I have started canning because much like Dowlinggram, we have a young family. I became a stay at home mom who has gardened as a hobby for the past 7 years. So I just "upped my game" a little. I am finally putting up some good numbers although much healthier for my family (and way tastier) hubby and I joke we are still no where near in the money saving range yet. Between fencing, tiller, more fencing (stupid deer), humane traps for the groundhogs (over a dozen in our yard this year had to be relocated or we were going to have even more serious issues next year), and all the jars I have bought this year - maybe next year we will see the economic savings. I do have to say though, it has still all come out of my normal grocery budget and the food is not only much better, but it is all an investment. And to be honest, the stay at home mom thing was a bit of a shock to my system (don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade it for the world) so no matter what it gives me the feeling even if it is not "financial sound" yet that I am productive and doing something healthy and good for my family. I do have to say though, my husband and I took care of his parents for the last few years before they passed away. His father need to go on an extreme low salt diet. I did a lot of label reading and it is amazing how much salt they hide in everything. I really wished I was canning at that time. Low sodium was not NO sodium. It was extremely hard to buy anything that was pre-packaged in a store. Kalindi

Thanks- all good things for us to know when buying an expensive item. It is now ;Cyber Monday'= and I don't see any prices that are different from the last several weeks...maybe Cyber Monday is just a gimmick? I had a horrid experience with buying from Best Buy- in person....first, the salesperson walked away while I was actually asking questions about the computers- I floowed him through several isles to drag him back. He then said 'I'll be back in 3 minutes'....10 minutes later I found him standing up front talking with coworkers. I again ragged him back to the computer area. I bought the HP Mini. I did complain to the mgr, who gave me a $40 off the computor. 4 days later, when I returned the computer because it didn't work, the mgr only refunded $359, not $399...I guess all the crap I went through/got a sales price renigged because the product didn't work, and it was then ok to have such bad salespeople. I won't ever be buying from Best Buy. Now....where are the Cyber Day Sales????? owbist- I think it was you that said I was already ahead $40 online.....where, please?

I'm a little late, but I thought I'd respond since I'm actually looking into this right now. We will probably only be in our home another two years, so our main concern with our cosmetic updates is resale. We want something that looks nice but is affordable. It doesn't need to be over-the-top custom, but there are definitely certain things I want while we're still living there and it should be a "wow" factor of the house. I came across an old post from this forum which led me to the MKFUSA website mentioned in an above post. I spent all weekend coming up with a design I think will really work for us, but unless I want to spend $100, MKFUSA won't look at my design and give me input. The $100 is refundable of course if I buy cabinets from them, but at this point I'm so confused on the pricing that I have no idea what they would cost or if it's worth it to send in my design. The bottom line for me? Yes, I think there are plenty of people out there in my position who would buy online IF: -Great color photos (in the form of downloadable/printable PDFs) were available to show door styles, paint/stain colors, specs, and showroom kitchen examples -The pricing, including shipping, was straightforward and easy to understand -Contact information was readily available for questions/concerns -Some type of design consultation/review, even at a charge so you're not constantly wasting your time, so that once my order is placed, I can feel confident I've ordered all the pieces I need -Door samples could be ordered and then shipped back, free of charge, for a refund of whatever you charged to send them (in other words, price should include shipping so everybody wins-- obviously you would need to limit how many could be sent at a time and work out other kinks...) -Ideally-- and this is something you might not do right away but could consider adding down the line-- there would be some type of simplified kitchen design sofware on the website where people could set up a room of their size, and then basically drag and drop windows, outlets, cabinets, etc... to get a 3-d view of what their design might look like. I'm decent at doing scale drawings of mine, but I have to assume I'm doing it right. Software that shows what we're drawing right from your site would be ideal! It's like you said-- times are tight right now, and I feel a little crazy for even spending money on a remodel right now, but we have the cash and are ready to go. In fact, I'm not sure if our budget would fit with your cabinets, but if you want a "guinea pig," just let me know! Good luck with your business!

I live in the back of beyond in rural Canada, with no estate sales or good quality nurseries around me; I dream of one day driving to Detroit Garden Works : ) . We had a local hardware store (since closed, sigh) that carried graduated sets of glazed pots from Vietnam, as gardengal mentioned. I bought three sets about 20 years ago, from very large to quite small, and use them all every summer I do keep an eye open for interesting pots, and at a garage sale found a pair of large Chinese blue and white fishbowl planters. I also look to see what I can find online at reasonable prices, and a few months ago Pottery Barn Canada online had their large Brittany cast stone planter on clearance for $42.16 CAN each. I bought two.