Sep

Nine Money Saving Kitchen Appliances

Today I’m at home sick with either a cold or allergies…either way I can’t breath but my nose is running and I feel like a garden gnome is having a rave in my head…as if Monday’s weren’t bad enough right. I do get to catch up with my Google Reader, and the never ending feeds that always pile up as I have no time to get to them. The bright side.

Pursuing my personal finance feed I ran across a great article about 9 Money Saving Reasons to Buy a Food Dehydrator by Alex Wayne from WiseBread. Great article outlining the various ways you can save money on food by using a food dehydrator. Including making beef jerky and potpourri at home. Check out Alex’s site DehydratorBook for more great ideas!

While reading about ways to save money using a food dehydrator, I started to wonder what other kitchen appliances out there saved money and here is what I found…

Food Saver
You’ve undoubtedly seen the infomercials for this one. Thefood saver is a cool contraption that shrink wraps leftovers and whole dishes to be safely saved for later. This can save tons of money by saving leftovers that you may not want to eat the same week. Just zip em up in the food saver and you can freeze them without worry of freezer burn for months and months!

Crock Pot
Crock pots or slow cookers are awesome! I use mine at least once a week so I don’t feel like I have to cook. If you lead a busy lifestyle with a hectic schedule this is the perfect dual purpose appliance for you! Heh, I sound like Billy Mays, RIP.

Just defrost you meats the night before in the fridge, then add all your ingredients to your crock pot in the morning before you set out for the day and by the time you get home you’ve got a warm ready meal already finished and waiting for you. I love to make soups, stews, roasts, chilis, chicken dishes, ribs, and even macaroni and cheese!

Always freeze those leftovers for a great meal on another night or revamp the leftovers into a brand new dish.

Coffee Maker

Skip Starbucks! Yup, I said it. Don’t even settle for McCafe either. The biggest money waster in society today is take out coffee! Not mention all those plastic, paper, and styrofoam cups end up in the trash and later the landfills.

Spend the equivalent of one Starbucks coffee on a whole weeks worth of brewed at home coffee. Shoot, invest in an espresso machine if you really need that double shot!

Bread Machine

Here we go again with the processed, pre-made item we can easily make at home. Pre-made bread in the grocery store costs anywhere from $.99-$6.00/loaf. You name make a dozen loaves at home for that much money and you can ad any ingredients you want! Make all the artesian breads you want, you can even go gluten free or low carb.

Try jalapeño and cheese, garlic herb, cinnamon raisin, cranberry, even made desert breads like zucchini,carrot, and spice!

Rice Cooker

Just like popcorn, beans, and grains, rice is cheapest in it’s raw form. Use a rice cooker and get the same fluffy rice you get with the instant stuff for just pennies!

Popcorn Maker

Orville Redenbacher is $3-4 a box, but a bag of raw popcorn is $1 or less a bag. You can even buy raw popcorn in bulk at the health food store or the heal food section of the grocery store. If you’re into popcorn or watching your fat intake this is a great option.

You can even cheat and take a bag to the movie theater to save on concessions…sshh, don’t tell anyone I told you!

Freezer

The freezer is my best tool. I often freeze my huge couponing hauls and keep stocked up all year on items like meets, cheeses, butter, Pillsbury rolls, frozen veggies, frozen fruits, ice cream, pizzas, you name it I have found it cheap or free and popped it in the freezer!

Rotisserie

Think about it, how often do you see a sale for whole fryer chickens on sale for $.79/lb vs the $5.00 ready made rotisserie chickens? How much does the rotisserie chicken at Boston Market go for? If you’ve got a store coupon on top of a dynamite sale like this then it’s likely you know how play this game and your freezer is already stocked with whole chickens. I know I’ve already got a couple!

Like everything else, save money by making restaurant quality food at home! Simple and fast, Just skewer a whole chicken on the spit, season with a little seasoned salt and poultry seasoning and let the rotisserie do the work.

What did I miss? How do you save money in the kitchen?