My Best Family-Friendly Amazon and Black Friday Purchases EVER
Our frugal tendencies lead us to wait until the Black Friday sales to buy anything we do or anticipate needing while it’s at the lowest price of the year. It also leads us to do a lot of research–if I am going to spend the money, I want to make sure the item is really worth every cent. We’ve bought a TV, an upright freezer, a washer and dryer, a vacuum, a laptop and probably a few other things I’ve forgotten during the sales–expecting to get the best possible price.
I’ve got a good friend who more than once has just bought the same item I did (including a minivan), because she knew I’d done all the research to make sure it was the best possible item. We both needed a new vacuum at the same time, so she bought the same Shark I decided to get. She is one of the cleanest people I know, and she loves it at least as much as we do!
We are not 5 AM shoppers on Black Friday kind of people. Thankfully so many sales are beginning before Thanksgiving or are available online. How much better to spend your time with family (especially since we have a birthday on Black Friday this year) and just hop online when you have a few free minutes. Taking a few minutes now to know what you want will make it a cinch.
I am an appliance girl at heart. I’ve mentioned how I use both the Blendtec Blender and the Instant Pot probably each 2 times a day, often much more. I’m a big believer that the right appliances can save you all kinds of time and energy and it’s worth investing the time and money into one that will make life easier.
So with that, I before I get into my very favorite kitchen items, I am going to highlight a few of our very best buys that have proved to be worth every cent (even at full price, but hopefully you get them for less). I totally believe it’s wise to find ways to free up time on mundane tasks to make more time for taking care of our health and spending time with those we love.
I’ve noticed the Amazon prices on these bounce around a lot. I recommend adding them to your shopping cart so you’ll be notified of lower prices over the next week through Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. As an affiliate I receive a small commission when you use these links to buy these items or anything else on Amazon, with no change in price for you!
On to the list.
Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away Vacuum
This vacuum far exceeded my expectations. We had a Dyson before, and granted, it wasn’t new to us so it’s hard to make a fair comparison, but this Shark Vacuum has far surpassed anything that Dyson could do. The first time we used it to vacuum it was incredible to see how much it sucked up that our previous vacuum had left behind. It is super simple to switch between hard floor and carpet, which has made cleaning the tile I have at my front door and laundry room SO much easier! I used to hate sweeping those areas and would put it off for way too long.
This vacuum was so fun to use that I hardly ever vacuumed for months. My husband and boys were always volunteering to do it! We’ve had it 3 years now and it is still going strong. It’s easy to empty and clean (cleaning the hair off the roller has never been easier with the way it detaches and has a place designed for scissors). We got ours at Costco for about $200 at the time, but I’m not sure if they still have them. I’d happily spend more, it has made cleaning the floor so much more enjoyable.
Roku TV
Let me preface this with a warning that we are not serious TV watchers. My kids might watch 30-45 minutes or so a few times a week. My husband and I might turn something on after the kids are in bed maybe once a month. The TV probably gets the most use when we watch General Conference twice a year.
But this is what makes this TV so wonderful. We don’t pay for anything but our regular internet subscription. Comcast and CenturyLink are always recommending we check out higher speeds, but we’ve never had a problem with the base, and least expensive speed. We are able to watch PBS Kids, YouTube, BYUTV, and Amazon Video for no additional cost.
My boys love to watch Dude Perfect on YouTube, a variety of things on PBS kids, and my husband and I kind of like free health documentaries on Amazon (many of which are either included with our Prime Membership or available for a few dollars). It’s also so easy to watch all of the uplifting programming put out by our Church through their channels.
I LOVE that we can get just what we want to watch and nothing more. It’s also been simple to hook up our phones and laptops to show off home videos and pictures to everyone after an event. I think we also got this on Costco.com for about the same price it’s currently listed on Amazon: $280.
Kitchen Items
The other items have been good in some ways, not-so-good in others. But none quite like the Vacuum and TV where I can happily say these are some of the best money we’ve ever spent. So on to the kitchen items!
I mentioned these before, but this post would not be complete without a mention of my Blendtec Blender and Instant Pot.
Blendtec Blender:
My husband had to convince me it was worth the investment, but my Blendtec blender has been one of the best investments of our marriage. It made our daily smoothies so much easier, and really opened up a lot more cooking options–I use the blender in conjunction with my twister jar to make nut butters, hummus and all kinds of smooth and creamy sauces I didn’t know were possible. It makes my broccoli “cheese” soup a snap to pull together.
