Prepping for the challenge ahead...

Effician

Longwalker said:

Effician said:

Longwalker said:

Effician said:

Floss said:

bouicca21 said:

... The question then is, how long would it take to recoup the cost of buying the air fryer?  For me probably years if I bought the cheap one that they discussed, and more like decades for the super pricey Ninjas.

I have had my larger airfryer for 3 months and have only had my top oven on once & the main oven once in that time. It is on for less time at a lower temp than the bigger ovens and as I'm now off my fix I am happy to use less electricity.

The problem with air fryer comparisons is that almost always they are only compared to full sized ovens to make the case for time & energy savings. As a very low energy user at under 3Kwh / day ( electric only with log burner for winter heat, no solar ) , 2 of us in all day & having at least one hot meal a day there are plenty of options apart from an air fryer to save on cooking bills.

Don't get me wrong i have an actifry genius air fryer & some foods it does well & fairly cheaply but it doesn't save much money at all & will probably take some considerable time to pay for itself even though it was bought cheaply s/h, it was as much to do with experimenting with different ways to cook foods & see what all the fuss was about.

When buying it i didn't expect to make great savings anyway as cooking was close to the top of the list when we started modifying our energy usage with the help of the new smart meter & in home display , this enabled us to see exactly what the cooking costs were using various methods & portion sizes. Very anoraky i know & it's taken a few months of learning & monitoring to make this a habit while making very little difference to lifestyle but the current & potential savings from this little exercise will be in the many thousands of pounds over the coming years.

When the kids and grandkids come stay ( which is quite often ) the oven is on constant, for me its the easiest ways to cook for up to 12, wanting different, at once as stress free as possible 

Maybe its not going to save me a fortune - well lets face it it wont but its saving me a lot of time as well, last nights dinner for 3, cooked and served in 12 mins and very little hot water required to wash up

Our herd is not quite as large as yours but there really is an economy of scale, 2 or 3x homemade 900g pizza & 2+kg of fresh chips  work out far cheaper & easier using the proper oven & deep fat fryer .( grandkids wont eat air fryer chips anyway , only G'dads magic chips from the small commercial deep fat fryer)

For me & Mrs E last night we had sausage & onions done in the AF which make great hotdogs, tasty & a very little to clean up, similar cost to the induction hob though but tastier in my opinion with less attention needed ( set time/heat & wait for ping as the paddle does the stirring).

Whatever the outcome, savings wise, Im more then happy with my purchase - apart from air fried chips . Ive used it for steak, whole chicken, sausages, HM goujons, HM Chicken Tikka masala , jckt spuds, as well as heating up sausage rolls and pasties

Been a god send in this weather as well, kitchen stays cool. Plus usually after I cook curry, the house will smell for a day or even two ( unless I get the filters out of the extractor and scrub them ) and whilst there was curry smell last night - gone today - result

Sounds nice & a good variety with less hassle, win win.

It's been a strange last 3 years for us what with Mrs E retiring early, covid  & now inflation , we've found that mealtimes have become something of a chore ( lock downs were the worst) , not just thinking of what to make but also buying  food / cooking it economically & also having different & tasty meals.

I used to bake quite a lot but i overdid that in lock downs ,we started to tire of too much pastry based foods & not good for the waistlines . anyhoo after a long break from oven baking Mrs E is now starting to hint at me starting again just as electric prices are set to rocket again, unfortunately baking in the actifry is a none starter really so back on Fb market place & I'm now the owner of a second airfryer , a Cosori 5.5l with 6 piece accessory set new & unused for under half of shop price.

After a check over to see how the thing worked i made a quick 170g x4 esff pound cake mix , lined the cake tin ( from accessory pack ) with baking parchment , poured in mix & cooked for 30 mins at 190c monitored the electric use at 0.35kwh at completion. As a first attempt i was really pleased, an acceptable cake at a low cooking cost, lost more things to now try out, i have a bad feeling about our waistlines now.

