Shopping for toilet paper shouldn’t be as complicated or expensive as it is. Brands love to splatter their packaging with claims that one of their “Mega Rolls“Corresponds to 12 or 18” normal rolls “but is less direct about how much paper they actually give you. This makes it almost impossible to compare prices from brand to brand – or even within a brand’s range.

That, of course, is the whole point. When faced with dozens of packages of functionally identical products promoting similar (but also conflicting) marketing claims, you are likely to give up trying to make an informed decision and just grab something at random. Brands know this, so they put as many options on the shelves as possible in the hopes that overwhelmed customers grab one of them. Fortunately, it’s possible to compare toilet paper prices – all you have to do is do a little math.

How to break down the price

First, figure out the total area for each option you are considering. Most brands list it on their packaging, but an increasing number don’t. When there are no more square feet, take the number of sheets per roll and multiply it by the total number of rolls to get the total number of sheets in the package. These numbers are small and difficult to read, but at least one of them will be there.

From here you can split the price in either dollars per unit or units per dollar. For dollars per unit, divide the package price by the total area (or total area). For units per dollar, divide the total area (or total area) by the package price. To save money, you want to minimize the dollars per unit or maximize the units per dollar. You can use any of these calculations that you prefer, but you need to use the same formula consistently to keep the comparisons accurate.

Don’t trust the math of the store

Unfortunately, you have to do these calculations yourself because Unit prices on the shelves are notoriously unreliable. For example, in this listing on the local Safeway website, the price is broken down by “number” but it does not state what a “number” is (note mine):

Screenshot: AA Newton

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A quick check shows that this is the price per roll: 1.11 x 18 rolls per pack = $ 19.98. (Thanks for the roundup, folks!) With most competitors quoting unit prices in the range of $ 3 to $ 4 per 100 square feet, the Quilted Northern looks like a steal – until you find that $ 1.11 per roll about $ 3.70 per roll makes 100 square feet.

In-store unit prices can also be wrong, as in this case claiming that a $ 20.99 packet of toilet paper is $ 116.61 per 100 square feet (note mine):

Screenshot: AA Newton

According to the label, this package contains 516 square feet of paper. At $ 20.99 for the package, this equates to $ 0.04 per square foot, or about $ 4.00 per 100 square feet. I bet $ 116.61 is the wholesale price, or what the store will pay for a case of this particular item.

Is toilet paper math a huge pain in the ass? Yes unbelievable! Unfortunately, this is the only way to cut through the jungle of shit and find out how much you’re actually paying for toilet paper. When you’ve found a brand you like, at a price you can tolerate, replenish it when it goes on sale. You’ll never have to do the math again – at least until you change the size of your rolls.

Photo: NayaDadara (Shutterstock)

The combination of Earth Day and the spring pandemic outbreak could leave you looking for ways to get outside, connect with nature, and plant new life. If you’re like me (a person who has no evidence of a green thumb) you need all the help you can get keeping these plants alive. Fortunately, there are some simple hacks you can use to set up your garden for success right from the start.

TikToker The crispy city dwellerOn the one hand, according to the “hill culture method”, one swears to prepare his garden beds before planting. Here’s how to make a hill bed and how to put up a leg in the horticultural department.

What are Hugel beds?

Hill beds follow the hill culture planting method. You begin by building a mound from a pile of old wood buried underground to mimic the natural growth environment for the plants in the wild. The Permaculture Research Center explains the process in detail the natural process that the method tries to recreate:

“Wood waste (and other debris) that falls on the forest floor can easily become spongy, absorbing rain and slowly releasing it into the surrounding soil, making that moisture available to nearby plants.”

Mimicking this type of environment in your garden should, in theory, help plants thrive and save you from the hard work that comes with it.

Raised beds require less work

If you’re creating sunken garden beds, there are several steps to follow when the land is tilled to make it more hospitable to new plants. Planting prep includes killing current vegetation, turning the soil by digging at least a foot, and much more. With a raised boxYou can just use fresh soil and skip digging and tilling altogether.

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Reuse your old wood

Hunt down old wood before you put it in the dirt. You can either look for sticks, logs, and dead leaves (and other items you might toss in a compost heap) or reuse old wood that you have lying around.

The best wood for this job will rot a bit. Newer wood can interfere with this Nitrogen content in the soil, Manipulating the natural balance needed for plant growth. The rotting wood, on the other hand, supplies the soil with nutrients and contributes to its conservation proper drainageThis will give you the perfect amount of moisture to cultivate plant growth. For a visual representation of the process, see The crispy city dwellerThe video shows you how he uses hill gardening in his own raised beds.

