Feeding your family budget-friendly meals is only one facet of saving money in the vegan kitchen. Here are seven money-saving kitchen tips, ranging from energy-efficiency to buying in bulk.
Feeding your family budget-friendly meals is only one facet of saving money in the vegan kitchen. Here are seven money-saving kitchen tips, ranging from energy-efficiency to buying in bulk.
1. Shut the fridge
How often do you stand in front of the refrigerator or freezer wondering what to fix for dinner? Every time you open the fridge, you’re letting cold air escape and more so when you hold the door open. Your refrigerator and freezer then have to work even harder (aka waste energy) to get cold again.
2. Use a pressure cooker
You can make many one-pot meals with a pressure cooker. Not only does pressure cooking save you time with its super-quick cooking, it also helps cut down the energy usage in the kitchen.
>>Pressure Cooker Vegetable Pasta Soup
3. Slow cook, slow cook, slow cook
Slow cookers are another energy-saving kitchen gadget that will save you time and money. Like the pressure cooker, you can cook just about anything in a slow cooker. However, an advantage the slow cooker has over the pressure cooker is that you can fill it up and walk away. A pressure cooker needs constant attention, but, keep in mind, it only takes a fraction of the time to cook meals.
>>Slow Cooker Kidney Bean Curry
4. Buy generics
You’ve heard this for medications, but it’s often true for food products, too. Buy generic versions of your kitchen staples, always checking first to make sure they are truly less expensive.
5. Bulk up
Since you likely frequent a natural foods store, stock up on dry goods, like grains, beans, nuts, and dried fruit, in the bulk department. Bulk items are usually cheaper because you aren’t paying for packaging.
6. Eat seasonally
Wonder why those imported grapes are a whopping $5 per pound? Because they weren’t grown anywhere near your backyard and you’re paying for their transportation costs. Eat foods grown locally and in season since they are nearly always less pricey than imported produce items.
>>Plenty of our favorite vegan recipes to inspire seasonal cooking!
7. Make meal planning a priority
Planning your meals will not only take the stress of out the daily question “What’s for dinner?”, it will also keep you from wasting gas money and time running to the market multiple times during the week, and it will keep you from throwing away perishable foods you bought without an actual meal in mind.
>>5 Ways to really save time in the kitchen
What are some of your top money-saving kitchen secrets? Let us know below!
More vegan lifestyle tips!
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