-taff

So I had a look at some air fryers to see if anything would be suitable for us. After a bit of pondering about which one would be better, I thought, hang on, I don't actually use the oven that much for anything really. The big oven  usually for a roast, which happens rarely, the top oven occasionally, but mostly, I use saucepans on the hob, either making curries, or chuck togethers, or soup, pasta, rice, frying the odd thing, grilling chops etc.

Is the food you cook in these things things that normally go in the oven?

Effician

-taff said:

 I use saucepans on the hob, either making curries, or chuck togethers, or soup, pasta, rice, frying the odd thing, grilling chops etc.

Is the food you cook in these things things that normally go in the oven?

Like you we tend to use the hob most whether it be pressure cooking or for most of what you mention , things i find the air fryer does well is chicken portions, spare ribs, sausages , jacket pots, cakes & probably  meat pies (i expect when i have a go), i'm sure as i experiment more i'll find other things but basically at the mo it is oven based foods with a few other options.

Longwalker

Effician said:

Longwalker said:

Effician said:

Longwalker said:

Effician said:

Floss said:

bouicca21 said:

... The question then is, how long would it take to recoup the cost of buying the air fryer?  For me probably years if I bought the cheap one that they discussed, and more like decades for the super pricey Ninjas.

I have had my larger airfryer for 3 months and have only had my top oven on once & the main oven once in that time. It is on for less time at a lower temp than the bigger ovens and as I'm now off my fix I am happy to use less electricity.

The problem with air fryer comparisons is that almost always they are only compared to full sized ovens to make the case for time & energy savings. As a very low energy user at under 3Kwh / day ( electric only with log burner for winter heat, no solar ) , 2 of us in all day & having at least one hot meal a day there are plenty of options apart from an air fryer to save on cooking bills.

Don't get me wrong i have an actifry genius air fryer & some foods it does well & fairly cheaply but it doesn't save much money at all & will probably take some considerable time to pay for itself even though it was bought cheaply s/h, it was as much to do with experimenting with different ways to cook foods & see what all the fuss was about.

When buying it i didn't expect to make great savings anyway as cooking was close to the top of the list when we started modifying our energy usage with the help of the new smart meter & in home display , this enabled us to see exactly what the cooking costs were using various methods & portion sizes. Very anoraky i know & it's taken a few months of learning & monitoring to make this a habit while making very little difference to lifestyle but the current & potential savings from this little exercise will be in the many thousands of pounds over the coming years.

When the kids and grandkids come stay ( which is quite often ) the oven is on constant, for me its the easiest ways to cook for up to 12, wanting different, at once as stress free as possible 

Maybe its not going to save me a fortune - well lets face it it wont but its saving me a lot of time as well, last nights dinner for 3, cooked and served in 12 mins and very little hot water required to wash up

Our herd is not quite as large as yours but there really is an economy of scale, 2 or 3x homemade 900g pizza & 2+kg of fresh chips  work out far cheaper & easier using the proper oven & deep fat fryer .( grandkids wont eat air fryer chips anyway , only G'dads magic chips from the small commercial deep fat fryer)

For me & Mrs E last night we had sausage & onions done in the AF which make great hotdogs, tasty & a very little to clean up, similar cost to the induction hob though but tastier in my opinion with less attention needed ( set time/heat & wait for ping as the paddle does the stirring).

Whatever the outcome, savings wise, Im more then happy with my purchase - apart from air fried chips . Ive used it for steak, whole chicken, sausages, HM goujons, HM Chicken Tikka masala , jckt spuds, as well as heating up sausage rolls and pasties

Been a god send in this weather as well, kitchen stays cool. Plus usually after I cook curry, the house will smell for a day or even two ( unless I get the filters out of the extractor and scrub them ) and whilst there was curry smell last night - gone today - result

Sounds nice & a good variety with less hassle, win win.

It's been a strange last 3 years for us what with Mrs E retiring early, covid  & now inflation , we've found that mealtimes have become something of a chore ( lock downs were the worst) , not just thinking of what to make but also buying  food / cooking it economically & also having different & tasty meals.

