Baller on a Budget: Second Hand Haul Reviews 002

Continuing on my objective to build my baller kitchen from thrifting, I present to you today another haul, full of mostly kitchen items. I did find a few non kitchen type things as well that have upgraded both our daily life for storage, but also a fun item as well!

This haul was all from the multiple Goodwill stores in my area. I have two Goodwill stores within a mile of my house in opposite directions, which makes it really easy (and dangerous?) to itch that shopping scratch.

Once I have finished with the majority of my kitchen haul articles, I will start presenting my creative recipes that have been made from all of these new kitchen upgrades.

All retail pricing reflects the "real world" price at the time of this writing. This means that this is what you can find these items for at Walmart, Amazon or if it's no longer sold, eBay sold listings.

All of the kitchenware items are things I am looking for and need. They will be replacing cheap, worn out or worse versions of themselves.

Pyrex Glassware

I've been wanting a few more small Pyrex glass dishes for a few different purposes. I wanted some to bake small test batches in the oven with, some to store small batches in the fridge with and some to put ingredients in while baking and photographing later for blog use. These types of dishes photograph well and are all oven safe and hit all those marks at a fraction of the cost.

Another reason my wife and I are looking for these types of dishes is that we're trying to replace all of our cheap plastic storage containers with glass. When we find a glass version of something we have in the plastic-ware drawer, we buy it, then either throw the plastic version away, or if it's a brand name item, we donate it back to Goodwill. Most of our plastic-ware are from lunch meat containers. They're great, they stack well, and were a nice free waste byproduct from already buying lunch meats. But, glass is just better.

Pyrex 2 Cup Round Bowl

This is a perfect bowl for mixing up small batch ingredients, or for moderate amounts of ingredients before mixing into larger recipes. This type of dish also makes for good storage for homemade salsa, sauces and other foods of that type. I didn't find the lid for it, but plastic wrap works well for these small bowls. This bowl has seen very heavy use each week since purchasing it.

I found this specific dish comes in a 2 pack with lids for $11. Adjusting the price, I believe this is worth about $4 new by itself.

Retail Price: ~$4
My Price: $.99
Savings: $3.01


Pyrex Custard Bowls

I have been looking for a matching set of the ceramic custard bowls, but figured these would also make for great photogenic ingredient bowls for blog posts, as well as small serving bowls for side dishes, condiments and more. Being that the rims are straight, they are easy to cover with plastic wrap if needed. I don't use these nearly as much as the previous bowl, but these see some pretty moderate use each week for meal prep. They are also used for fruit snacks, such as apple slices and grapes.

These were originally part of a 4 pieces set, for $8.50, so I figured these to be worth around $6 with the missing bowl. While the discount wasn't as steep, there's a few items, such as Pyrex, that just tend to cost more at thrift stores. So long as you don't pick up any obviously abused dishes, Pyrex tends to last forever, so it is still worth buying used for the discount.

Retail Price: $6
My Price: $3.99
Savings: $2.01

Pyrex 4 Cup Square Dish

I was on a kick to making more dairy-free stuff for my wife, but since I usually made the dairy version for myself, I wanted a smaller dish so that I could make her a small non-dairy batch of whatever I was making. Think fancy baked mac-n-cheese, etc. I also bought this so that I could make small test batches of food for future recipe articles.

I haven't used this dish as much as I had planned, but that will probably change in the future as I start to ramp up on food related articles and get back to baking more.

This dish originally had a lid, but that wasn't present when I found it. Lids are worth roughly $1-2 online for various Pyrex products, so I took off $2. The dish is small enough that plastic wrap is still a great solution for covering it. For my uses, I didn't really need a lid anyway, so I was glad for the additional savings.

Retail Price: $6
My Price: $2.99
Savings:  $3.01


Pampered Chef Cut n Seal

I will be the first to say that while I love gadgets, I am not a huge fan of single-use kitchen gadgets. I think the large majority of kitchen gadgets out there are solving a problem that doesn't exist. Most of the tasks can easily be performed by stuff you already have, or just by learning good knife skills.

This gadget gets a pass.

I have been learning to make all types of dough, including breads, crusts and pasta. Something that I was experimenting with a while back gave me a need to make a sealed dough pocket, much like a pirogi. Sure I could use a circle cutter and pinch the edges down, but this gives it that nice crimped look and cuts it all in one single smash. This gadget actually does save steps and time. I have about 4 uses for it that you will see in future food articles.

I've used the Cut n Seal a few times already with great success, so long as it is heavily floured. The time saved vs trying to do it by hand with multiple other tools is well worth the storage space in the miscellaneous utensil drawer for this small gadget.

Retail Price: $11
My Price:z $.99
Savings: $10.01


Silicon Utensils

While experimenting with lots of new recipes and foods, I've noticed a few things about a lot of my utensils. Most of them are cheap plastic or metal that either get disfigured from high heat or can scratch my cookware and non-stick surfaces. I also found a lot of things stuck to my utensils or stained them, whereas with silicon, it usually wipes right off and doesn't leave a stain.


