Hey everyone! I've been thinking about trying a couple of new recipies I've found online, but a number of them require either food processors or blenders, and I don't have either. I'm a college student, so budget is an issue, but I don't want to get something so cheap it doesn't work or breaks easily. Can anyone recommend a fairly cheap but decent quality food processor or blender? Or both? Thanks!

Have you tried second hand stores?

Maybe something like the Magic Bullet because it is very versitile.

But you don't really need a food processor you can do all that stuff by hand or even with a 'chopper.'

I was thinking about going to Goodwill, but the last time I got an appliance there, it broke in two days.

I'll have to look into that, thanks! I know I can do most of it by hand, except it takes more time (which I'm rather short on), and one of the things I want to try are smoothies, so I'll need a blender of some sort anyway.

I got a blender over 20 years ago, and all pieces still work fine. The pitcher is plastic, not glass. It might be worth the investment.

It's not so much the brand as where you find a low-cost one. Blenders in general are much lower in cost than food processors, because they do less. You can do your own chopping, but doing your own blending? I dunno.

I do have a mini-food processor, but I'm unhappy with it. There's a space between blade and something else, and the food gets caught in it, so I can never get the last bit chopped. It's a Black & Decker, like my regular-sized processor (bought many years ago), so I know the brand is otherwise good.

For smoothies, you might consider a hand blender, one of those long, narrow things that goes directly into a cup to blend. I have one, and it's wonderful! Mine was a Hamilton Beach and only $10 (about 5 years ago). But you may want a full-sized blender for doing other things. What you don't need is a smoothie machine. That's nothing but a blender with a tap on it. You can do your own pouring.

Forget brand, and just price shop, that is, search around for bargains. It used to be that places like Wal-mart, Target and Kmart would have low-cost kitchen appliances, but their prices have gotten ridiculous. $60 for a blender???? Whatever for? Fancier models don't even do more than the basic ones. More speeds mean little. But even these stores sometimes have a bargain-priced model, so go in and look.

You'd think the supermarket would cost more for kitchen appliances, but surprisingly, they're offering some bargains, too. So check all your local groceries. I just got a Proctor Silex toaster for an amazing $4.00 (on sale from $15.00, and it's beautiful!). My blender, bought just last fall, was also a Proctor Silex and was $17.99, I think.

Again, I shopped around to get these prices, but got all these at the stores mentioned above.

Come to think of it, one brand that may cost less is Toastmaster. My mixer is a Toastmaster. It was $7.00 last fall. I noticed some of their other products were also quite low cost. I've seen them at Target and the supermarket, not the whole line, but one item in one place and another elsewhere.

Thanks for all the great info, Siena! I'm definitely going to start shopping around! And yes, I do want to use the blender for things other than smoothies. Making peanut butter, for instance.

Ewwwww, I can't fathom the idea of using someone else's appliances, lol.

I highly recommend the Magic Bullet. I'm not sure how much it is (got mine as a gift, but in a quick Google search, I found most from 49.99-59.99), but it does the work of both a blender and a food processor. I use it almost daily to make smoothies (using whole frozen strawberries, which it has no problem blending up), and I have used it for things like processing tomatoes and spinach for pasta sauce and making ham salad. I'm not sure of your living situation, but it's actually not good for making big batches of anything--however, if it's just you or you and one other, it's amazing because you can make smoothies right in the cups--no extra container to clean! And because the blade is in a separate piece, it's a LOT easier to clean than the blade at the bottom of a blender.

Okay, I think you get the point that I love my Magic Bullet. I'll stop being an infomercial now

If you need something bigger or don't want to spend that much, I got my blender at Walmart for like 15 bucks, and it does the job. It's harder to clean at the bottom, but it makes a lot more smoothie in a single batch.

LOL! Why? Wouldn't you wash it in the first place? Do you not use utensils and such when you go to people's homes? Same concept

FYI the Magic Bullet (which I also love and high recommend) now has a blender attachment.

SIGN ME UP! I'll have to go check out their website right now!

Thanks for the ideas, everyone! I was actually just about to buy a Magic Bullet online when my rommate came home and announced that our friends, who he'd been visiting, had gifted us with a slightly-used blender. Episode of the Twilight Zone, anyone?

Anyway, I'll definitely keep all this in mind when the time comes to move out and I need to buy my own. Thanks again!

I realised while I was making my lunch that both my food processors have been gifts. Karma? Fate? Either way, congratulations and happy smoothy-ing!