I used to bake quite a lot but i overdid that in lock downs ,we started to tire of too much pastry based foods & not good for the waistlines . anyhoo after a long break from oven baking Mrs E is now starting to hint at me starting again just as electric prices are set to rocket again, unfortunately baking in the actifry is a none starter really so back on Fb market place & I'm now the owner of a second airfryer , a Cosori 5.5l with 6 piece accessory set new & unused for under half of shop price.

After a check over to see how the thing worked i made a quick 170g x4 esff pound cake mix , lined the cake tin ( from accessory pack ) with baking parchment , poured in mix & cooked for 30 mins at 190c monitored the electric use at 0.35kwh at completion. As a first attempt i was really pleased, an acceptable cake at a low cooking cost, lost more things to now try out, i have a bad feeling about our waistlines now.

The Cosori gets Best Buy from GF and one of the more prominent "influencers" on YouTube swears by hers

Glad you are happy with the cake. See now this is the thing, I had stopped baking myself because of the costs of using the oven. I used to bake every week on my day off as part of batch cooking for the week, and like you lockdown, shortages, price rises, have all impacted on the menu. I even stopped buying part cooked rolls which I always had in the house for stop gaps ( I prefer a crusty roll then a sandwich ) 

Tonight I made fish pie - the traditional way, two saucepans on the hob and then had to go out so left it down to them to reheat for their tea. Both have not listened to a word when Ive explained how to use the air fryer so whilst I was out the oven went on for 40mins and mother will only cook peas in a pan and boils them to death ( I nuke for 3 mins )

I will get my revenge tomorrow, pie in the Ninja and if they are really unlucky - Ninja chips lol

Working_Mum

Another vote for the Cosori - it is a lovely neat shape and doesn't take up any space on my work surface - I do all sorts in it and use it almost every day. My kids are much more adventurous than me with it and they love using it too.

Effician

Longwalker said:

Effician said:

Longwalker said:

Effician said:

Longwalker said:

Effician said:

Floss said:

bouicca21 said:

... The question then is, how long would it take to recoup the cost of buying the air fryer?  For me probably years if I bought the cheap one that they discussed, and more like decades for the super pricey Ninjas.

I have had my larger airfryer for 3 months and have only had my top oven on once & the main oven once in that time. It is on for less time at a lower temp than the bigger ovens and as I'm now off my fix I am happy to use less electricity.

The problem with air fryer comparisons is that almost always they are only compared to full sized ovens to make the case for time & energy savings. As a very low energy user at under 3Kwh / day ( electric only with log burner for winter heat, no solar ) , 2 of us in all day & having at least one hot meal a day there are plenty of options apart from an air fryer to save on cooking bills.

Don't get me wrong i have an actifry genius air fryer & some foods it does well & fairly cheaply but it doesn't save much money at all & will probably take some considerable time to pay for itself even though it was bought cheaply s/h, it was as much to do with experimenting with different ways to cook foods & see what all the fuss was about.

When buying it i didn't expect to make great savings anyway as cooking was close to the top of the list when we started modifying our energy usage with the help of the new smart meter & in home display , this enabled us to see exactly what the cooking costs were using various methods & portion sizes. Very anoraky i know & it's taken a few months of learning & monitoring to make this a habit while making very little difference to lifestyle but the current & potential savings from this little exercise will be in the many thousands of pounds over the coming years.

When the kids and grandkids come stay ( which is quite often ) the oven is on constant, for me its the easiest ways to cook for up to 12, wanting different, at once as stress free as possible 

Maybe its not going to save me a fortune - well lets face it it wont but its saving me a lot of time as well, last nights dinner for 3, cooked and served in 12 mins and very little hot water required to wash up

Our herd is not quite as large as yours but there really is an economy of scale, 2 or 3x homemade 900g pizza & 2+kg of fresh chips  work out far cheaper & easier using the proper oven & deep fat fryer .( grandkids wont eat air fryer chips anyway , only G'dads magic chips from the small commercial deep fat fryer)

For me & Mrs E last night we had sausage & onions done in the AF which make great hotdogs, tasty & a very little to clean up, similar cost to the induction hob though but tastier in my opinion with less attention needed ( set time/heat & wait for ping as the paddle does the stirring).

Whatever the outcome, savings wise, Im more then happy with my purchase - apart from air fried chips . