Craigslist Finds

Things are tight around here, but one of my guilty pleasures is Craigslist. With the excitement of moving into a new apartment, I've had home decor, furnishings, and household goods on the brain. To be honest, someone should probably stop me. We're limited on space right now, and bringing things in before the move is just making more work for the packing phase. However, I'm justifying it by the good deals I found.

A week or so ago, I saw a canister set for just $3 on Craigslist. I've wanted one of these for awhile and had planned on picking up one at Wal-mart anyway, but I couldn't resist the deal on this. It's a four canister set and only one canister has a small chip in the bottom. This is the smallest of the group as I didn't want to unwrap all pieces to take a group picture:

Then yesterday I came across a post for a bunch of random items selling for five dollars each. What caught my eye was the griddle they were selling. One of the first times we made pancakes, Jon mentioned he wanted a griddle, and I figured an electric one would be pretty pricey. This one is small, but perfect for us and still in good condition.

I scored a knife set, a random kitchen utensil set, and some towels and pot holders.

I also got a cute wicker hamper that folds up when not being used. Since I don't want to use it until we're in the new place, I can feel okay about the storage and moving issue. Even Jon thought it was cute.

The girl selling these things may contact me next week if she hasn't gotten rid of some of her other things. I was limited on cash, but I really wouldn't have minded having the coffee pot and the George Foreman Grill...or the Fry Daddy though we rarely deep fry anything...or the wine glasses...

Okay...I'm getting carried away. But seriously, I hope she contacts me.

A Cheaper Bowl of Cereal

I love cereal, but there's generally two things wrong with it. Most of it is really sugary and high in calories. For most people that's okay, but not so much for me since I'm on a mission to lose alot of weight. Sure, there's high fiber cereals that are good for you, but that brings me to the second issue with it...cereal is expensive! I've seen some okay deals recently, and I know coupons can bring the cost of cereal down alot more, but it's rare that I find something cheap enough to satisfy me.

A week ago, on a strange whim, I bought a bag of puffed wheat for 99 cents. It was the most generic cereal they had at Dillons, but for some reason I just wanted puffed wheat. After eating a bowl of it plain, I had to wonder where I got a craving for cardboard. Not one to let it go to waste, I decided to try it again with a few additions.

Tonight I had the same puffed wheat, this time with a sliced banana and a sprinkling of Splenda and voila! It was really good! It wasn't overly sweet but had a nice taste to it. Plus it was relatively healthy. Now I'll admit, Splenda is pricy, and so that was my splurge to keep it healthy(we bought a box a couple weeks ago so I didn't have to buy it new), but for those of you without sugar/diet issues, a small sprinkling of sugar would be just as good.

My next experiment with puffed wheat? A cinnamon/Spenda mix and raisins. I'll let you know how it turns out.