The crockpot or slow cooker is a frugal person’s best friend. With this little unassuming device, you can really save money. If you don’t have a crockpot yet, I trongly suggest that you purchase one as soon as you can (Used is fine. My best crockpot was bought at a local thrift store). Then get some good recipes and fire it up to save.
Here are five great ways that a crockpot will save you money.
1. It makes it easier to prepare dinner. Throwing a few ingredients into the crockpot in the morning before work, school or family obligations is not hard at all. Many recipes even allow you to load up the crock the night before. Then just pull it out of the refrigerator, place it in the pot and turn it on. How does this save money? Having an easy dinner prepared means that you aren’t spending money on eating out or convenience foods.
2. It uses simple and cheap ingredients. With a crockpot you get slow cooking. And slow cooking tenderizes even the toughest cuts of meat. Because of this fact, you can by less expensive cuts and still have an amazing meal. Most recipes are one pot meals, and as such they usually use simple basic ingredients that not only work well together but are inexpensive.
3. It makes it easy to entertain. Using a crockpot will help you entertain on a budget. Instead of having food catered, make it up in the crockpot, which will not only cook it but keep it warm as well. You can really save some big bucks here. Look for a cookbook specifically for this purpose, such as Fix It or Forget it Entertaining.
4. It makes freezer cooing easy. Because the cooking steps are so easy when using a crockpot, you can easily double or triple your recipe, cook it all up and freeze the rest to reheat at for another meal. You can also assemble your own ready to cook crockpot meals and freeze them, so it is simply a matter of popping it from the freezer and into the crockpot. Remember to cut down on your spices when freezing.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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