Tiny purchases that quietly pay you back every week are how most people actually get ahead. My buddy bought a $12 coffee grinder at a thrift shop and now he skips the cafe line and saves more in a month than the grinder cost. Another friend grabbed a used bike pump for five bucks and stopped paying the shop to top off her tires. The money math people miss is the repeat stuff, the little leaks that add up. A cheap tool that plugs one of those leaks is not cheating on your rules, it is kind of the whole point of watching your spending.

I ride the Red Line from Alewife so I get the whole thing from the other end. The JFK/UMass work seems to have helped the middle of the line but my morning trip still has that slow crawl between Harvard and Park. Took me 41 minutes yesterday versus 35 back in the fall, so I'm not seeing the same win you are. Maybe it clears up once you get past Andrew and things open up.