The $59 buy that solved my growing family's dinner issue

A $59 Kmart buy has proven to be the perfect solution for an ongoing saga in my growing family.

My children are 21, 17 and 16 and we rarely sit down to dinner at the same time.

So dinner had become an issue because we are all on different work and study schedules.

What I had started doing was making dinner ready for around 6pm and then just letting everyone know it was ready.

I'd leave it on the stove or in the oven and everyone would help themselves when they were ready to eat, when they got home, or before the left for work, at a time that suited them.

But I noticed dinner left in the oven was being forgotten, and my boys rarely went to the effort of serving themselves dinner that had gone cold on the stove and needed to be heated up.

Instead, they'd hit the snacks, and the food would be wasted.

So I started setting it all up on the kitchen bench under a tent-like formation of netted food covers.

Once again, the boys wouldn't bother and food would go to waste.

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So I started making up plates for everyone and putting them straight in the fridge, and writing everyone's names on them so they just had to heat them up and eat them.

But this took up a lot of room in the fridge, and didn't work with food items like salads and sides of fruit.

So I was using a combination of all of the above when I walked into Kmart this weekend and saw the Anko 3 Station Buffet.

I bought one immediately for just $59 and used it for the first time last night. It worked perfectly.

I made chicken Cacciatore, rice and baked potatoes. I wouldn't normally make baked potatoes for this meal, but I really wanted three dishes to put in each of the three stations.

The cord wasn't as long as we would have liked but once we plugged it in, we were able to keep the food hot and covered and ready for whenever everyone was ready for dinner.

Making this product even more brilliant, each of the stations can be taken off the stand and placed in the fridge.

We put all the leftovers in one station and put it on the bottom shelf of the fridge, perfect leftovers for the next day.

It has truly transformed our dinner routine which I had been struggling to figure out for so long after we all got so busy and started running on completely different schedules.

I would never have thought to buy it had it not been in Kmart, but it turns out there are other versions of this product, which I highly recommend for families like mine.

And how perfect would they be for Christmas and family get togethers?

Big W sells its own version, a Food Warmer Buffet Electric Server for $79.99 and they sell larger ones via Big W Market as well as round, individual food warming devices for those who prefer the versatility of single-device set ups, from $69.99.

Kogan also has a $59.99 three tray food station which can also be used as a flat buffet food warmer for items like bread and skewers and finger foods.

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Or, if you don't want to commit to purchasing one and prefer to hire them for Christmas and other family events, you can do so via websites like French Affair Hire starting at $22 each.

Tonight I am planning to make pasta for dinner and am so excited to put the pasta in one dish, the meatballs in another and for the third I'll probably put in some bread.

All I need now is something that holds salad and keeps it fresh for later in the evening.

For now, this Anko 3 Station Buffet has seriously opened up a whole new world of dinner ideas for me and I have the added comfort of knowing my efforts won't go to waste and all of my busy household members will get a nice hot meal at the end of the day.

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