180 | 3.4 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Local Concert | $55.40 | 180 | 3.2 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Wine Tasting | $14.60 | 45 | 3.1 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Movie at Emagine with 2 Beers | $47.50 | 140 | 2.9 | TRUE | FALSE | TRUE |
Normal movie at Emagine | $44.50 | 130 | 2.9 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Low Cost Movie | $45.00 | 130 | 2.9 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Thrift store | $21.20 | 60 | 2.8 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Downtown Bar | $46.00 | 120 | 2.6 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Ice cream/ frozen yogurt | $12.00 | 30 | 2.5 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Ski | $169.50 | 360 | 2.1 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Bar | $28.30 | 60 | 2.1 | TRUE | FALSE | TRUE |
Bowling | $22.20 | 45 | 2.0 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Flea Market | $31.40 | 60 | 1.9 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Gym | $50.30 | 90 | 1.8 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Aquarium | $51.00 | 80 | 1.6 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Pro Sporting event with pregame | $201.00 | 300 | 1.5 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Pro Sporting event | $161.00 | 240 | 1.5 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
International Concert | $286.00 | 360 | 1.3 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Dinner at Chilis | $47.70 | 60 | 1.3 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Dinner at Red Lobster | $55.20 | 60 | 1.1 | TRUE | FALSE | TRUE |
International Concert with drinks | $338.00 | 360 | 1.1 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Fast food | $15.30 | 15 | 1.0 | FALSE | FALSE | TRUE |
Laser tag | $32.00 | 30 | 0.9 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Cooking Class | $171.20 | 140 | 0.8 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Dinner at Capital Grille | $94.50 | 60 | 0.6 | TRUE | FALSE | TRUE |
Dinner at Melting Pot | $121.14 | 60 | 0.5 | TRUE | TRUE | TRUE |
Psychic | $153.00 | 70 | 0.5 | FALSE | TRUE | TRUE |
Parks, beaches, trails, and outdoor activities are the lowest cost Dates. The cost comes from gas money, parking, and cost for entry. These are top results because they are low cost and have the potential to provide hours of entertainment.
On a similar note, public locations like the Mall and Local Festivals can also be a good value, as long as your spending doesn’t get out of control. These have the benefit of being potentially multi hour activities despite being more expensive than free locations.
Comparing these low cost options, to getting Ice Cream or Coffee, these have similar costs as a low cost trip to the mall, but last under an hour. This is the benefit of comparing items Minutes Per Dollar rather than cost alone.
More expensive activities include visiting Museums and Art Institutes, but are a better value than visiting a restaurant.
Looking at the best values and including non traditional dates(Creative) and non embarrassing dates(Classy) give some fantastic recommendations-
It may be helpful to know your Partner, and how to make these experiences memorable.
Public dates are something that is either desired or can put a dampen on your romance. A first blind date likely will be at a public location, while by the end of the night, you may want to be alone.
Most dates are in public locations where people do business, making low cost first dates plentiful in options.
Finding privacy can be more difficult. Dates that involve traveling give you the option to find uninhabited areas.
It seems the ‘wholesome’ date ideas like Hiking and Visiting Museums are a better value than ones that involve quick indulging like eating/drinking.
These are perceived Creative and Classy, give you plenty of time to spend together, and are affordable on seemingly every budget.
If you are struggling to get a first date, check out low effort ways to improve your appearance.