10 Ways To Spend Less Preparing Food
You can save money planning your meals and shopping carefully. You can also save money in the kitchen by cooking and storing food economically to reduce your electricity and gas bills.
- Make The Most of The Oven’s Heat. Oven share – When you have the oven on to cook a meal or do some baking, consider what else could share the oven. You may decide to have baked potatoes and roasted vegetables instead of boiled. Or make some scones or bake a cake.
- Get Steamed Up. Steaming vegetables helps to keep its vitamins and saves energy if you place a steamer over boiling potatoes, or pasta, as you will save on using another hob
- Turn It Off. Make use of residual heat by turning off the hob or the oven a few minutes before the end of cooking time. The food will carry on cooking. You only need to actually boil an egg for just one minute, then turn off the heat. Find out more here.
- Don’t Overfill Your Kettle. Only boil the amount of water you need in your kettle. Measure it out if you can, so you don’t boil water, only for it to go cold again
- A Full Freezer Is An Efficient Freezer A full freezer uses less electricity than an empty one. Stock up on bread and freezable food, that has been discounted towards the end of the day. Make ice, or even fill a plastic bottle with water to freeze to fill gaps (leave some room in the bottle for expansion).
- Overnight Fridge Defrosting Frozen food that defrosts in the fridge, keeps your fridge cool and saves on using the microwave to defrost. So when you need something defrosting, put it the fridge the night before.
- Cook One Pot Meals. One pot meals are easy to prepare and only use one source of energy whether on the hob or in the oven – saves on washing up too! Try Lentil And Vegetable Casserole
- Use A Saucepan The Size of The Hob Ring. Otherwise heat is wasted. And put a lid on it to stop heat escaping.
- Don’t Put Warm Food In The Fridge Or Freezer. It will raise the temperature and the fridge or freezer will need extra energy to lower it again. Make sure food is completely cool before freezing or putting in the fridge. Speed up the process by putting the food in a plastic container, and stand it in a bowl of cold water
- Cook Double – Freeze Half. Cook twice the amount you need and divide the rest into portion sizes to freeze. It uses less energy to reheat than to cook from scratch, helps to keep your freezer full and you can defrost overnight in the fridge. And you always have ready meals in the freezer for when you have no time or are too tired to cook!
For lots of low cost and easy meal ideas see Penny’s Recipes. Sign up for the newsletter and get a free Meal Plan – 7 family meals for less than £30
Happy Cooking!
Written by Penny on January 27th, 2012
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How People Are Trapped By Payday Loans
We recently conducted a survey about borrowing over the last 12months. Below is an infographic to highlight the growing number of people that are turning to payday loans.
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Written by Gemma on January 25th, 2012
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Is your mortgage your top priority?
Regardless of your financial situation if you have your own home with a mortgage it should always be your priority to pay it above all other debts. If you are in debt and owe money to many different lenders you will probably have experienced creditors chasing you for money.
Chasing from unsecured lenders is often different from secured lenders. Unsecured lenders have a faster process and when a debtor misses a payment, or makes a reduced payment, they will begin chasing procedures straight away.
Secured lenders, on the other hand, commonly take longer to process missed payments and are usually less active with their chasing for the missing payments. It is usually because of this that debtors find it less hassle if they pay their unsecured creditors over their mortgage.
If you are experiencing financial difficulty, here at Payplan we would always advise that you pay all of your priority payments first and with then share any left-over funds between your creditors. If you need assistance then please speak to a trained debt specialist for free and impartial advice.
Written by Gemma on January 25th, 2012
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Does the class system apply in debt?
A myth with debt is that it only happens to people in the lowest socioeconomic groups in society, but it is little more than a myth. It has become apparent in the last few years that debt affects everyone regardless of class or background.
I have previously discussed an ePetition that was set up to get Financial Education into schools to help the next generation try and avoid the situations that the current generation find themselves in. in actually fact financial education wouldn’t solve everything as many find themselves in unaffordable debt due to something happening that is out of their control.
Before the recession hit in 2009, many were able to borrow more freely as they had regular incomes, whether they were employed or self-employed. They were able to meet the monthly outgoings as well as paying their credit commitments.
As the recession hit lots of self-employed people found themselves struggling to make ends meet as business became harder and harder. Many bigger businesses also struggled during this time with thousands of people, in different professions, finding themselves without a job after being made redundant.
As people’s incomes disappeared and credit sources dried up, those who had previously been living comfortably suddenly found themselves with nowhere to turn. This happened to people from all walks of life and backgrounds.
Does this sound familiar to you? We want to hear how you coped.
Written by Gemma on January 23rd, 2012
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