Food costs continue to rise in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that food prices rose an average of 3% in 2025 compared to 2024.A December 2025 survey by Swiftly found that 68% of Americans are struggling to pay for groceries. But one frugal shopper on Reddit shared how they cut their grocery bill by 30% using their "laziest habit.""So this started because I got sick a few weeks ago and just did not have the energy to do a full grocery run," they shared. Woman looks at items in pantry.Photo credit: Canva Without the ability to get to the grocery store, they had to work with what they had in the fridge and pantry and found they had more on hand than expected."Stuff hidden behind jars stuck in corners leftovers I swore didn't exist," they wrote. "It turns out my usual habit was just forgetting what I owned then buying duplicates every single week. Rice, cans [of food], frozen veggies, spices everything. Not because I needed them but because I forgot I already had them."The result? Massive savings on food costs."My grocery bill dropped so hard I thought the receipt was wrong," they wrote. "[Now] before I let myself shop I have to make at least three meals only using what I already have. It makes me think before spending plus nothing expires in the back of the fridge anymore. I swear I waste almost zero food now." Taking stock of what is in the pantry.Photo credit: CanvaFellow frugal shoppers appreciated the insight. "Laziness is an underrated trait. We put off purchases because of the hassle including bigger grocery runs and it ends up saving lots of money," one commented. Another shared, "This is actually a killer hack. Forcing yourself to cook only from what's already in the house for a few days clears the mental fog of 'do I have this or not' and stops duplicate buys cold. Most people cut their grocery bill 20-30% the first month just by seeing what they actually own. The random combos usually turn out decent too—rice + canned beans + random spices = dinner. Laziness accidentally becoming discipline is peak frugal."Additional money-saving grocery tipsOther frugal shoppers offered their best tips for saving money on groceries. Here are six hacks for cutting down food shopping costs:"Before I get groceries I make a list of everything needed for the meals I want that week. Then I walk into my kitchen with that list and I hunt through the cupboards, fridge, and freezer looking for anything on the list. If I find something it gets crossed off the list. Then I get groceries." - RandyHoward"This and eating before going grocery shopping." - itoocouldbeanyone"I look in the fridge and freezer first, then plan a menu with things I already have (usually bought on sale), then I make a list of what I still need. Then I check the store flyer for sales on staples I use a lot of and anything else that is at a compelling price and add them to the list." - AnnieLes"I'd go to the grocery store and buy whatever was on sale, then figure out what to make with the ingredients for my weekly meals as I was shopping for 2 weeks at a time. My budget was tight, so I was counting how many cherry tomatoes I could put in my breakfast, etc. My husband's rule is eating all leftovers first. It works." - Ethel_Marie"I have a white board in the kitchen where I keep a list of things that need to be cooked soon. Items that are about to expire. Veggies I only used half of like half a bell pepper. I even write dishes that I know need to be eaten soon like mash potatoes. I’ve found wonderful recipes when I'm trying to cook with items that need to be used." - aramaro87"For this reason I now have stopped regularly shopping on the weekend. I do a big run once a month and make do the rest of the time." - Canyouhelpmeottawa

Adults have talked at length about the potential risks of artificial intelligence use in schools, from concerns about hindered critical thinking, to plagiarism, to decreased connection with educators. But it’s another thing altogether to hear these worries posed by an actual young person. Soborno Isaac Bari, a 13-year old child prodigy, author, and the world's youngest professor at NYU (where he also studied) recently shared on an episode of the Hasan Minhaj Doesn't Know podcast that when he sees his fellow classmates using ChatGPT to pass at all costs, it makes him “furious.” Why? For the simple reason that it takes away the gift of failure. Coming from someone who could easily benefit from academic shortcuts, Bari’s stance stands out. Surrounded by high-achieving peers and intense expectations, he argues that learning loses its meaning when the goal becomes avoiding mistakes at any cost. See on Instagram Bari shared how his own father failed Calculus four times. Nevertheless, he continued because of his love of learning. After his fourth failure, Bari’s father got a B, but because he wanted to master the subject, he took the class one last time, and finally got an A. This story of perseverance easily shows how repeated failure did not signal an endpoint, but rather became a vital part of the learning process itself.