Let me introduce you to cocotte, she's French

When I dream about my future kitchen, it includes, but is not limited to, a red Kitchenaid Mixer and a Red Le Creuset pot. Red apparently stimulates the appetite (scientific fact!), but the color is also so "saucy" that I love it.

Here comes the bubble burst: both these red beauties cost upwards of $250. Woah! I usually associate the two with gifts that you get only off of a wedding registry, thus because I am not making lots of money and because I am not getting married anytime soon, I figured I could kiss the two beauties goodbye and leave them in dreamland. Sometimes I also think I'm just not "mature" enough to own them yet, since I associate maturity with owning my own kitchen.

That sensibility still doesn't mean that I don't try. I visit them in the stores, I go to outlets, I check online for deals, and even after receiving some money from my brother for my birthday to "use as my heart desired", I just couldn't do it. $258 ($239 on sale!) was just too much for me even if there were hundreds of recipes in which I "needed" a cast iron pot.

As I convince myself of how useful the gadgets can be, the frugal part of me always kicks in before the purchase. I think I inherit that from my father. I thank him for that.

Back to the discount store I go, and that evening, I made a new kind of dinner.

I have a special someone to thank for that beef roast dinner.

Here's my new baby: she's not red and she's a little scratched up, but she is French, and she only set me back $9.99. At just 4% of the initial price (mathematical fact!), how could I not try her out? I love her just the same.

So this along with the kitchenaid replacement (read: handheld mixer) that I got from target at $5.99, officially puts my version of the dream kitchen at a total of $16 (tax excluded).

Thanks dad for helping me to save money.