Ever watchful for a good bargain, I’m here to share my latest big time score. It takes hard work to keep a house running smoothly, especially living on one income. Don’t even ask me about living on one income in the DC-Metro area.

You’ve been there. The toaster oven breaks, your pot handles wiggle so much you are afraid of dropping food, non-stick teflon coating peels away, plates break, and you can’t find lids to match your plastic containers.

What do you do when things happen at once? Well, maybe not at once, but over the course of several months.

You start bargain shopping, that’s what.

On a recent trip to NJ, I mentioned my need for new pots to my in-laws. I knew they had the in on a great store, and they came through in a big way. We even took my pampered chef along for the ride.

Enter the T-Fal outlet store of Awesome. That is henceforth and forever the new name. You walk in and it looks like a warehouse, but you don’t need style when you pay these prices.

The plan: Replace my gross pots and pans. Maybe find a couple of things Joram wanted, like a mini-muffin tin.

The result:

Yeah, that’s a little bit more than a few pots and pans. Joram found all sorts of things. Now we just need to find a way to fit this in our kitchen!

T-Fal Professional 10-piece set. $20! I’m pretty sure that I bought one pot once at the Target and it probably cost $20. This came with four pots with steam vent lids and two skillets! Best of all? No jiggly handles!

I picked up a couple of other things, like Joram’s mini-muffin tin. He’s thrilled! I replaced our peeling springform pan, a couple of high quality knives, a griddle, and a single egg pan.

The killer deals didn’t stop there!

Last fall our toaster oven just stopped working. Since then, I’ve researched, swept the net, watched the ads, everything. Am I glad I waited six months because I got a Krups convection-toaster oven combo for only $25! It doesn’t go under the cabinets, like I’d hoped for, but I gave up on that dream. No one seems to make those anymore.

Just a couple of months after we married, we found the cutest waffle iron. After a lot of yummy flower-shaped waffles, it is just not holding up anymore. The outlet had this awesome Krups professional waffle iron, much like the ones used in hotels. Truly impressive – the waffle iron rang in at a measly $15! We can make more waffles AND the plates pop out for easy cleaning in the dishwasher! Not as cute, but a total step up!

My boys are absolutely in love with paninis. Really, I should not let myself be surprised. Not after an entire year of Caramon eating only grilled cheese sandwiches when he was in cancer treatment. The Krups Panini maker is also a grill, so Sir Megabyte is also happy. He’s been after me for several years to get a George Foreman. The price tag of $11 made me happy to indulge my menfolk!

The final appliance… a Krups ice cream maker. We used to have an old school wooden one. NC wet weather destroyed it. Now that the boys are teens, I want to share the joy of homemade ice cream with them. I kept talking myself out of it, but for $12, I gave up. I can’t wait to try it out. We don’t even need rock salt!

After pricing things on Amazon, I realized I scored over $600 worth of kitchen gear for only $115. Too bad they didn’t have a new blender for me. I think I need to hold out hope for the Blendtec people! I’m not giving up on my Bucket List item to get them to blend zombies!

Now I just need to ransack the kitchen to find room for things, clean out the old stuff, and prepare myself to enjoy all the new kitchen gear!

My son says, “Now I AM the swankest cook!”

–Lady O