“After that, he got straight A’s on every course. Because that love of learning was in him no matter how many times he failed,” Bari told Minhaj.He then urged listeners to heed the moral of this story: that failing isn’t the enemy, and a tool which promises to take away the potential to fail is not a friend. Many students grow up believing that mistakes are permanent reflections of their ability, rather than temporary steps toward understanding. In that environment, a technology that offers instant answers can feel less like a convenience and more like a necessity. But Bari warned to not fall victim to this fallacy. See on Instagram “Don’t let ChatGPT live your life. Learn your own education. And work your job. Don't let it take away all those amazing opportunities that make your life rough and special. And don’t be afraid to fail sometimes. Because in the end, it’ll all feel meaningless if you don’t at least have something you consider a failure.”This youngster’s perspective challenges listeners to reconsider how they define progress and success, which isn’t something that always comes up in the AI conversation. Rather than measuring learning by blazing through classes and earning top grades, Bari emphasizes curiosity, effort, and personal investment. Those qualities, he suggests, cannot be generated by an algorithm and are worth protecting, even when doing so feels harder.“Creativity and humanity is the one thing AI can’t replace.”You can watch the full episode of Hasan Minhaj Doesn't Know below: - YouTube www.youtube.com

There's an unspoken dilemma many of us face each evening when we change into our jammies: what do we do with our clothes that aren't really dirty but aren't really clean? Undies and socks definitely belong in the dirty laundry bin, but what about a sweater you wore over a t-shirt just to lounge around your house? What about jeans that you're not supposed to wash every time you wear them?"I'm going to go out on a limb, and I'm gonna guess that you have a chair in your bedroom where you throw the clothes that are too dirty to go back into the drawer but too clean to go into the laundry," says inventor Simone Giertz. Yep, fair guess. That covered-in-worn-but-not-really-dirty clothes chair, henceforth known simply as The Chair, is a familiar sight in thousands, if not millions, of bedrooms. Some even call it a "chairdrobe." - YouTube www.youtube.com "I have one of those chairs," Giertz says. "I don't like it. It looks messy, and I want to design a chair that is meant for throwing laundry on." So she conceived of a round chair with a swiveling armrest that could serve as a rack for hanging clothes and stay hidden behind the chair. But would it look odd? How would she engineer the swivel function? Would it really be any better than The Chair that already sits in many bedrooms? She had so many questions to answer as she attempted to create a prototype.Watching an inventor work is really something. In the video, Giertz walks us through her process, and we see her working out ideas, questions, and conundrums in real time. She does everything herself, from the engineering to the woodworking to the upholstery. And the finished product looks like a sleek, modern chair without screaming, "Hey, I'm designed for half-dirty laundry!" See on Instagram However, when she takes it to her bedroom and demonstrates how the swivel rack works, it's clear her version of The Chair is extraordinary. She piles on a dozen or so pieces of clothing, and when she turns the swivel so they move behind the chair, it almost looks like there's nothing there. It's definitely a lot neater than The Chair normally looks in a bedroom. Giertz was quite proud of her accomplishment. "I cannot believe that I managed to wing this chair together just on vibes and plywood," she says as she sits down on it. "I wish I could just snap my fingers and that it was a product so you could buy it." Sold. Giphy She's not the only one. Though she said she was only joking, people in the comments gushed over her invention and seriously encouraged her to market it: "I'm telling you right now: you have a market for this. If you can get some sort of design patent DO IT and then see if you can collab with a furniture company that has the finances to mass produce this. I want one REALLY BADLY. This is a much classier solution than throwing my half-clean clothes on the floor of my closet.""This could be an opportunity for an insane Simone Giertz x Ikea collab. I would totally buy this chair.""Simone, this could actually be one of the biggest inventions of the century. The wisdom of accepting the existence of "the chair" and coming up with a solution that's both effective and aesthetic. brilliant. You should sell it.""You made a thing that really is a thing. Very clever and utilitarian. No motors to move it, no gimmicks. Nicely done."A good inventor sees a problem that doesn't have a solution yet and comes up with an idea to solve it. The Chair is a universal problem, and this unique chair is a brilliant solution. You can follow Simone Giertz on YouTube for more cool inventions.

