Two Kitchen Appliances that Help Me Save Money on Groceries

There are two items in my kitchen that I could not live without. They're great "budget helpers", meaning every time I use them, I save money. I use them almost everyday and believe it was money well spent when I purchased them.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce to you my freezer and my Kitchen Aid Mixer.

Freezer
We've owned a freezer for many years now. We started with a chest freezer (one where the kid opens up from the top), which we always kept filled and babied along. Even dragged that baby cross-country when we moved to California a few years ago.

When it died (thanks to the movers during our last move), we upgraded to a standing freezer (it looks like a fridge but is a freezer). It took a while to get used to it but it's nice...I don't have toe empty out half the freezer in search of one thing.

Why am I in love with my freezer? Well, because it saves me lots of money. I can buy in bulk when the local market has a sale on meat or chicken and tuck it all away in there for later use. My husband LOVES to grill London Broil, but we all know how expensive that cut of meat can be. So, when Safeway sells their LB for under $2/lb, we buy at least ten. (TIP: if you plan to do this, call ahead in the morning and talk to the butcher. They're usually very happy to cut what you want and save it for you.)

We do this with anything that could be frozen. We buy bags of shredded cheese from whatever warehouse store has it cheaper and freeze it. We usually break the 5 lb bags down into two Ziploc freezer bags (There's nothing like having your bag of bulk cheese go bad before you can use it, right?) and toss them into the freezer for later use. And yes, you can do the same with blocks of cheese too....

Kitchen Aid Mixer
This baby was bought at a Wal-Mart on sale for $175 about 6 years ago. It was just luck....the moment I saw the ad, I jumped in the car and ran down there to snatch up the last remaining mixer. I've been in love ever since.

I use my mixer all the time, from mixing cake batters to kneading pizza and bread dough. After watching the price of ground beef climb a few years ago, we purchased the grinder attachment and now grind our own ground beef when we find a great deal on cuts of meat. I think we've come close once to burning out the motor. After grinding 20 lbs of meat, the casing was radiating heat. Poor thing...but she lived to see another day and continue to be a wonderful addition to our kitchen.