A Big Bang for the Buck

Parent Cafe
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<ol>
<li><p>OXO manual can opener. It makes opening cans almost effortless . </p></li>
<li><p>Kitchen shears. They are great for trimming fat and cutting through chicken skin. It’s faster/ easier/safer than using a paring knife. </p></li>
<li><p>The plastic slide-on clips that keep the fitted bed sheet from popping off the corners of our deep mattress.</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>I got my garlic peeler in the North End of Boston at one of the Saint Festivals. A street vendor was selling these little ceramic dishes with a rough bottom. You peel the clove, rub it on the bottom of the little plate and then brush the garlic out with a little brush. It’s a nice little set but my favorite part is the peeler. I think I have een them at Sur le Table and Crate and Barrel.</p>

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<p>Warning, don’t use the drain “zipper” thing soon after Draino. The lye has started to break down the hair and soap and the smell will make an elephant keel over. My DD’s both had looooong hair in HS. Skip the Draino and go straight to the $2 plastic thing.
My favorite cheap hint is buying one of those microfiber dust cloths at Target (they’re usually blue or yellow and look like a soft terry dishcloth). Cut into quarters and use to clean iPad, phone, glasses, etc. They don’t scratch but clean better than the little black things Apple sells. For travel I keep one in this mesh bag <a href=“http://www.containerstore.com/shop/travel/cosmeticsToiletries?productId=10023096&green=21739067921[/url]”>http://www.containerstore.com/shop/travel/cosmeticsToiletries?productId=10023096&green=21739067921&lt;/a&gt;. with the chargers, earbuds, etc. Fits in my purse so I can recharge if needed at the airport.</p>

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<p>This round rubber grip thing that helps you open up jars that are difficult to open. It is amazing.</p>

<p>I call it the “Man Replacer”.</p>

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<p>One of the most useful appliances is an electric rice cooker, which I have purchased for as little as $10. You can boil, steam, make rice or one pot meals. It is a staple in our state, where many, many eat rice for most meals. It cooks other grains and beans, pastas, ramen, and much more.</p>

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<p>Love the Jar Pop too. I like the bright color because it makes it easy to find it in the drawer. </p>

<p>The Amazon price is pretty expensive right now. I think I paid 99 cents on Amazon a few years ago.</p>

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<p>Oh boy…I need those…didn’t know they existed…where does one get them and what do they look like?</p>

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<p>Dont bother buying a special opener to loosen the seal of a jar. A regular bottle opener does the trick.</p>

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<p>I wrap rubber bands around the jar to open. It works for ma every time. I am not organized enough to have one tool for one thing.</p>

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<p>My favorite kitchen gadgets are my ice cream scoops. I have three different sizes. Aside from their obvious use for ice cream, I use them to pour pancake batter and cupcake batter, scoop cookie dough and melon balls.</p>

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<p>THANKS Shoboemom!!
Now I know what to look for when I’m at Bed, Bath and Beyond.</p>

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<p>Colorado-Mom
That is EXACTLY the watch I want! My current watch has the Indiglo feature and I love it but the numbers are too small. (Sigh. This wasn’t always the case.)
Now I’ll go dig up a Kohl’s coupon…</p>

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<p>Just had to share this. I did a bit of googling for the Timex watch that Colorado-Mom posted as Kohl’s isn’t all that close to my house. Well, I found it for about 1/2 the Kohl’s price on Amazon. </p>

<p>[Timex</a> Women’s T2H341 Easy Reader Black Leather Strap Watch: Watches: Amazon.com](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Timex-Womens-T2H341-Reader-Leather/dp/B000AYTYK8]Timex”>http://www.amazon.com/Timex-Womens-T2H341-Reader-Leather/dp/B000AYTYK8)</p>

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<p>My mom had one of these Timex watches. It was hard on batteries. Not sure if it was defective, she used the light feature too often, or she was getting bad batteries, but she was having to get a new battery almost every month.</p>

<p>[Timex</a> Ladies Easy Reader Watch, Timex Women’s Watch, Water Resistant Wrist Watch, Gold Tone Watch, Timex Indiglo Watch](<a href=“http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ladies-Timex-Easy-Reader-Watch/10141653#Specifications]Timex”>http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ladies-Timex-Easy-Reader-Watch/10141653#Specifications)</p>

