Has anyone got experience with the cost of cooking on a tabletop cooker

zafiro1984

Has anyone got any experience of a small, possibly tabletop cooker. I have been looking at the cost of 'cooking' and realise I may be able to save money if I changed the way I cook.
We are a household of 2 people both retired (thats a laugh) During the winter I cook on a wood fired range - wood is free, freezing quite a lot of dishes for the summer, I also make and freeze uncooked biscuits, cakes etc. However, during the summer I need to reheat or cook things from the freezer. Not everything turns out well in a microwave and the only cooker I can use in the summer is a large electric one. The cost is quite prohibative for just a batch of cookies, and yes, I know about filling up the cooker to get the best value but it isn't always practical to do this. Does anyone know of a small - cheap to run electric cooker - possibly tabletop but not essentially so. I've been looking around but can't find much.
Does anyone have any experience of the running costs of this type of cooker.

M.E.

Our secondhand oven went pop after 30 years of its existance and I've not got round to getting another ordinary cooker. That was ten years ago!

We had a small table top cooker (originally for a caravan). We still have that cooker, plus another similar one, that was MIL's. They sit on a wooden trolley in the kitchen.

To be honest I'm happy with the set up. When we got rid of the old [STRIKE]dead [/STRIKE]cooker and almost at the same time bought a fridge freezer that went in the gap intended for the cooker we preferred having the space in the kitchen freed up from where the old fridge had been.

I have a gas hob and a slow cooker, plus microwave.. and can easily cook a meal for six. Can't cook a turkey but we don't eat turkey anyway. A large chicken goes in the slow cooker.

The only down side is that I can't cook more than two lots of six buns as the ovens only take small baking trays. I can cook a pizza but not a huge one, just the "normal" size.

SnowBelle_2

Hi,
have you looked at Halogen Cookers?
I have seen on these boards that quite a few people have them and I think there are a few around on offer at the moment.
But I can't tell you about running costs I'm afraid,but if it's on MSE it's usually good!

culpepper

We are using a combination microwave,convection,grill as our full sized cooker broke ages ago(last year I think).
We have a big slow cooker,toaster,bread maker and sandwich toaster too.
I can get a chicken in the micro and this xmas we had a turkey as usual but I just cut it in half and cooked half in the micro cooker and half in the slow cooker.
Have also got the hob .
I imagine the running cost would rely on the kw per hour rating of the cooker.

zafiro1984

Thanks everyone, I went out and bought a mini oven from Argos that has four and a half stars on 56 reviews, hopefully it will fill the bill. 1500 watts so it shouldn't be prohibative to run, I've been watching the 'energy thing' on the windowsill whilst its been on and it doesn't soar half as high as when I put the big cooker on. This pm I've been sorting out my oven dishes as not all will fit, in fact, very few will fit, not to worry, my portion sizes are too large according to my daughter, so think possitive - maybe I'll lose weight. I've already cooked some pre frozen biscuit dough and I'm just doing a quiche base.