Black Friday! If I don't go shopping it will be for me! Recycled Christmas gifts!
Happy Black Friday! Have you ever been out on Black Friday? Fighting the crowds, being run over by shoppers who think these deals will never happen again? I went once about ten years ago. That experience was less than fun.. I could hardly move the cart through the aisles, I did get the item I went after but I felt like a minnow in a shark tank! In retrospect it wasn't even that great of a deal.
Since that very day I just decided it wasn't something I would rush to do again. I have purchased a few "black" Friday deals since but a) not at the crack of dawn, b) not the day of Thanksgiving and c) only because I was in the store for something else and happen to run across a "leftover" you know one that someone missed...
This year I had mulled over many ideas of what to give the adult children and the grands, but haven't really settled on anything specific. The adult kids have everything they could possibly want or need and the so too for the grandkids. Some of the adult kids had expressed interest in kitchen gadgets that I have so I did pick those up but before I did that I let them know I was going to do a recycled theme this year for the adult kids. I personally wanted nothing brand new. For the most part I have every toy under the sun... and the older versions of those seem to work the best for me.
As I set out on my journey in August to think of things to buy I found a bread machine for my son-in-law that still had the plastic on it! This little gem was a whopping $12.00 and had a 50% off sticker (color of the week at goodwill) and it was military Tuesday Yay! Another 15% off the top of the price! After tax that gift was less that $5.00! I was instantly hooked! Now to make a solid list of items and alternates for everyone!
Shopping this way may offend some but we are trying to get out of debt and everyone that we are shopping for locally claimed they are ok with the idea.. Sure hope so because I have found something for each of them!
About five years ago I purchased a Nu wave oven, mostly on the ravings of a coworker who was just in love with hers. After hearing her gush on the beauty of being able to cook from a frozen state anything that she forgot to thaw for dinner I was enamored myself. So I watched an infomercial, read stuff on online and decided that was my next "gadget". I looked on stores and the Bx and then one day there it was! A mere $99.00 at the Bx! Well I had to buy that because on television it was four easy payments of $29.99 so this was a steal...or so I thought. I took my treasure home and like most of my treasures I waited until I had time to sit and read the book and mull over what my first project would be.
Enter my daughter who was living with us at the time with her family... she got to work making stuff with the new oven. It took quite a bit of practice, as it cooks faster than the regular oven. Along the way a few things were burned lol and the oven lost its glamour and my hours got longer at work so then the next kid wants to try it so off to another house it went.
Fast forward a few years and I was visiting at the second daughter's home and noticed the oven on a very high shelf. I inquired to its frequency of use and discovered that the poor oven had been there pretty much for two years collecting dust. At this time the first daughter had moved on to buy her first home and moved her family out of ours so I thought well maybe I would give the oven another shot since I have to do all the cooking now and I frequently forget to take things out of the freezer...
Folks I have developed a new love for my nu wave oven! So this addition to the post probably seemed like quite a detour, however it is quite relevant to the Christmas gift theme. Our kitchen stove received a deep cleaning in October and in the process a line to the front burner broke allowing gas to leak and cause quite a burst of flame when turned on. So DH checked it out and took the line off put the surface back down and said "don't use that burner". I pulled the knob off and proceeded to use the next burner... well during the "check" a second line got broke. Repeat the previous two lines and you can see a pattern.
After two days my DH informed me he shut the gas to the oven and stove off as he continually forgot that the lines had been removed and caused bursts of large flames to occur and he was going to look for parts. Mind you he is the one who removed the lines and had to put the knobs back on to have this occur :). It might seem crazy but in fact we had been keeping the knobs off of this stove for years as they are in the front and for ten years we have had toddlers in the house who like to turn them. So it really was habit to put the knobs on to cook!
The parts were $60+ each! So I told my husband leave the gas off we have plenty of kitchen gadgets to use and we could get by for a time and look for better prices! That my friends is how I came to love my nu wave oven! By force! I made the moistest turkey in this thing! Cupcakes that the girls got to watch raise up! Hamburgers that were so scrumptious, biscuits in record time! I know I am beginning to sound like an infomercial! And electric bill is lower, I am not sure how that happened but it did.
So in sharing my new found love with the first daughter who played with it before, she mentioned her thoughts of buying one. The rest is history. Again armed with information I headed to goodwill and of course they had not one but two! Both for $16.99 each and the only difference was age and the amount of parts they came with. So I eagerly scooped up the one that had the most to offer, looked at the cooking head and discovered that it appeared to have never been even used! Now knowing that this was a deal too good to pass up I made my purchase with no discounts of any kind but I am super stoked that it was more than 80% less than what I had paid for mine and save for the pizza kit was just as complete. And did I mention that it still had the plastic on the keypad with no signs of use?
