I used to roll my eyes at stuff like this and say just buy a new blender, but then my old roommate left chili in ours for a week and I totally got it. It's not the $35, it's the fact that he made you do the cleanup and then made you feel dumb for being annoyed.

Honestly, I once swore by a cheap crimper from the 90s and it still out-curls my fancy wand every single time.

Once I burned a whole pot of chili because I was folding laundry on the couch and the timer never went off. The smoke detector went off and the fire alarm guy showed up, but the chili was beyond saving. After that, I started setting a separate alarm just for the stove, like ten minutes before anything is supposed to be done. It sounds dumb but it’s saved me from at least three more disasters since.