The blender is WAY easier to clean than anything else I’d ever had, and the dull blades are wonderful. I’ve even caught my toddler playing with the jar and putting toys in it. Not something I try to encourage, but it was great to know I didn’t need to worry about any fingers getting sliced.
Instant Pot
I know a lot of you are like I was, and wondering if the Instant Pot is really worth having one more appliance in the kitchen. If I hadn’t received it as a gift I may still be holding out, but now I can say that it easily replaces both my rice cooker and my slow cooker(s, yes I have several collecting dust in my cabinet. I’m not sure if I’ve used them at all since getting the Instant Pot).
Here’s what I love:
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- it’s quick–I still have the option to start dinner in the morning and have it warm and ready at dinner time, but if I haven’t gotten to it until 4:30 or 5:00 pm, I can still have something ready in no time.
- it’s handsoff–once you get everything going you can walk away and focus on other things, coming back whenever you have a chance to a hot dinner. I even used it to cook pasta while I picked up my son from basketball this week, how awesome is that?
- it’s easy to clean–the stainless steel pot is far easier to clean than my rice cooker or slow cooker inserts ever have been. I do like to let it soak from time to time, but the stainless steel is so nice compared to non-stick inserts or heavy stoneware. The other parts take a little more time to clean as well, but truthfully I only really deep clean it about once a week. I could keep it spotless between every meal, but I feel like that would counter balance all the time it saves in prep-time and I can live with a few splatters here and there. It is helpful to have an extra sealing ring so your oatmeal for breakfast doesn’t come out smelling like last night’s chili.
- it’s programmable–I love that I can program a delay timer down to the 10 minutes, turn the sound on an off and generally it’s easy to use. I don’t use any of the pre-sets. Most recipes just say to do a certain number of minutes at high or low pressure and that works great for me. I haven’t done much with the yogurt maker or other claims.
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If I could change one thing I think I might go back and get the 8qt instead of the 6qt. 6qt is plenty for the 6 of us for breakfast and really holds enough for dinner. But it would be nice to cook a little extra at a time to increase our leftovers. And as the boys grow up, well, you know what that means!
Tomato Slicing Knife
This $6 knife is the perfect gift for the chef in your life. It works well for almost everything I want to cut. I use this knife for nearly every meal–it’s great for slicing apples, avocados, tomatoes, of course. Truthfully it’s rare I get anything else out. It works well for bread, although every once in a while I’ll get out a longer knife for an especially large loaf. I might occasionally use a large chef’s knife for chopping, but truthfully it’s easier for me to just always reach for this one!
And one more, just because it was such a great find:
Where’s Waldo Travel Collection
I happened to pick this up for my son’s birthday and have been super happy with it. It’s basically all (or maybe most) of the Where’s Waldo books compacted into one neat little book. It’s not a whole lot bigger than a chapter book, so you aren’t dealing with the huge Where’s Waldo books I loved as a kid. I feel like the smaller picture adds to the challenge but isn’t so small that it’s unpleasant.
Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
When you do need to resort to screen time, we’ve found these to be a pretty good option. I know I said I was done but I have to include these. Usually on Black Friday and Prime Day Amazon will put their Fire Tablets on sale–we got them for $29.99 each. These are certainly not your latest iPad’s, but the capabilities they have for the price makes them really a great deal. We weren’t sure we even wanted to have tablets available for our kids, and they may have been caught on them a time or two (or more) when they shouldn’t have, but they have come in handy.
One of my favorite features is that through the Alexa app we can use them as a phone. It’s certainly not the same as a regular phone, but they can use it to text or call if I happen to make a quick trip to the store without them.
All of the LDS apps work pretty well, so they are able to use the Gospel Library, Hymns, Family Search apps which is nice. The Amazon tablets also work with Anki Overdrive.
All in all it’s a nice way to give kids some limited access to technology without handing over your phone or computer. They have decent parent controls. We bought 2 several years ago, and although one has mysteriously gone missing in the last couple of weeks, the other one is still working just fine.
Well there you have it. These items are truly some of the best money I’ve spent and been extremely helpful in running a house that can get a bit crazy at times. Whether you are shopping for yourself or for others, I highly recommend them to save you time and frustration.
Don’t miss my other Thanksgiving posts: Quickly Turn Thanksgiving Sales into Healthy and Inexpensive Plant-Based Dinners and My 2018 Thanksgiving Menu