These are pictures of the cupcakes rising in the oven! fun to watch!
That my friends is todays post: recycled Christmas gifts, believe me there is more but I do have to clean up around here!
Since that very day I just decided it wasn't something I would rush to do again. I have purchased a few "black" Friday deals since but a) not at the crack of dawn, b) not the day of Thanksgiving and c) only because I was in the store for something else and happen to run across a "leftover" you know one that someone missed...
This year I had mulled over many ideas of what to give the adult children and the grands, but haven't really settled on anything specific. The adult kids have everything they could possibly want or need and the so too for the grandkids. Some of the adult kids had expressed interest in kitchen gadgets that I have so I did pick those up but before I did that I let them know I was going to do a recycled theme this year for the adult kids. I personally wanted nothing brand new. For the most part I have every toy under the sun... and the older versions of those seem to work the best for me.
As I set out on my journey in August to think of things to buy I found a bread machine for my son-in-law that still had the plastic on it! This little gem was a whopping $12.00 and had a 50% off sticker (color of the week at goodwill) and it was military Tuesday Yay! Another 15% off the top of the price! After tax that gift was less that $5.00! I was instantly hooked! Now to make a solid list of items and alternates for everyone!
Shopping this way may offend some but we are trying to get out of debt and everyone that we are shopping for locally claimed they are ok with the idea.. Sure hope so because I have found something for each of them!
About five years ago I purchased a Nu wave oven, mostly on the ravings of a coworker who was just in love with hers. After hearing her gush on the beauty of being able to cook from a frozen state anything that she forgot to thaw for dinner I was enamored myself. So I watched an infomercial, read stuff on online and decided that was my next "gadget". I looked on stores and the Bx and then one day there it was! A mere $99.00 at the Bx! Well I had to buy that because on television it was four easy payments of $29.99 so this was a steal...or so I thought. I took my treasure home and like most of my treasures I waited until I had time to sit and read the book and mull over what my first project would be.
Enter my daughter who was living with us at the time with her family... she got to work making stuff with the new oven. It took quite a bit of practice, as it cooks faster than the regular oven. Along the way a few things were burned lol and the oven lost its glamour and my hours got longer at work so then the next kid wants to try it so off to another house it went.
Fast forward a few years and I was visiting at the second daughter's home and noticed the oven on a very high shelf. I inquired to its frequency of use and discovered that the poor oven had been there pretty much for two years collecting dust. At this time the first daughter had moved on to buy her first home and moved her family out of ours so I thought well maybe I would give the oven another shot since I have to do all the cooking now and I frequently forget to take things out of the freezer...
Folks I have developed a new love for my nu wave oven! So this addition to the post probably seemed like quite a detour, however it is quite relevant to the Christmas gift theme. Our kitchen stove received a deep cleaning in October and in the process a line to the front burner broke allowing gas to leak and cause quite a burst of flame when turned on. So DH checked it out and took the line off put the surface back down and said "don't use that burner". I pulled the knob off and proceeded to use the next burner... well during the "check" a second line got broke. Repeat the previous two lines and you can see a pattern.
After two days my DH informed me he shut the gas to the oven and stove off as he continually forgot that the lines had been removed and caused bursts of large flames to occur and he was going to look for parts. Mind you he is the one who removed the lines and had to put the knobs back on to have this occur :). It might seem crazy but in fact we had been keeping the knobs off of this stove for years as they are in the front and for ten years we have had toddlers in the house who like to turn them. So it really was habit to put the knobs on to cook!
The parts were $60+ each! So I told my husband leave the gas off we have plenty of kitchen gadgets to use and we could get by for a time and look for better prices! That my friends is how I came to love my nu wave oven! By force! I made the moistest turkey in this thing! Cupcakes that the girls got to watch raise up! Hamburgers that were so scrumptious, biscuits in record time! I know I am beginning to sound like an infomercial! And electric bill is lower, I am not sure how that happened but it did.
So in sharing my new found love with the first daughter who played with it before, she mentioned her thoughts of buying one. The rest is history. Again armed with information I headed to goodwill and of course they had not one but two! Both for $16.99 each and the only difference was age and the amount of parts they came with. So I eagerly scooped up the one that had the most to offer, looked at the cooking head and discovered that it appeared to have never been even used! Now knowing that this was a deal too good to pass up I made my purchase with no discounts of any kind but I am super stoked that it was more than 80% less than what I had paid for mine and save for the pizza kit was just as complete. And did I mention that it still had the plastic on the keypad with no signs of use?
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