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<p>Hmmm, very interesting. I read all the comments about his watch on Amazon and many commented that the band was too big for those who have small wrists (as I do). On the Wal-Mart site, there are several comments about the band being too small. Go figure.</p>

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<p>That reminds me of a funny story. Back when my brother was in high school, he jumped on the bandwagon and bought a Livestrong bracelet/band. My mom had never seen one before and had no idea it was supposed to be worn. He forgot about it for a while and one day he looked in the utensil drawer and found the Livestrong band in there. Baffled, he questioned my mom and found out that had been using it (very successfully) to open jars. </p>

<p>My favorite cheap device is dollar store lint brushes. Since we adopted our two long-haired cats, we have been entrenched in a never-ending battle against cat hair. We tried everything under the sun, bought and used over a dozen lint rollers, bought a relatively expensive rubber lint brush, and then on a lark one day I bought the dollar store lint brush and it works better than everything else we’ve tried. I can buy three lint brushes for one of the large lint rollers and they last forever.</p>

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<p>My Trake for gardening! Got one as a gift 20 yrs. ago, lost it. Had to buy another.
Best tool ever for weeding and planting :)</p>

<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Trake - Trowels / Gardening Tools: Patio, Lawn & Garden](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A3480691011%2Cp_4%3ATrake]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A3480691011%2Cp_4%3ATrake)</p>

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<p>Just last week I picked up Norpro Garlic Peelers for stocking stuffers; Wegman’s was clearing them out for a buck a piece. Instead of a rubber sleeve like EPTR’s peeler, this is a square of rubber that you roll around the garlic cloves. It is easy to clean (in the dishwasher) and doubles as a “Man Replacer”. :)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-1059DB-Garlic-Peeler/dp/B000HJW8MW[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-1059DB-Garlic-Peeler/dp/B000HJW8MW&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>EPTR, I got one at a NYC street festival, for around $20. I thought it was INGENIOUS (well it is) and unique. The next week I saw them at Ocean State Job Lot for $2.99 a set. Oh well!</p>

<p>When I got married in 1987 one of our wedding gifts was a knife set, the kind in the wooden block. It had a pair of kitchen scissors in the middle. All the knives are LONG gone but those scissors are the BEST DARN ICE PICK I’ve ever seen. They don’t cut aything anymore, but can break up any chunk of ice on the planet. If I ever lose them I will cry.</p>

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<p>I use this pastry cutter for lots more than cutting pasty. It scoops cut veggies, is a handy surface to grind fresh pepper then funnel into measuring spoons, and scrapes surfaces clean. It’s very handy.</p>

<p>[Google</a> Image Result for <a href=“http://0.tqn.com/d/cookingequipment/1/0/-/9/-/-/DoughScraperSurLa.jpg[/url]”>http://0.tqn.com/d/cookingequipment/1/0/-/9/-/-/DoughScraperSurLa.jpg](<a href=“http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://0.tqn.com/d/cookingequipment/1/0/-/9/-/-/DoughScraperSurLa.jpg&imgrefurl=http://cookingequipment.about.com/od/giftbuyingguides/tp/PieEquipment.htm&h=299&w=300&sz=7&tbnid=cGmB-RhKR32vpM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtable%2Bscraper%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=table+scraper&usg=__22csl5cuONQ8a30AJDmWkm6DUVg=&docid=QxctDowbl5N0kM&sa=X&ei=JKXUUciPCYTV0QHig4DICw&ved=0CGUQ9QEwBQ&dur=574]Google”>http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://0.tqn.com/d/cookingequipment/1/0/-/9/-/-/DoughScraperSurLa.jpg&imgrefurl=http://cookingequipment.about.com/od/giftbuyingguides/tp/PieEquipment.htm&h=299&w=300&sz=7&tbnid=cGmB-RhKR32vpM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtable%2Bscraper%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=table+scraper&usg=__22csl5cuONQ8a30AJDmWkm6DUVg=&docid=QxctDowbl5N0kM&sa=X&ei=JKXUUciPCYTV0QHig4DICw&ved=0CGUQ9QEwBQ&dur=574)</a></p>

<p>I also love my microplane graters for zesting and grating. A good set of tongs that can be set to stay open or closed are great for flipping or moving things while cooking, serving etc. A good pair of kitchen shears is a great time saver, too.</p>