When a 12-year-old boy named Ethan went to school one day in New Jersey, he likely never imagined his peers would chant his name in the gym auditorium. But that's exactly what happened, bringing pure joy to his classmates, the internet, and himself.Ethan, who has Down syndrome, was ready to take on a new trendy challenge, wherein one must hit a drum beat at the exact right moment during Whitney Houston's hit song, "I Will Always Love You." It's not as easy as it might look. But he was ready. See on Instagram There they were at the Township of Ocean Intermediate School. A rowdy crowd of junior high kids gathered, dressed mostly in red and blue, their sneakers squeaking on the freshly waxed floor. As Ethan stood next to the giant drum, the excitement was palpable."Ethan, Ethan, Ethan," they chant. The moment builds, while we hear Houston sing, "But above all this…I wish you loooooove." There's a slight pause in the song, the anticipation building even higher.And then, exactly at the right time, Ethan hits the drum with such purpose that it's like he was born to do it.The crowd understandably goes wild. Kids, teachers, parents alike stand and cheer. Move over Rocky AND Rudy, a new hero named Ethan is in town.On the NJ.com Instagram page, the school's principal, Christopher Amato, is quoted as saying it "quickly transformed into a powerful and organic moment of inclusion, acceptance, trust, kindness, and joy." See on Instagram Sarah Blunkosky, a learning coach and yoga therapist, while not an expert on Down syndrome, certainly knows a lot about it. She has a daughter who has Down syndrome and is on the autism spectrum.Blunkosky offers this insight to Upworthy, which specifically applies to what we saw in Ethan's wonderful moment: "Building a culture of connection and cooperation over competition is essential in most spaces because equity and inclusion depend on safety without judgment and fear of losing."Ethan's viral moment is gaining hundreds of thousands of likes and comments by the day. Many are simply overjoyed by how much this split second moved them. One person notes, "Leave it to the kids to remind us there is still so much kindness and joy in this world." A few musicians piped in, including a drummer who shared, "As a drummer, I’ve never been able to nail it!! What a boy you got there!!"But one comment stood out right away, which was from Ethan's mom, who wrote, "Thank you for sharing my boy ❤️ we are so thrilled at all the positivity and joy he’s been able to spread ❤"Upworthy had a chance to speak to Ethan's mom, Danielle, about his extraordinary life and how the love of their large family keeps life exciting. Of the "drum moment," she shared, "We are just so elated that his positivity and light has been able to reach people around the world." See on Instagram We asked for a little background on who this amazing kid is. "So Ethan is one of five siblings," Danielle said. "He has an older brother, two younger brothers, and a sister. We live in Ocean, NJ, so we spend a lot of family time in the warmer months at the beach."She added, "He has always had an innate ability to read people and know just when someone needs a hug or a fist bump. He is as sweet as he is stubborn; we always say 'It's Ethan's world and we're just living in it.' He's a lover of movies and music. He loves to memorize songs and sing them at full volume. When he's not going viral, you can catch him at the golf course or, more likely, home, in his onesie pajamas watching a movie with a big bowl of popcorn.""Ethan loves music," she said. "His favorite song is 'You're Welcome' from Moana and 'Live Your Life' by Rihanna. My husband, his stepdad, is musically inclined, so Ethan likes to sing into his microphones, pretend to play the keyboard, or play a guitar."When it comes to his classmates, she gushes, "Ethan is the mayor of his school. Everyone in every grade (pre-Whitney Challenge) knows his name and wants to be his friend. He loves his teachers, therapists, and paras. His favorite part of school is getting to work on his life skills. His classroom job is taking coffee orders for the teachers and delivering them. If he stays on task during the day, he gets to do the lunchtime announcements with Mr. O'Neill (the man in the video with him) as a reward — another favorite school activity. His favorite part of school is the social component."And as for the "Whitney Houston challenge" itself? "Ethan didn’t prepare at all," she said. "The challenge was part of a larger assembly for the kids called 'Almost Anything Goes.' Basically, a fun event of different challenges the grades compete in against each other. Ethan watched the other kids attempt the challenge and asked Mr. O'Neill if he could, too. They waited in line, he took his turn, and the rest is history." See on Instagram Danielle