@Jarred DonalsonYeah I think you're right.

A quart of regular milk is about 1 Euro, grass-fed organic milk is 1.10 - the difference is very small. (1 Euro = roughly 1.1 USD) Here in Milwaukee I pay about about $7 for for a 2 quart container grass-fed.

Glass jars, food containers from takeout places, bags, clothing repurposed into rags, etc.

But how about a cheap plastic pourover cone and some No. 2 cone filters for it, a little hand burr grinder, a gooseneck teakettle, the timer on the microwave, a cheap digital scale, and two bucks in Trader Joe's medium roast whole beans in a little fancy-schmancy jar?

@Jarred Goldberg - did you make any decisions here?

At no time did she have less than 10 jars (glass) of mayonnaise, mustard caned tuna and so on.  

For example, there is a Keurig coffee machine - should they share the cost of the coffee pods via an honor system jar? 

Plus, since there are more hands in the cookie jar, your returns will be lower than on the whole notes you’ll eventually want to own on your own, as a goal.

Because of the element of surprise and finding the hand clearly in the cookie jar, I believe the discussion can be very much open and you remain in control, as you should be.

Kitchen: New cabinets (but not at big box stores), New custom counters (granite or quarts), New floors and likely new or newer appliances.Bathrooms: Cosmetic updates to total gut depending on how old they are.New Carpet and Hardwoods as needed.Interior and exterior painting as needed.Landscape within budgetBuy and HoldsDon't open walls except where no header is required as needed.Keep cabinets in kitchens and bathrooms unless damaged.