Money for the Rest of Us

I like food a lot. And I really enjoy cooking. Here are a few gadgets that I’ve found are worth the initial investment to save you money and time in the long run:

1. Salad Spinner: Prewashed bagged salad costs at least $1-$3 more than a head of lettuce. Wash it yourself with a Salad Spinner and within a few weeks the spinner with pay for itself. If you eat one bag a lettuce a week and save $2 buying a head of lettuce and washing it yourself you’ll save $104/year.
2. Good Knives: My set of three Cutco knives was quite an investment, but they have saved me a lot of time and hassle (and probably a few trips to the hospital since you’re more likely to cut yourself with a dull knife.) I’m not going to try to put a price on the value of your finger…
3. Water Bottle I carry a Small Nalgene Bottle with me everywhere. It fits inside my purse and keeps from from randomly having to buy beverages whenever I’m at school, work, or running errands. If you purchase one bottle of $1 water/day you’ll save $365 over the course of a year.
4. Wine Saver A wine saver works better than a cork and will keep your wine fresh for days. (I actually watched a PBS show once where they recommended pouring your half drunk bottles of wine into ice cube trays, freezing the wine, and months later using it to cook with. Apparently it will stay good for months in the freezer and doesn’t affect the wine all that much). If you’re saving a half a bottle of $15 wine a week, you’ll have saved $390 over the course of a year.
5. Tupperware Tupperware works great for leftovers. I also love it for dividing up items for work– I buy applesauce, yogurt, and salad dressing in larger sizes and divvy it up into these small containers. Consider just the savings from buying a tub of yogurt for $2 and dividing it up into 5 small Tupperware instead of buying 5 individual yogurts for $0.80. You’ll save $104 a year.
6. Food Chopper I love this thing. I found one on sale for $5 at Target at I chop nuts and chocolate chips all the time with it. (It’s a great thing for stress relief too!) It may not save you money, but it chops things in seconds and saves a lot of time.
7. Pitcher Orange juice, apple juice, lemonade, iced tea, you name it– it’s all cheaper to buy concentrate and make your own. One half gallon of premade orange juice costs $3 whereas concentrate costs only $0.99. At a half gallon a week you’ll save $104 a year.
8. Coffee Tumbler Brew your own coffee, carry it with you and save $1-$4 per day (depending on what kind of coffee you drink.) Let’s average $1.50 savings/day, 5 days a week: that’s $390 a year.
9. Brita Filter- Instead of buying bottled water, filter it yourself either on the sink or in the fridge (I like the fridge pitcher but they also offer one to pp so the water gets extra cold). Savings: (if you drink only bottled water) at least $3/day. You’re saving $1095 a year.
10. Spatula- I have been forever changed by my small spatula. I used to not believe that spatulas could get much more cake batter out of a bowl or peanut butter of of the jar, than say, a regular spoon could. But, my partner recently introduced me to the spatula (and by that I mean she would take it out and re-scrape the cake batter bowl with a spatula after I had already used a spoon.) It’s amazing how much extra food a spatula will pick up. This one will probably only save you a few dollars a year, but you’re wasting less which has it’s own value.