Eating Healthy on A Tight Budget: 6 Ways to Make Your Groceries Stretch (4 of 4)

Save Money with Energy Efficient Cooking

Cooking methods can also impact you moneywise, not just your diet. Microwaves and pressure cookers can use less energy and lower your utility bills. Slow cookers are also economical and great for batch cooking healthy options like curries or stews.

When using the oven, maximize its efficiency by batch preparing multiple dishes at once, like fish, veggies, or potato wedges. Batch cooking can yield leftovers for the next few days and require less energy costs overall. You can even switch the oven off for about ten minutes early and let the residual heat still in the oven to finish the job. This works great for dishes like roasted veggies or casseroles.

On the stovetop, you can also use pans to help speed up cooking, and only boil as much water as you actually need. If you have extra hot water, store it for use at a later time. These small adjustments can head to much noticeable savings over time.