also opened up about learning and sharing information about Down syndrome:"The night Ethan was born was the night I found out he even had Down syndrome. It was the shock of our lives; but my entire pregnancy I knew something was different and I couldn't put my finger on it. So when we found out, it all made sense. The doctors and nurses were all apologetic and somber, as if having Down syndrome was the worst possible thing to happen to your child. I would say, they had nothing to be sorry about. Ethan is the greatest gift I never knew I needed until he was here. He has brought so much love and laughter to our family. He teaches us what strength and resilience look like. His heart knows no hate, feels no bias. He lives and loves so fully and unconditionally. Having a brother with special needs has taught my other children acceptance, compassion, and empathy. We are so lucky to love him and be loved by him. Maybe we are the ones missing a chromosome."She beautifully added, "At face value, his moment in the sun is a video of him nailing a difficult viral challenge. At its core, it is kindness, inclusion, and what acceptance looks like at this school. That my boy is loved for who he is, which makes his light just shine brighter. He is a true beacon of light, and we are so fortunate to have a community that not only basks in his light, but encourages him to shine."

Imagine this scenario, if you will: You're scrolling along, minding your own business on the internet, when this little nugget comes across your timeline: "1980 and 2023 are as far apart as 1937 and 1980. Sleep tight, old fogies!"Wait, what? Your first reaction is, "That can't be right," so you pull out the calculator and do the math yourself—several times because you're sure you must've missed a number somewhere each time. You remember how long ago 1937 seemed in 1980, and there's absolutely no way that much time passed between 1980 and 2023. Buy you're wrong. As the warped reality of time washes over you, you sit in stunned silence, contemplating the existential crisis you've just been thrown into. — (@) Why does time work this way? Why does it seem to accelerate and condense, making decades seem shorter and shorter as we age? And perhaps more importantly, how the heck do we stop time from feeling like a runaway freight train?Here are several theories about what causes the freight train phenomenon and what to do about it.Time perception is relative—and kids perceive it differently"Time flies when you're having fun" is a saying for a reason. Time also drags when you're doing drudgery and feels as if it stands still in moments of significance. And yet the ticking of seconds as they go by doesn't change tempo. We measure it with steady, unchanging beats, but how it feels changes constantly. Children playing with bubbles. via Canva/PhotosThis relativity exists in every passing moment, but it also exists in the bigger picture as well. The years felt to pass much more slowly when we were children, and by middle age they seem to pass in the blink of an eye. The pandemic gave us an even greater sense of this relativity as disruptions to our normal routines and the stress associated with the COVID-19 years messed with our sense of time. (On an odd side note, surveys show that our time perception during the pandemic varied a lot from place to place—people in some parts of the world felt that time moved more slowly, while others felt time moved more quickly.)According to a 2023 Hungarian study published in Nature Scientific Reports, very young children perceive time differently than older children and adults. Researchers split 138 people into three age groups—pre-kindergarten, school-age and adults 18 and over—and showed them two videos of the same duration, one that was "eventful" and one that was "uneventful." Interestingly, the pre-K group perceived the eventful video to be longer, while the older children and adults saw the uneventful video as longer.The way the study participants described the length of the videos in gestures was also telling. Young children were much more likely to use vertical hand gestures, connoting volume or magnitude, to indicate a length of time than the other two age groups. School-aged kids and adults tended to use horizontal gestures, indicating time as linear, increasing with age.Our neural processing slows down as we ageProfessor Adrian Bejan has a theory based on how neurons process signals. As we age, our neural networks increase in size and complexity, and as a result, process visual information more slowly. That slower processing means we create fewer mental images per second than we did when we were younger, which makes time seem to slow down. A woman slowly ages over about 15 years.via Canva/Photos “People are often amazed at how much they remember from days that