Also, with the non-stick pans, and our non-stick air fryer basket, I was starting to see more scratches on them, even though we try our best to be careful. It was time to start replacing all the tongs with silicon tipped tongs.
Nice silicon utensils are not cheap, so I usually avoided these in the past. On this trip to Goodwill, however, that all changed. Because of the items I found, I now make it a point to dig through all of the utensils and seek out the more expensive branded items.


I found this mix of 5 different utensils across multiple Goodwill stores. I was really excited for the matching spoons, found in two different stores! 

These 5 utensils are heavily used each week, with at least 3 of them seeing daily use, sometimes multiple times a day. The tongs are used almost daily in the air fryer, or for making breakfast in the frying pan. The mini whisk is also used daily for making a single scrambled egg in the microwave egg puck cooker. (I like my H/E/C Biscuit Sammie egg pucks, don't judge!)

Prices:

• Tovolo Silicon Spoons x 2
  • Retail: $10/ea
  • My Price: $.69/ea
• Cuisinart Silicon Tongs
  • Retail: $6
  • My Price: $.69
• Silicon Ladel
  • Retail: $6
  • My Price: $.69
• Farberware Slim Wisk
  • Retail: ~$3 (comes in 2 pack for $8 with a larger wisk. Figured $3 for small wisk)
  • My Price: $.39

Total Retail Price: $35
My Price: $3.15
Savings: $31.85


Personal Blender Cup Set

On my previous trip, I had found a Rival Personal Blender. It only included one cup and the blade. I ended up using it way more than I thought I ever wood, so when I found this package of cups and another blade, I jumped on buying it.

It was all bagged together unceremoniously in an old zippered plastic comforter bag.

While I couldn't verify this would fit my blender, it looked like it would just by eyeballing it. I figured these were a generic brand and that most of the small blenders were a standard size. I guessed right and it did fit!

I don't think this was a good purchase though. There's nothing wrong with any of it, but the way I use my personal blender, I found we just don't have a need for all the extra stuff. We don't do shakes or juices. Whenever I grind seasonings in it, I put them into a small spice or mason jar for long term storage, so the shaker lid and smaller container haven't been used. I'm not sure what this style flat blade is for, grinding smaller things like spices perhaps? It's different from my other blade (a more traditional multi level blender style), but I don't ever find myself using this blade.

I will probably give it all away as a full set whenever I get around to upgrading to a Ninja system.
It's a nice set, we just don't use any of it, and as you can see, it takes up a good bit of space to store.

Retail Price: ~$20 (I couldn't find this exact set, so guessing off similar ones found on Amazon)
My Price: $3.99
Savings: $16.01


 Keurig K-Cup Holder Stand

My wife loves her Keurig, so I am always looking for accessories for it. The Keurig itself we got for a few dollars from someone over 10 years ago. If you keep it regularly cleaned, they keep on going forever. This Keurig was originally a thrift bargain for us too.
We had one of the little spinning tree style K-Cup holders already, but in an effort to reclaim some counter space, I wanted to see if she would switch to this drawer stand style. She tried it, liked it, and now it's a permanent part of her cozy coffee corner.

I see K-Cup holders of all types quite often at the Goodwill stores. I see one in nearly every store on most visits. If you're looking for one, check a few thrift stores first.

Retail Price: $17
My Price: $1.99
Savings: $15.01


Risk 2210 AD

This isn't a kitchen item, but I am a huge tabletop gamer. I found this at one of the Goodwill stores, with all the pieces intact and spotless clean.

This is one of the more expensive Avalon Hill/Wizards of the Coast large campaign style war games based on Risk. Board games aren't cheap, especially games with many small pieces.

I have the regular Risk in a special anniversary version that is styled after the very first original version. My dad and I enjoy playing that together. I thought this might be a more in depth fun modern take on the game that my dad and I could play. I have yet to play it, but the same goes for quite a few of the board games I own. Too many games, not enough time or people to play them with.

I always look at all the games at Goodwill as I can sometimes find a gem in the sea of dull boring games like Cranium and Scene It. Another awesome deal I found on another trip was the $50 Ticket To Ride, for a bargain price of $4.99. I was with my sister at the time, so I insisted she buy it for her gaming shelf, as I already had a copy. Cheap board games can be found, you just have to look for them.

You can check out more of my game related articles, if you're into that. I talk about strategies for a few collectible card games, and will be going more in depth with some of the board games I play in future articles.

Retail Price: $28.99 - $50, depending where you look.
My Price: $6.99
Savings:  $22 - $43.01


I hope you enjoyed my latest haul! I have a few more in the works to write about in future articles. As always, if there is anything specific you would like me to look for, or other thrifting ideas you would like to share, please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks!
Joe