Saving Money on Designer Fashions

I know that one thing that most of us don’t have anymore is money to waste. I have a friend who works in an administrative office where she has to dress the part everyday. No slouching allowed. While others may be able to wears jeans and tee shirts to work this lady has to dress in womens business suits and separates. She has a very large wardrobe and focuses on mix and match fashions that have a classic style. She says that classics never go out of style. She tends to buy good quality pieces that will last for years. She is able to have the wardrobe she does because she knows where she can buy fabulous fashions at a fraction of their price. She knows that she can buy a pair of summerweight pants or a suit on sale this year and wear them next summer. She knows the time to buy a good wool jacket is spring when they’re on sale. The same for shoes. She stays away from trends and sticks with pointed toe shoes which never go out of style.

She has learned that you can get fantastic buys and save a lot of money shopping online. She loves to look at all the current fashion trends but tends to lean towards classic styles.

Low Cost Quality Cookware Sets

When our daughter left for college last autumn we sent her off with lots of used furniture, bedding, sheets, towels and things for the apartment she was going to be sharing with three other girls. We also bought her a low cost quality cookware set to use. As much as she wanted better cookware there just wasn’t any reason to spend the money. The cookware we purchased will work just fine for her in her apartment with room mates.

I knew this because we have a vacation home on Deep Creek Lake where we also use low cost cookware.  I found a set from Sabatier that was a 10-piece set. It’s called Sabatier Precision Stainless Steel Cookware. Now, it’s far from as heavy as the cookware I use at home on a daily basis so I do have to remember to keep a close eye on the foods that I’m cooking and use a lower heat to prevent burning, but it works just fine.

We looked around for the right cookware set for my daughter to take to college. We sent to KMart and to Target, and even stopped into Tuesday Morning, where we found a great buy on glassware and dishes.   When we stopped into KMart we found their brand called Essential Home. It’s a hard anodized non stick cookware set. It has tempered glass lids for see-through cooking. The set has a 1 qt. and 2 qt. saucepan, 5 qt. Dutch oven, 8″ and 9.5″ frying pans. It’s very reasonably priced at $50.

Target has a low cost cookware set manufactured by Calphalon called Kitchen Essentials. These are heavier gauge aluminum than the Essential Home brand from KMart.

What we found was that cookware manufacturers like Calphalon, Sabatier and Hoffritz offer a variety of different quality cookware under their name. Hoffritz Platinum Cookware 10-piece stainless steel cookware runs about $90 and Sabatier Precision 20-piece stainless steel cookware runs about $100.

So we ended up buying the Essential Home cookware from KMart.  It’s a cast aluminum cookware constructed of heavy gauge cast aluminum that is non-stick.  We were able to get a 10 piece set for $50.00 Our daughter chose a black color and really liked the soft comfort grips on the pots and pans. They should work very well for her.

A lot of people who consider themselves somewhat “gourmet” cooks and well heeled homeowners like to spend a lot of money on cookware, and cookware can make a difference, but a good cook will be able to use any type of cookware to make a tasty meal.

GE Monogram Refrigerators are Professional Grade Appliances

My husband and I are in the market for a new kitchen refrigerator. My husband is a professional chef and he wants us to have top of the line professional grade appliances, like those offered by GE Monogram.

We liked the idea that there were so many different types of GE Monogram refrigerators to choose from such as, bottom freezer, side by side, built in and free standing refrigerators.  The GE Monogram free-standing side-by-side refrigerators are Energy Star qualified, as are the built-in side-by0side refrigerators.   The built-in refrigerators run 20.6 cu. ft. and up.  The largest is a 72″ built-in bottom-freezer refrigerator that is 41.2 cu. ft. We also wanted to be able to have custom panels on our refrigerator -S that it can be hidden in the kitchen.

As we do a lot of entertaining in our home and it’s not unusual for us to have twenty to dinner we also decided to take a look at the GE Monogram double-drawer refrigerator module. We liked the fact it could be built-in where ever we chose within our kitchen cabinetry and we could keep it stocked with essentials when we entertain. It’s also a great place for us to put the kids canned soft drinks and juice drinks. These GE Monogram refrigerator double drawers can also be hidden under custom panels.

You’re not going to find these high end GE Monogram appliances in your local Lowes or Home Depot. You’re going to have to go to a specialty store, such as Home Expo and smaller locally owned appliance dealers.

We had read and had heard from GE Monogram owners that GE offers Monogram Preferred Service which you can access by visiting their web site. They have service specialists on call Monday through Friday 7A-10P, and 8A-6P Saturday and Sunday. However, we’re hoping that we shouldn’t need much customer service due to the quality of GE Monogram appliances.

As I mentioned, my husband is a professional chef, however we’re not millionaires nor do we have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on frivolous things.  However, due to his love of cooking and the fact that there is a return of 85-100% on kitchen renovations we decided to invest in high end GE Monogram appliances.

If you’re looking for stylish high end appliances you need to take a look at GE Monogram refrigerators.