seemed to last forever in their youth, Bejan shared with Harvard University. "It’s not that their experiences were much deeper or more meaningful; it’s just that they were being processed in rapid fire.”In other words, processing the same number of mental images we did in our youth takes longer now, somewhat counterintuitively making time seem to pass more quickly. So goes the theory, anyway.It might simply be about time-to-life ratiosAnother popular theory about why time feels different as a child than it does as an adult is the ratio of any given day, week or year to the amount of time we've been alive. To a 5-year-old, a year is 20% of their entire life. For a 50-year-old, a year only is 0.2% of their life, so it feels like it went by much more quickly. An hour glass at sunset.via Canva/Photos It's also a matter of how much change has happened in that year. A year in the life of a 5-year-old is full of rapid growth, change, learning, and development. A year in the life of a 50-year-old probably isn't a whole lot different than when they were 48 or 49. Even if there are major life changes, the middle-aged brain isn't evolving at nearly the same rate as a child. A 50-year-old looking back at the past year will have a lot fewer changes to process than a 5-year-old, therefore the year will seem like it went by a lot faster.“Our perception of days, weeks, years and that kind of time seems to be especially influenced by our perspective: Are we in the moment experiencing it, or are we looking backward on time?” psychology professor Cindy Lustig told the University of Michigan.The key to slowing it all down? Be mindful of the present moment.Lustig has a point. When we are in the moment, our perception of time is much different than when we look back. So, being fully conscious in the present moment can help us rein in the freight train effect.One way to do that is to be mindful of your physical existence in this moment. Feel your heart beating. Feel your breath going in and out. Cornell University psychology professor Adam Anderson, Ph.D., conducted a study that found our perception of time may be linked with the length of our heartbeats. (Study participants were fitted with electrocardiograms and asked to listen to a brief audio tone. They perceived the tone as longer after a longer heartbeat and shorter after a shorter one.) He suggests starting a stopwatch, closing your eyes, and focusing on your breathing for what you think feels like a minute. Then, check your time to see how accurate your estimation was.A good way to focus on your breath is to pay attention to how it goes in and out of your nostrils. If, during that minute, your attention strays from your breath, focus back on the feeling of the air coming out of your nose. “This can give you a sense of how much your experience of your body is related to your experience of time,” Anderson told WebMD. “It will help teach you to enjoy the pure experience of time.”You can also use focused breathing to slow your heart rate deliberately and, in turn, slow your sense of time. “We show that slow heart rates—that is, a longer duration between heartbeats—dilates time, slowing it down," Anderson said.We can also alter our perception of time by taking in novel experiences, such as traveling to new places. According to Steve Taylor, author of Making Time: Why Time Seems To Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control It, people who go on adventurous trips report that their vacations feel longer than those who choose a predictable destination. You can also make small changes to your daily routine, such as trying new foods or taking a new route home from work to expose yourself to novel stimuli and slow your perception of time.The key here is to see the world as if it's constantly unfolding in front of you and that you are being born into it. As the great Bob Dylan once wrote, "He not busy being born is busy dying." As long as we keep being born by seeing the world through fresh eyes and a sense of adventure, we'll be busy being born, and time won't accelerate so quickly. A study in 2024 found that people who do intense exercise experience a time warp, feeling like they exercised longer than they really did, so if you want to temporarily slow down time, you can push your body hard during a workout. - YouTube www.youtube.com Finally, try to take in the world the way you did as a small child. Take note of life's wonders. Engage fully in whatever you're doing. Notice details and take mental pictures as much as you can. Time passes quickly when we're distracted, so training our attention on the here and now can help. Ultimately, we can strive to perceive time more like we did when we were little, in its full depth and magnitude, instead of a narrow, straight line.This article originally appeared last year.

