I decided it was time to finally start cooking my own food instead of buying fast food again. Part of my plan when I decided to move into my car was to save money on food. Between my daughter and myself, I was spending about $1,000 on food every month.

I haven't kept track of the month of June 2026 yet, so disregard that month until I make all the entries. Also, I didn't start tracking until late June of 2025, so that data isn't entirely accurate either.

So I was spending anywhere from $707 to $1,100 per month on food. It was by far my biggest expense each month, and it was way too much for only two of us. The reason it was so high is clear when you look at the chart—most of the bars are yellow, and they reflect how much of that expense went toward fast food in comparison to groceries.

So I knew this was a big expense I could cut back on. I planned to cook my own food instead of buying fast food all the time. Except, over the past 12 days, I've only done so twice. Both times, I made cold cut turkey and sliced cheese sandwiches, paired with chips, tomato, and lemonade. It was really good, actually.

But I don't want to always depend on sandwiches. It's not healthy to eat cold cut meats all the time either—they pose health risks primarily due to high sodium content, saturated fats, and chemical preservatives (like nitrates and nitrites) that are linked to heart disease and certain cancers.

I have all the cooking equipment I gathered from my camping days last year, and now I want to use it to cook my food while I live in my car. But the car isn't ideal for cooking, so I decided to cook at the park today.

I chose this spot because it had a large open space, plenty of ventilation, picnic tables, trash cans, and, most importantly, barbecue grills. If they allowed grills here, then I felt confident I'd be allowed to use my propane tank to cook up some food too.

I mean, I was in a designated area for hosting parties and cooking food. I just wasn't 100% sure about the propane. So I chanced it this morning and waited to see what would happen.

What I was afraid of was the police seeing me here so early, around 9 a.m., assuming I was homeless (and they'd assume correctly), and questioning me about what I was doing. Once again, I wasn't confident I could cook with propane here, and I also wanted to stay under the radar.

Well, quite a few police cars did come through the area, circling by but never stopping to say anything. So I guess I'm okay to cook here. Sweet.

When I heated the water for my coffee, everything worked out fine. I've used this pot multiple times to warm water, and each time it has worked great. I used the water to brew some coffee with my French press, and it almost turned out perfect—almost, because I added a little too much water, which diluted some of the flavor.

I will say that I was very distracted by my surroundings. For some reason, I didn't want to be seen and just wished for some privacy. Privacy in a public park 😅.

I knew what I was walking into here. I knew there would be people. I knew people would see what I was doing, but a part of me is very self-conscious about my situation, and I don't want to be seen for what I am—homeless.

I came to the park very clean, wearing bright colors instead of dark or dirty-looking clothes—although I always try to stay clean anyway. I also did my best to stay organized with my stuff across the table, keeping it looking neat and not like a disturbance.

There's a lot of little internal dialogue going on, like fears, anxiousness, and worries. So, with all of that happening inside my head, I feel the coffee came out rather well considering everything that was distracting me.

But then came the moment the pot got smoking hot and started to burn and melt the beautiful art sleeve on my Fire Maple pot.

I didn't realize what was happening at that moment, because I was kind of freaking out inside. I did try to keep my composure in case anyone was walking or driving by, so that no one would call the fire department or something on me because they would see a person freaking out.

I was frantically trying to figure out why all the steam was coming out, and then it steamed far more as the pot got hotter, until all of a sudden I saw flames.

I was freaking out right now. For sure I'm going to get caught, and they'll think I'm some freaking Walter White type—an unprofessional cook about to blow up the picnic shelter in the corner of the park. I'm going to be on the news, or even worse, someone is filming me and making a trolling video of me on TikTok right now, and I'll go viral for my terrible cooking skills.

I don’t know.

There were a million things going through my head, and somehow I kept my composure on the outside, but on the inside, sirens were going off, and my heart was racing.

In the video, you can see me racing to rip the sausage into pieces and dump them into the pot. I was planning to add more butter, but I saw the flame and immediately sat down to turn off the burner and blow it out.

All I could see was the melting sleeve on my pot.

Sigh…

This was my first time cooking in this pot. It also felt like it would be my last…

I thought I did everything right, but looking back at the video, I realized the pot simply got too hot. With nothing inside to boil, the pot absorbed all the heat, got extremely hot, and started melting the sleeve.

I always cooked with butter at home. I'd get some smoke, but I usually got it done without setting off the alarms or making clouds inside the house. I always preferred butter over oil. But after this experience, and with this setup, I can't keep using butter for cooking. The pot gets too hot and burns the butter way too fast.

Next time, I'll just use oil instead. Or, since I seem to boil water just fine, I'll make soups or boil some eggs.

It's something I need to get used to. It's part of learning to live in a car, learning to live on the streets, to make use of public spaces, and to adapt to a whole new way of life.

I don’t plan to give up on cooking. I also won’t let this discourage me or try and wreck my motivation. It’s all part of the journey of learning and growing.

See you next time, hopefully with a hot plate of food.

Amado.