I shave the budget where I can. But I do splurge when the purchase will benefit our family greatly.
I've been making our bread the old-fashioned way, with a bowl, spoon and a lot of muscle, for 25 years now. I also was gifted with a rather used, hand-me-down bread machine a few years ago. But my aging and crippled machine's days are numbered. The time has come to decide how we're going to make our bread. (And while buying bread is certainly an option, we've become so accustomed to our recipe for bread that we're quite spoiled!)
For 7 long years now I've been debating whether or not to buy a stand mixer, primarily to mix and knead bread and roll dough, but also for large batches of other batters or dough. Last week I found a very good deal. The stand mixer that I wanted, on sale at a good price, plus an extra 10% discount with a coupon code, plus free shipping, and I had a gift card in my purse to the store selling this mixer.
The day I took it out of the box I mixed a large batch of whole wheat bread dough, enough for 3 loaves of bread, a batch of hot dog buns and a pan of cinnamon rolls. The next day, I used the mixer to make a double batch of pizza dough, half for that day's pizza and half for the freezer for easy homemade pizza, on another day.
I think it's safe to say that I'll be getting a fair amount of work out of this mixer, and my injured shoulder might just get a break long enough to heal properly.
Have you splurged on anything lately? What's your criteria for splurges?
