Black & Decker Paper Shredder

Review: Black & Decker 10 Piece Cross Cutter Shredder
Price: $78.00 - Target

Hi! My name is Kerrie and I'm anal retentive.

I'm either anal retentive or in a constant state of fear that the IRS is going to come knocking on my door. I've never given them REASON to come knocking on my door - but never the less - the fear is still there.

So therefore, I keep everything. I mean EVERYTHING.

I found a file the other day that was marked 1993 Tax Return. I was 19 in 1993. I had a summer job as a waitress. I made about $347 dollars all summer long. The only thing in that file was a W-2 and a 1040 EZ Form.

I have MILES of papers in my house - and I needed to finally get down to it and get rid of them.

I've burned out and killed three shredders over the last couple of weeks (yes, that's where I've been. Not writing here....but shredding 10 years of our lives away).

I ended up with the Black and Decker 10 Piece Cross Cutter.

All in all a good machine. Honestly, I don't think that anything you can buy in a store is going to be as powerful as you need if you are looking to shred the National Archives - but it still worked well for me.

I will say this - 10 piece shredder my ass. If I got four pieces in it sounded like it was dying, so I just got into a good rhythm with three pieces at a time. Took me about 3 days to shred everything I had, it filled about 2 of those large brown paper grass bags.

It has an over heating option, which although a pain in the butt, keeps you from actually killing the machine. I would unplug it and wait about a half an hour and it was fine again.

If you are really going to town on shredding, the plastic bucket the shredder comes in fills up fast. I would say about every 50 pages or so, I had to dump it.

It's also very loud. Don't shred with sleeping babies.

Tips: Cross Cutting is the best way to go. I made the mistake of using a smaller, less efficient shredder with all of my old returned checks and I ended up shredding them so perfectly that the account number was still intact on each check. HEY COME STEAL MY IDENTITY! VICTIM HERE!

Last Thoughts: Good machine to have for big jobs. If you are already up to date with your shredding needs, you probably don't need something this big and can get by with a smaller and cheaper model.

Tassimo

This review brought to you by Brooke from The Sylvester 4.

Review: Tassimo Beverage System
Cost: about $160, plus cost of discs

I have to admit- I had never even heard of the Tassimo “Beverage System” before this Christmas. Apparently my sister wanted one terribly. That got my “New Product Pavlov’s Dog” instinct salivating strong, and I couldn’t help but notice it the next time I was at the store.
Now, the thing is, I don’t drink coffee. I don’t even like coffee. What I DO like is Café Mocha from Starbucks. I love this drink. I will make excuses to drive past a Starbucks in order to get one. I will order two of them and take one home to heat up later in the day… Seriously. So the idea of being able to make one at home seemed like a very attractive, and quite possibly money and gas saving idea. There was a little flyer thing at the Bed Bath & Beyond that showed how it worked, and drinks you could make with it. It said that to make café mocha, you simply use one hot chocolate “T-Disc” and one Espresso. That, plus the fact that my girls LOVE hot chocolate, and my husband occasionally drinks coffee… I was sold.

First off, it’s a really pretty machine. It looks quite fancy sitting on the counter. It was a breeze to put together- in fact, we had our hands full when we walked in, and my 10 year old had put the entire machine together without reading the directions by the time I got to it. It’s ridiculously easy to use: put a T-Disc in the top, press down hard (you feel like you are forcing it, and that made me nervous a bit- but you have to push hard enough for the piercing mechanism to go through the plastic of the disc.) and push the button. Each T-Disc contains a unique barcode that tells the machine exactly how much water to use, what temperature to heat the water to, etc… Other than some initial confusion over which light meant what, it is very easy to use.

The first thing I did was make myself a café mocha. I was sorely disappointed. It just wasn’t right. Too watery- and nothing like my beloved drink from Starbucks. However, the kids had a BALL making hot chocolate, and I very much enjoyed a cup of tea (Earl Grey, Hot. Yes, I am a Trekker) every evening. Plus, the dics that I’m looking for (decaffeinated espresso, specifically) are not available at stores. I was feeling like I had spent a lot of money for nothing.

I went to their website to see where I could find the discs I was looking for. You can enter your zip code, and they will tell you all the stores near you that sell Tassimo machines, and exactly which discs you can get there. I eventually decided to sign up for their Direct Delivery service. They sent me 4 boxes of discs a month. 2 decaf espressos, 1 hot chocolate, and 1 earl grey. It was a good price- they don’t gouge you with shipping. It’s hardly any more than buying them from the store. However, since I really wasn’t digging their version of café mocha, the espresso didn’t get used. And started to pile up… and up… About a month ago, I e-mailed and cancelled the monthly shipment.

Now, if I had written this review a month ago, I would have given it a disappointed, middle of the road review. If I was an avid caffeinated coffee drinker, it could have been great, but it just didn’t work for me… HOWEVER…

They recently started selling a few new products that have changed my Tassimo experience, and my coffee drinking life. First of all, they are now selling Starbucks coffee… I know there are some Starbucks fans out there who will buy it right now, just because of that. Secondly, they now have a 'Latte Milk Creamer' disc, and a 'Cappuccino Foaming Milk Creamer' disc. STEAMED MILK- that is what my café mochas were lacking. At Starbucks they make my drink with 4 shots of chocolate, espresso, and steamed milk. In addition, Starbucks now sells the chocolate powder that they use in their drinks. If you are a café mocha fan, try this: 3 spoons of Starbucks coco powder, 3 spoons of water, run an esspresso disc, then a milk creamer disc... Awesome. As close to Starbucks as I've found.

Now that I can make my drink the RIGHT way, I am making it every day. In fact, I am having to ration my drinks so that I don’t run out of espresso! I love this thing, and I am SO glad we have it, even though we went through a rough patch.

So, bottom line:

Pros: Fast & easy. You can make just one cup of coffee at a time- each of you can make an entirely different drink with no waiting between drinks. Makes Coffee, espresso, cappuccino, lattes, hot chocolate, & tea. Easy to clean. Really good tasting drinks.

Cons: Not all discs are available at stores. It’s loud. It’s comparable to an espresso machine- but if you are used to a regular coffee machine, you’ll be surprised by the noise at first.
Enjoy!!