Our kitchen is full of gadgets. The hubby just got a waffle maker for his birthday. At Christmas, I got him an immersion blender. We have gadgets. Lots of gadgets.

But while we like our gadgets, there are only two that have permanent places on our counter tops- and the toaster is not one of them.

No, our two can’t live without gadgets are the rice maker and our electric kettle. And I could probably live without the electric kettle if I absolutely had to. But the loss of the rice maker would be an emergency situation.

So why is this on my budget blog? Here’s the thing, gadgets expensive, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it. I would say that our rice cooker has saved us money in the long run because it makes it really easy to make rice, and therefore makes it easy to make dinner on nights when we don’t have much energy- throw rice in the rice cooker, grab a can of cream of mushroom and bam, quick, easy dinner, for probably less than $0.50 per person.