Kitchen Appliances That Save You Money

Top 5 Money Saving Small Kitchen Appliances

These days we are all trying to save time and money when buying groceries and cooking for our families. There are several ways to achieve this and one way is by having helpful small kitchen appliances. This is certainly not an exhaustive list of things that should go in the frugal kitchen, but these are my top 5.

1. Freezer

So it's not a small appliance but certainly at the top of the list, a freezer can help you save money by allowing you to stock up on items when they are on sale or purchase items in bulk at a lower price. Some things will go directly in the freezer; others will get a little prep work first. Most of the items I have in my freezer save me money in some way. Of course meat is the main tenant, but don’t forget about other perishables that can be frozen such as butter and cheese. Also stored in my freezer are some nonperishables that just seem to stay a little fresher if stored in the freezer (flour, coffee, etc). Now, don’t think that you have to go out and buy a brand new freezer. If you have the money for it great, if not check your local newspaper, yard sales, secondhand stores, or even some websites such as craigslist and ebay. where you can often find a decent freezer for not a lot of money. Having a well stocked freezer will also save you time in the kitchen by allowing you to make your own convenience foods which will also in turn save you money too. For example when I brown ground beef for tacos, I will brown 2 pounds instead and 1 and put the extra pound in the freezer. So the next time I am going to make tacos the meat is already cooked and seasoned. All I have to do is thaw it and heat it. Talk about convenient!

2. Bread machine

Before I bought my first bread machine I never wanted one, but now that I have one I would never want to do without it. I do not buy store bought bread, at all, never! I make all of our bread in my bread machine. Now, honestly there is no way that I would make our daily bread if I did not have a bread machine. It takes me all of less than 5 minutes to put everything into the bread pan and start it. 3 hours later I have a delicious loaf of fresh baked bread. You just can’t beat that. In my bread machine I also make things like raisin bread for a quick and easy breakfast for my hubby, pizza dough and dough for homemade hamburger buns. Bread machines can be purchased fairly cheap new, but of course can also be found at yard sales and secondhand stores.

3. Stand mixer

I have had my KitchenAid stand mixer for over 8 years now. I use it all the time and have more than gotten my money’s worth from it. Before I bought my bread machine I used it frequently to make bread. Now I use it mostly for making other baked goods like cookies, cakes, etc. Stand mixers are quite a bit more heavy duty than regular hand mixers so you can easily mix thick doughs and batters with it. My stand mixer saves me money by allowing me to easily prepare items that I could not make with a hand mixer and would therefore end up buying them instead of making them. Also, I like the convenience of being able to turn it on then walk away for a second to do something like put away ingredients that have been used. In this way, my mixer saves me time in the kitchen.

4. Toaster oven

I use my toaster oven for much more than just making toast. Mine is a large oven with a convection baking option. I often will use my toaster oven to bake things like meatloaf, chicken or a small roast. By using a small toaster oven for baking these things you will obviously not have to heat up your large oven which will save you money on both your baking and your cooling costs in the summer.

5. Microwave

The microwave can be used to quickly defrost things from the freezer. Sometimes it’s frozen chicken that needs to be cooked for dinner and sometimes it’s a loaf of bread that you made with your bread machine. Regardless, the microwave speeds defrosting and cooking times which will save you both time and money in your frugal kitchen.