We all know that Fitbit smartwatches track your daily physical activity, but they can now help you track your stress levels too. Fitbit recently announced the introduction of Fitbit Sense stress management tracking for Fitbit Versa 3, Versa 2, Luxe, Charge 4 and Inspire 2.

These Fitbit devices now calculate a daily stress management score based on a variety of factors, including your heart rate, physical activity, and sleep data. The Fitbit Sense also tracks electrodermal activity (EDA) to look for “fight or flight” responses.

Anyone using any of the supported Fitbit devices can check their daily stress score on the Dashboard page of the Fitbit app. The score ranges from 1 to 100 – but note that the number is not a measure of how “stressed” you are per se. Rather, a higher score means that you are doing more to relieve your daily stress – e. B. getting enough (but not too much) daily physical activity, getting enough sleep every night, and using top-notch mindfulness exercises from Fitbit.

Free users see their daily totals, while Fitbit Premium subscribers get a more detailed breakdown of the criteria being tracked, which shows you whether you need more sleep or need to increase your time at the gym to get these stress-reducing hormones pumping.

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A perfect score doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t feel stressed or anxious. It simply means that your body is showing fewer signs of physical stress, and therefore fewer stress-inducing reactions occur.

However, the Fitbit app’s stress management menu also has a check-in option that allows you to take some notes on how you felt that day. How to use it:

1. In the Fitbit app, tap “Coping with stress.”
2. Scroll down and tap “How do you feel?” under the Reflections section.
3. Choose the mood that best suits your day.
4. Tap “Log reflection” to save your selection.

These check-ins are optional and will not be included in your daily stress management score. There are only five options – from very stressed to very calm – so there is not much room for differentiated feedback. However, recording your feelings helps correlate your subjective experience with the data your Fitbit is collecting. Hopefully, with all of this information on hand, you will find peace of mind, rather than just excitement, as you try playing a different app to improve your results.

[Wareable]

Photo: Foxys Forest Manufacture (Shutterstock)

Lamb has something extraordinarily meaty about it. I don’t mean it has a lot of meat on its bones – although it can. I mean the experience of eating it is what eating meat should feel like. It’s often on a bone and has a strong, deep taste that is exactly the opposite of that of a sterile little chicken fillet.

Like beefNot all lambs are created equal, but the types of lamb you see in the supermarket or in the market vary less. According to meatscience.org, “[m]Ore as 90 percent of lamb in the US is rated USDA Prime or Choice. “However, there are three other classes – Good, Useful, and Eliminate. Similar to beef, the quality a lamb receives has a lot to do with the amount of fat present, although age and muscle thickness also affect its rating.

Prime

Meat from young lambs (between six and eight weeks old) that is “consistently muscular” with flank fat strips that range from “small” to “plentiful” is considered prime. But as the sheep get older, the need for fat increases. An older lamb needs “modest” to “abundant” stripes to be considered Prime. An annual mutton must have at least moderate fat streaks.

As soon as the sheep age in “mutton area” (older than 20 months), the meat can no longer be classified as prime, regardless of how high-fat it is. (See this graphic from USDA for a visual representation.) All prime lamb cuts are tender, either due to their youth and / or the amount of fat present, but I still happily give the meat one over at the store and choose the chops or steaks with the most marbling .

choice

Young lamb with “trace” or “small” amounts of flank fat strips is considered an option, but the amount of fat needed to maintain this rating increases as the lamb ages. If you buy mutton from a grocery store or butcher, it is most likely Choice quality, which means it has a “modest” to “ample” level of flank fat streak. Since you can’t know exactly how old the sheep were, it’s a good idea to look for the fat and choose cuts with the most streaks or marbling.

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Well

Good quality lamb is “consistently slightly thinly muscled” and, depending on the age of the animal, can range from “practically without” flank fat strips to a “moderate” amount. (Again, this graphic is really helpful.) You will most likely not come across whole pieces of lamb marked “good” as this meat is usually ground or made into other products.

Utility and cull

These two are, so to speak, the bottom of the sheep barrel. The utility can be “streak free” (assuming the lamb is young), and mutton with this rating can be “practically empty” or have as much as a “modest” amount of flank fat strips. “Club” refers to meat that does not meet even these meager qualifications. All utility and cull rated meat is made into other products, although I can’t tell you which type goes for which products. (I bet some are making their way into the dog food.)