Frugal fuel tips

fatbelly

Spendless said:

 He then grumbled to the dog about me and got a blanket. Thought it was women who were meant to be a PITA about heating! 

He should have asked the dog for advice

Nonnadiluca

I'd ask him what, of his personal things like beer, hobbies etc he is going to give up to pay for the extra heating. After all, you can only spend it once!

catz4m8z

Turned the heating off yesterday, hopefully it can stay off now! I was only heating 1 room anyways (thermostat set to 16C) but with fleecey PJs and a big thick Oodie I dont think I need it. 
It does mean that I have to potter round the house in my PJs but TBH that is my go to wardrobe...I only really get dressed to walk the dogs or pop to the shops!LOL

Cherryfudge

Our heating's been off so far today, too. It's so nice having milder weather! It's a bit breezy, so there's a line full of washing too.

Now, I've just bought a multi cooker with a view to reducing cooking costs but when I searched the forum, I can't find and recent threads about using them. This one is an 'Instant Pot' 5.5 litre model but I wondered what people have to say about multi cookers in general. What functions do people use most? Any tips, tricks or hints gratefully received please!

Doom_and_Gloom

I have 2 multi cookers.
One doesn't have a pressuer cooker function and mostly gets used for rice/potatoes, grains such as quinoa, porridge and cakes on the cake function. I rarely use its slow cooker setting. 
The one with a pressure cooker function is a PKP - cooks my dry beans (after soaking) , I make stews and curries in it using the stew/soup setting, pasta meals with the pasta setting, steaming vegetables with steam setting. I love that it has a fry function so you can fry off onions etc in it before using another function without the need of the hob and transferring. 

Cherryfudge

Doom_and_Gloom said:

I have 2 multi cookers.
One doesn't have a pressuer cooker function and mostly gets used for rice/potatoes, grains such as quinoa, porridge and cakes on the cake function. I rarely use its slow cooker setting. 
The one with a pressure cooker function is a PKP - cooks my dry beans (after soaking) , I make stews and curries in it using the stew/soup setting, pasta meals with the pasta setting, steaming vegetables with steam setting. I love that it has a fry function so you can fry off onions etc in it before using another function without the need of the hob and transferring. 

I can see myself using it for casseroles and chicken, and also using the yogurt making function (I've failed on homemade yogurt a few times). I think it dry-fries as well so there might be chips one day.

CCW007

I've just bought a Ninja Foodi and so far used the air fryer (very quick), pressure cooker (quicker to get to pressure than my stove top PC), slow cook and bake functions.  The fact it can saute first is better than my stand-alone slow cooker which can saute but is not induction compatible and we bought an induction cooker after we got the slow cooker. 

Baking uses a lot less power than main oven and doesn't need pre-heating.  Air fryer is pretty quick.  Downside is that it's a smaller capacity than the halogen oven it is replacing, however it hasn't caused an issue so far.  It can do as many chips on the air fryer setting as the halogen oven, just needs a few shakes throughout the process..

Upside compared to the halogen is the cooking pot - I used to use either square dishes or smaller round dishes in the halogen as you need space to get the pan dish out so lose some capacity.  You just lift the whole pot out in the Ninja.

Haven't tried the steam or grill functions yet,

CCW007

Bought a (second hand) hob top kettle to use on the woodburner and made a casserole on the woodburner yesterday.  Seems mad not to use the heat if it's lit.  Want to get hold of a trivet and try baking potatoes on top of it next!

linz

Just been for a walk to a big field with wooded area near me and filled a rucksack and bag for life with fallen branches. Stuck them in the shed to dry out. I think i'll be doing this more often now, stockpiling for next autumn & winter.

ccluedo

Genuine question to the people without log burners and minimum/no heating and using heated blankets, sleeping bags, hot water bottles etc....

What do you do when friends and family come over....whether expected or not?