They say the best way to understand another person is to walk a mile in their shoes. If you ask most women, though, they'll tell you to forget about the shoes. They've got much bigger problems they wish men could understand.Imagine how different the world would be if cis-gendered men had the ability to give birth, for example? Would Roe v. Wade have been controversially overturned in 2022, thus ushering in some truly draconian abortion policies, restrictions, and near total bans in various states? If men needed access to abortions, would they be available on-demand? Would we live in a country without mandatory paid maternity leave? How much more affordable would childcare be? Would there be a tax on period products? Overall, how would we treat people experiencing period pain? Woman experiencing cramps.Canva PhotosWell, in 2021, a few men decided to see what life was like for people who have periods in a funny but enlightening video that went viral on TikTok. In fact, the video started a trend that's still going strong today.In a video posted by Benz Trap House that, as of this writing, has 5.3 million views, a group of guys tried a period simulator to experience what menstrual cramps really feel like. Period simulators are essentially the same as labor simulators. They're called transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machines that are designed to relieve pain. But when turned up a notch, they can create intense, debilitating discomfort.The group took a semi-scientific approach to the experiment with a woman acting as a control subject. At the beginning of the video, she attaches the simulator to her abdomen and turns it up to ten, the highest setting. In the clip, the group looks impressed as she endures the extreme setting without showing any discomfort.The men would not do as well. @benztraphouse The boys tried a period simulator #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #funny #periodcramps #periodsimulator #viral When the first guy tried the simulator, he was shocked by the discomfort. "Is it supposed to hurt like that?" the second guy says before erupting in nervous laughter.The third guy said that he felt the pain all the way down to his knee caps.The men's description of the pain certainly seems to indicate that the simulator machine is pretty accurate. According to Mayo Clinic, menstrual cramps are a "throbbing or cramping pain" that radiates to the lower back and thighs. The pain itself, during actual menstruation not simulated by electrical charges, is caused by repeated contractions of the uterus as it sheds its lining. The cramps can be much worse for women and menstruating people with certain conditions. In fact, they can be debilitating and excruciating. Despite all this, women are expected to just soldier on as if nothing's happening. In many male-dominated spaces, pain or other difficulties associated with periods is not considered a valid excuse for needing a day off, taking a break, or even going to the bathroom!At one point in the video, the period simulator is attached to a woman and a man at the same time. When the device is turned on, the guy is in extreme pain while the woman stands still, claiming the feelings created by the machine are "not even as bad as a cramp.""Yeah, my cramps hurt worse than this," she added. See, this is exactly what they mean when they say women have a higher pain tolerance than men. Scientifically, that claim may be dubious, but when it comes to this specific kind of reproductive discomfort, women are far more used to sucking it up.A lot of people who menstruate felt validated after seeing the guys experience their first period. Season 2 Cramps GIF by Friends Giphy "'You feel that in your back, boi?' every month, friend," one commenter said.One of the most popular comments said: "I'm convinced if men could get pregnant they'd have abortion clinics on every corner and paid maternity leave the whole pregnancy."Another commenter pointed out that women have to go through an entire day in pain without a break. "When he said 'it's stabbing me what do I do?' You go to work, clean the house and continue on bb," they wrote."Please this needs to be added to every high school health class ... cause some guys really don’t understand the pain" another user added.This comment took reality up a notch, writing, "Let's add headaches. And period poops. And bloating. And the feeling of blood leaving you. And the nausea," she wrote.If only there were a machine that could simulate all that! "You go to work, bb."Canva Photos It remains a good thing that this lighthearted video went viral because it'll give some people newfound respect for the pain that people who have periods go through. Some who watched the video thought that period simulators should be mandatory in sex ed classes.Imagine how different the world would be if everyone experienced menstrual pain just once in their life.This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.

Fans aren't the music The post The Dirtbag behind ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

White elephant exchanges are a fun holiday tradition. If you're stumped for gift ideas for your next party, check out these festive finds from Aldi.