Baking soda is a DIYer’s dream: You can cook with it, clean with it, brush your teeth with it, de-stink your fridge (and your armpits) with it, fix your nails with it, get shinier hair with it, and exfoliate your skin (and you know I’m a fan of that) with it. So when everybody at the Allure office started talking about Bioré Baking Soda Cleansing Scrub we wondered how the editor fave would stack up against old-school homemade baking soda concoctions.

Ah, splitting the check. The math we can do—it’s the social equations that give us trouble. Say you’re drinking water and everyone else has gone from cocktails to wine: Can you pay your fair share without an awkward explanation? We asked Jane Buckingham, the author of The Modern Girl’s Guide to Life, how to end a meal gracefully.