Noticed this same thing with tons of stuff people pay pros for when they could just do it themselves with stuff they already own. Same deal with moving furniture, fixing a sink, or even cutting your own hair, the first quote always sounds normal until you add up what the actual parts and gas cost. The gap between those two numbers is basically the price of not wanting to deal with it, which is fair for some folks and a total ripoff for others. Your truck wear is real though, tires and brakes and oil all add up over 1,200 miles, so the math only wins when you were already set up to tow. Drove my brother's car 900 miles on a borrowed trailer once and the gas plus a new set of tires afterward still beat the broker quote by a few hundred bucks. It's wild how we just accept the first number somebody throws at us until a friend shows us the back door.

Two tablespoons of Folgers turning your family into coffee snobs is peak chaos. You went from "oops no espresso powder" to "head chef of the grown up brownie division" in one bake. Instant coffee is a sneaky little cheat code because it dissolves right in, no gritty bits like you'd get from grounds. Cutting the sugar depends on how dark your cocoa is, but a spoon less usually works fine since the coffee amps up that bitter sweet thing. Just be ready to stock Folgers forever now, because there's no going back.