Some folks call me cheap. I consider myself frugal but the fact is, if something works I stick with it. That’s how it was with our blender.  It was a genuine avocado green Osterizer from either the late 1960′s or the early 1970′s. It was part of my life growing up.  It replaced an old round white Osterizer my parents got for a wedding gift in 1950.

Classic Avocado Green Blender circa 1970

Somewhere along the line I inherited it and used it for the past 30 years. Mary said it was getting tired and made funny noises when she made smoothies and she wanted to replace it.  That struck terror in my heart. I’m a lot older than that blender, I’m getting tired, and sometimes she accuses me of making funny noises.

So I started researching blenders.  I was really intrigued with the idea of having a 3 horsepower blender in the kitchen. Both Vitamix and Blendtec make over-powered and over-priced blenders that are really impressive. My Oster blender cost 19.95, as I recall.  So spending $649 on a replacement seemed a tad extravagant but I did enjoy watching the Blendtec sales videos.  My favorites were blending an iPhone into iDust and blending a dozen chemical glow sticks.  While the Blendtec folks were thinking humor, my mind works a little differently. I was wondering if either of the units could be modified to produce propulsion for a boat. I was imagining a small hydroplane like the MiniMost powered by two blender motors.

My wife entertains no such engineering fantasies and informed me that we didn’t need a three horsepower blender to make a smoothie. Moreover, she was clear that we were not spending anywhere near $500 on a blender.  So much for my dreams of a mini-Miss Budweiser hydroplane.  She didn’t even care for the highly rated and lower priced Ninja blender. That was actually fine with me because I was tired of their very persistent tracking cookies that brought me to their ads with every website I visited.

The new kid on the block. Almost 1 hp and with its own Smoothie button.

So with almost no more effort than a visit to Costco, we ended up bringing home a squat new 700 watt (0.94 hp <g>) Cuisinart blender.  It even has a smoothie button on it.  For $80 it is actually 20% less expensive than the Osterizer when you account for inflation.  That appeals to my frugal side and made this morning’s smoothie just a little sweeter.