[Rebecca]

Hello lovely community members!

As promised - here is the weekly money saving tip.

One of the biggest increases from speaking to other members on here, as well as in general conversation with neighbors, friends and family - is the rise in the cost of food.

So how can we make our food go further?

One thing is reducing food waste. This can be hard to do when you live alone - but batch cooking and freezing unused items really can tackle food waste (and it also helps the environment).

A lot of people do not know you can freeze bread and milk!

If you are a family and cooking is for more than one person - these cheap family recipes from BBC Good Food are great! Click here to see!

If you live alone, here are some fabulous cheap 30 minute recipes for a meal for one! Even better, cooking is a way to unwind and relax after a busy day and can be calming. Click here to see!

Quick tips on how to save money when cooking:

- Using a slow cooker or air fryer significantly helps save on your energy costs.

- Batch cooking (no matter if you live alone or are part of a family - batch cooking really does help save money and time). You will have less food waste - and then, the batches you freeze will free up time cooking for the future! WIN WIN!

- Turn the oven off for the last few minutes of cooking - it will still retain the heat it needs to cook for the last few minutes, and will save £££ in the long run.

- Write out a meal list for the week and only purchase food that make up those recipes as well as the regular groceries you pick up. That saves spending on unnecessary items.

Please share your tips below, however small or big - it will help all of us as the months go on, where saving energy as the weather gets colder will be more important than ever. 👇🤗

[Dave2912]

>- Using a slow cooker or air fryer significantly helps save on your energy costs.

As a guide, I have been using a smart plug to test useage on a few things around the house.


My slow cooker (Crockpot express multicooker) - 4 hours High, 3 hours Keep warm = 0.51kwh used

Same Crockpot on Pressure cook for 20 minutes, with the Air fryer on for 20 minutes = 0.48kwh used

(I have not used my oven in years)


I use my Crockpot to batch cook, so i will make 3 days worth of curry, or stew etc, that is .51kwh for three meals, plus the cost of microwaving

But another money saver.... The rice? I "cook" it in a thermos flask :')

Lunchtime, boil a kettle to make tea or something. Fill the thermos with hot water and put the lid on and give it 5 minutes to warm the thermos. Pour that water out (use it to make your cup of tea)... put 1 cup of rice, and 2 cups of boiling water in the thermos.. seal it.. come back 5 hours later.. your rice is cooked perfectly and has cost nothing essentially as you were boiling the kettle anyway for tea :D

You can cook a surprising number of things in a thermos just using hot water. Pasta, takes about 30 minutes to get to where I like it.. Vegetables, I double the time it would take on the hob.

You can get "food thermos" flasks which are basically a wider neck so easier to put things in.



No good for families obviously, but if you are single or a couple, they are great for stuff like rice, vegetables. Essentially act as a mini slow cooker but with the residual heat from the flask

[Rebecca]

@Dave2912 - This stuff is GREAT - I really enjoyed reading your response there and I know the rest of the community will have also! The more tips the better. This winter is going to be hard for everyone and the more we can post and chat about to help one another the better! Feel free to post anything you like and post a thread/blog piece of your own Dave by clicking here - it will then show up on the latest discussions board on the home page 😀