Frugal Find Friday--my Cuisinart

Welcome to Frugal Find Fridays!

Another great rummage sale find to share--my Cuisinart Mini-Mate Plus Chopper/Grinder. This little beauty is from a sale that was part of a neighborhood sale last year. I went over to this large neighborhood sale because I knew there were lots of families with kids there and I was expecting my first one! There is no bigger way to save money on babies than by buying things for them second hand. Goodness knows they don't wear out anything they use as they grow and change too fast for that to happen.

Where was I? This isn't a post about babies! So I am walking (waddling at 8 months pregnant)up and down streets and around blocks and finding lots of deals on things for the little guy. This sale didn't look very promising as there were only a couple of tables of things and a few boxes on the driveway. The morning had been long and I was getting close to packing it all in, but I figured I'd give a look since I'd made it up the driveway. I poked around quickly and found a DVD set that I was excited about and was going to head over and give the woman my $2.

However, on my way I stopped to check out the two boxes that were labeled $.25 each item just to see if anything in there needed to come live at my house. One box had a lot of odds and ends and just 'junk' that I didn't need and the second seemed to be the same. Then I spotted a box of breast milk storage bags. It was an unopened bag of 25 that had been in a box of 50. $.25 is a steal for those. Then underneath those I found the pretty little princess pictured above. She is small...the base holds maybe a cup at most. When I picked it up I saw it was Cuisinart. I honestly thought someone had moved it to the box and that it probably had a sticker with a different price.

I flipped it over and couldn't find one. So I waddled over and plunked down my DVDs, my storage bags and asked if this was also a quarter. "Yup" was the response. Okay, then it must not work was my next thought. I asked and was told that it did work and that she just didn't need it anymore. Seriously, $.25 for a Cuisinart? I couldn't resist. Turns out it has been awfully handy!

I have made all of the little one's food including his rice cereal, his oatmeal cereal and his purees. I do use my stick blender for purees as I can do a big batch quickly. For the cereals this has been amazing at grinding down the oatmeal or rice or barley before I cook it into cereal that he can eat. The barley was a challenge for it, but we got through. I've used it to chop up a few heads of garlic all at once when I was making the tomato sauce to can. I even use it to chop fresh herbs if I'm making a big batch of salsa. It doesn't take much room in the cupboard and it has definitely earned its keep. For a quarter I think I got a great deal!

So, now are you curious about what they cost new? I know I sure was when I got home! When I looked it up then I found them for around $35, but now on Amazon they are going for around $20. Sears still has them for $35. Seriously is this a Frugal Find or what?

Let me know if you have any Frugal Finds to share!

Heather