Today's post was a toss-up between this and a truffle tutorial. I figure that the truly frugal thing to do with truffles is a) go on a diet, or b) have someone buy them for you. But don't worry, the tutorial is still in my Drafts folder waiting for a non-frugal Friday.
One of the questions I wanted to answer in this series was "what is the cheapest way to cook?"
This is a little infographic I put together.
It's important to take into account how much energy we're using when cooking frugally.
If you're going to turn on the oven for an hour, why not bake a few things instead of one?
Also, financially it probably doesn't make sense to have a ton of little specialized appliances lying around. 1) You have to purchase, clean, and store the appliance. 2) According to my research, it's not any cheaper to use a specialized appliance than it is to use, say, and oven or stove. I, for one, tend to collect "cool" little appliances, so this is a lesson to myself.
Isn't it cool that a slow cooker only costs $0.03 per hour to use? And that's on the "high" setting! There are a ton of oven-converted-crockpot recipes out there to try. Instead of using $0.50 to bake some potatoes, you could use a crock pot and do it for $0.12. Or use a microwave and spend $0.01 (if you like them kinda crusty/hard).
What is your favorite cooking appliance?
Homemade truffles might be considered frugal for valentines day....I personally bought a jumbo bag of peppermint patty marshmallows (which were pink and white) on clearance after Christmas, then dipped them in chocolate....BAM! Valentine's day for less than $5.
ReplyDeleteLove my slow cooker. In fact I have a 7 qt., 4 qt. and a "little dipper". Yes, you need all those sizes! Especially if you are going to do a whole meal's worth, even dessert!
Sweetness! I'll bet the mint/chocolate combo was really good. Bonus to you for finding them pink and white.
DeleteMmm dessert in a crock pot! Gotta try that one!