I promised my wife I would buy her a set of nice kitchen knives for her birthday (a few months ago) and we recently made the purchase. Our old knife set was dull and not the most efficient means of preparing dinner. After doing a lot of research and reading some reviews, we decided to go with a set of J.A. Henckel knives.
While spending $300 on a set of knives may not appear to be a frugal decision, I think it was a good investment. A quality set of knives is safer that the dull knives we were using, and with care, should last us a lifetime. The last set of knives we had cost $30 and lasted about 5 years. The Henckels knife set has every knife we need, plus a solid wood storage block with the slits cut sideways so we never have to worry about sliding the blades in edge down – keeping the blades sharper, longer. Overall we are very happy with this knife set and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quality set of knives that will last a lifetime.
Guest post at Bargaineering.com. I had the opportunity to write a guest post for Jim at Bargaineering.com. You can check it out here: Financial Checklist for New Parents.
SwapTree – swap books, movies, CDs and games online for free. I recommend checking out SwapTree if you have unused media lying around the house. You can swap movies, books, CDs or video games with other SwapTree members for free. All you do is pay postage. It’s a neat little online app that can save you money and clear out space.
Recommended articles:
- Could You Survive Without Money? Meet the Guy Who Does. Daniel Suelo lives off the grid in a cave in Utah. Money is something he does not believe in.
- How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the City. This article is more about marketing than personal finance, but I found it interesting.
- Personal Finance Lessons Learned the Hard Way. Tough Money Love celebrates his one year blogging anniversary by sharing
- how much emergency fund is enough?. Some personal finance gurus say $1000, others say 3-6 months worth of living expenses. Some people say a few years.
- When To Give Up A Side Hustle. Running a side business or other source of alternative income can be a great way to help ends meet. But there is a time and a place for everything, and sometimes, it is worth giving up a side job or even selling a profitable business.
- How You Can Afford to Be a Stay at Home Mom. Great tips for becoming a stay at home mom.
- Dave Ramsey And The Power of Behavioral Finance. There is a lot to be said about how much behavior influences our financial decisions.
- Minimum Wage increases to $7.25 per hour. In case you missed it, the National minimum wage has risen this month.
- Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds. This article from the NY Times discusses how some high tech traders are making millions of dollars in a way that individual traders could never accomplish.
- How Much Life Insurance Do Military Members Need?. I knew a lot of young military members who bought too much life insurance, and many people with families who didn’t have enough.
- One Trillion Dollars. Check out this video from the Mint Blog. A trillion dollars is a lot of money!
This week’s carnivals:
- Carnival Of Money Stories #11 – Money Quotes Edition @ Bible Money Matters.
- Carnival of Twenty Something Finances @ Ginger Won’t Snap.
- 201st Carnival of Debt Reduction @ Living Almost Large.
- Carnival of road to financial independence #9 @ One Family’s Blog.
- Money Hacks Carnival #74 – Saturday Morning Cartoons Edition @ Suburban Dollar.
- Personal Financial Planning and Personal Investment Articles @ The Skilled Investor.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
We have Henckels knives and love them! We usually get about one of them a year and have bought the Pro-S ones. We now have three different ones, a pairing, boning and chef’s knife. Not sure which one will be next.
We love them too – especially my wife! She wants a Santoku knife to go with our set. The block has a couple extra slots, so I’ll probably get her one of those next.
I got a Henkels set for Christmas several years ago and once I had them I couldn’t believe I went so long with such a poor quality set. My husband go me the original set at Macys when we were dating for $19.99. The difference was undeniable. I also have the Santoku and that is my favorite knife.
My next purchase will be steak knives. My set did not come with them.
This is a case where quality trumps price.
Kristia, I agree completely. Some things are worth spending extra on. We have 8 steak knives with our set – the only thing it didn’t come with was the Santoku, which I know my wife wants. Maybe for Christmas.
If you take care of the knives– they are a lifetime investment and over a lifetime can be a very frugal choice.
My husband and I need to invest in a good set of knives. With the exception of one really good Santoku knife that we found at a deep discount at Marshall’s, our knives are terrible. My parents bought a set of Cutco knives about 20 years ago now. They are still great. If you cook, I think it’s definitely worth it to spend more and get a better product.
It’s true that sharp knives are safer than dull ones, because you don’t have to put so much pressure on them when you’re slicing. My wife used that as justification to convince me that we needed new knives. Then she cut herself three times within a week of purchasing our set of Global knives. If you’re not extra careful with the sharp ones, then they may not be safer than the dull ones.
This is a case where practice makes perfect. Sharper knives are much better in the long run, and with care, will last much longer than cheap knives.
Belated thanks for mention! I couldn’t agree more on the knives. A good set of knives makes the cooking experience much more pleasant, and saves you money in that sense… you’ll enjoy cooking so much more that you won’t want to go out. At least that’s the theory!
Having bought Bed, Bath and Beyond knives in the past, though, I wholeheartedly agree with the idea of buying upgraded knives.