I used to work for a hospital that had an okay cafeteria (some great dishes; others terrible). They instituted a policy that in order for workers to continue getting a 20% discount, we had to deposit money to our account ahead of time, and our meals were deducted by the cashier, using our name badges. After each transaction, they told us our balance. We also could request a receipt, but that took time to print out, and we only had 30mins for lunch. One day, as I was buying a carton of milk, the cashier (who I knew well) said “you have a zero balance”. I said “that’s weird, I was pretty sure there was about a dollar left, plus, I would have remembered you telling me I had no money left.” He emphatically said “NO, your balance is ZERO!” without telling me to check with his supervisor if I thought there was a problem with my account, which is what they were supposed to do. Okay, fine, I paid cash for my milk, but was a bit ticked off. I decided that I wasn’t going to buy anything in the cafeteria for the next week. That first week went well, so I did it for another week. Then I figured I could do it for a month...two months...and by then, I realized that packing my own lunch (and sometimes breakfast) was a really good thing! I knew what I was getting, I saved a little money, and I felt a small “take THAT” to the rude cashier, as I stood with my friends as they paid for their meals, and I walked by with my lunch bag. HA! I have no reason to believe my tiny balance had been misappropriated, it was just the principle of the thing. So, it meant I had to think ahead, and either pack my lunch as I was putting leftovers away, or come up with an appealing way to reinvent them, which was challenging at times. But it was definitely something I could do! Anyway, a few years later when I worked elsewhere, I still packed lunch daily, and I watched my coworkers buy lunch every day. I know that my meals were usually healthy and sometimes boring, but paying $7-$10 for a take-out lunch (after a $4 Starbucks visit) just made me shudder. So, I will always be thankful for that cashier’s rudeness, because it helped me make a change that I never would have made on my own.

I’m sorry to just be pointing out a typo, but the title says “cabonara” instead of “carbonara” (although it’s spelled correctly in the body of the post).