" i love the idea of menu planning and have tried it on occasion, but my kids eat ahead and then stuff is gone for the recipes" 

I had that problem ... and fixed it by informing the kids (the SO's colleg-aged ones) that food that was OK for snacking would be on the refrigerator shelf that was labelled "Snacks".  Of course, they ignored the label and cooked the frozen lasagna that I had planned to serve for dinner one night and all of the frozen pizzas.  They got the contents of the "Snacks" shelf for dinner instead of lasagna, and we never bought any more convenience foods.  Somehow, the kids who would wait 50 minutes for frozen lasagna would never spend the same amount of time cooking frozen chicken.   

They now respect the menu plans that are posted on the fridge, and have learned that if they gobble up 2 gallons of ice cream and all the chocolate sauce the first night they are home that it won't be replaced

Bread machines are great ... 20 lb of bread flour and a pound of yeast (keep it in the freezer) are less than $10.  (probably way less than that, but I don't do the costco shopping).  I keep the flour in glass canisters ($12 at Wal-Mart, $40 at hoity-toity kitchen stores).  Cost per loaf is about 30 cents.

Rice steamers, if you like rice, are worth the money. We buy 15-20 pound bags of it.

Craigslist is also great.  I got a freezer for $75 to handle bulk purchases.

Thrift stores often get unused appliances.

I found some soap dispensers that let you put in 20% liquid soap and 80% water and it squirts it out foamy.  Kids love it and it saves a ton!
Also - we have enourmous windows in my house and I've found the best cleaning solution to be ammonia and water - scrub it with a window washer and squeegee the solution off.  Best thing is if there is any residue left you can wipe it off with paper towel. (or newspaper)