Wednesday, May 13, 2009

May 12th Spending

Total spent...$0! Woohoo!!!

The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day out today! All the rain has made me feel gloomy, so I'm going to embrace the sunshine and put a spin on my attitude. :-) It's always better to be positive than a downer, right?

As I was doing the dishes last night, I got to thinking about small appliances, and how there are so many out there. I mean a toaster, blender and mixer are pretty standard in every home, probably a food processor and coffee maker too, but what about all the others? You have the bread maker, the rice maker, the juicer, waffle maker, espresso machine, George Foreman grill, slow cooker, I even had a friend who had something that made grilled cheese! And I know that there are more because there is an appliance for EVERYTHING! Sure, they may make life a little easier, but are they necessary? For some, maybe, but where do you draw the line? When does it come to the point where enough is enough?

We don't have much space in our little condo, and the only luck appliance that gets counter space is our toaster. It's small enough to not take up too much space, and it gets used basically everyday. Hubby's coffee make isn't too far away, making it's home on top of our fridge. We also have a blender/food processor (they share a base), a mixer and a slow cooker that live in a little cabinet (actually an old TV stand) in our dining room. The only 'extra' appliance we own is a George Foreman. I received it as a present when I was in college, and my roomies and I used it all the time to grill something up quickly and healthfully. It sat on the top shelf of the closet in our old place, but lately it's been used a few times a week. Sure we don't need it, we could cook chicken or burgers on the stove top, but it saves time and cooks it evenly. As long as it's being used it's a keeper!

Do you have any 'unnecessary' appliances?

5 comments:

Brooke said...

at one point i had 3 slow cookers. not sure what anyone needs with that many!

i love my foreman - i used it last night for pork chops, although i do wish it were bigger.

Kari said...

I rarely use my blender or my george foreman grill. In fact I rarely use my slow cooker too.

I do need a steamer one of those cheap metal deals you put in the pan and I also need a stock pot. I'm going to go to resales and garage sales see if I can pick them up fairly cheap.

I got rid of my bread maker years ago. One good thing about having a very small sized apartment kitchen is not having enough room for all of those un necessary kitchen gadgets.

Sarala said...

I have a toaster oven on the top of my fridge that NEVER gets used. My husband had it from his bachelor days... My bread machine sat up there for a while, but now it has a home on the counter (and I don't have much room there). I use my kitchenaid alot, but other than that we don't use many appliances. My blender found a home in the cupboard when my bread machine started getting used.

RainyDaySaver said...

I have too many "gadgets" -- toaster, mixer, food processor/blender, and the all-important ice cream maker! The one that is taking up the most room in my kitchen is the crazy-big Showtime rotisserie thing my brother and his GF got us. Love it, though!

Simplelivin' said...

@Brooke - wow you could get a ton of cooking done with 3! lol. George is amazing!

@Kari- Yes, it is nice not having to worry about storing tons of 'stuff'...if you don't use it sell it.

@Sarala - When we have room (or I find one super cheap) I'd love to get a breadmaker.

@Rainy Mmm icecream.... :-)If you use the gadgets then they are worth keeping around!