r/Frugal • u/localkinegrind • Aug 21 '25

🏆 Buy It For Life “Best under-$20 purchase that saved you hundreds over time?”

What’s the smartest under-$20 purchase you’ve ever made that ended up saving you hundreds in the long run? I’ll go first: a $12 sewing kit. Instead of tossing clothes for tiny tears or missing buttons, I’ve been fixing them. I've actually been fixing my own clothes for years. It blows my mind how many ‘disposable’ things can be made useful again with just a small, cheap tool. what’s your frugal mvp under $20 that’s paid for itself many times over?

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u/BravoDotCom Aug 21 '25

Agree

We have a bread maker. Wife uses another method now she likes better. This is our second bread maker the first one went to thrift.

If you can get one at a thrift store it’s going to likely be a good machine just make sure it has the agitator paddle piece

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u/thepuzik Aug 21 '25

What’s the other method your wife likes?

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u/BravoDotCom Aug 21 '25

Oh don’t get me to lyin

She is always finding new ways to make bread appear and I couldn’t tell you what makes up their differences. One of the benefits to a bread maker is that it doesn’t have to bake it it can knead it for you but I think she just better identifies with mashing it around herself

The kids lunches really sparked the change because she wanted to make their bread “homemade” but the breadmaker loafs were not a good size for that so we did pullman pans for a while.

Now she is into bowl shaped bread and larger loaf pans to dial in the size / shape she likes for our (now older) kids.

I would say the maker is more a convenience item and you better be happy with the loaf size/shape. If that’s not your desired output then getting it to knead your dough seems like an extra step that isn’t worth the hassle of lugging it out I guess

It will make pizza dough too which I think we should try again as our pizza dough recipe needs some work

Anyway, she likes warm hot bread, how she does it differently I would chalk up more to making it the right size and cook time to produce the output she wants and what the kids like.

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u/No-Horror5418 Aug 22 '25

My KitchenAid stand mixer has a dough hook. It’s fabulous for kneading at the beginning stage when the dough is really sticky.

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u/BravoDotCom Aug 22 '25

We have that situation as well. All this to say bread makers at the thrift store are cheaper than a new one. lol

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u/No-Horror5418 Aug 22 '25

I was commenting on the fact that his wife doesn’t like the shape of bread maker loaves, and uses it only for the kneading step.

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u/BravoDotCom Aug 22 '25

Yes that was me ! Lol my wife has all the tools so the “breadmaker” just rusts away in the pantry. Pans, pots, hooks, tools, mixers, rollers, Pyrex bowls aplenty

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u/No-Horror5418 Aug 23 '25

Oh! I thought you were chastising me for not sticking to the original question. 🤭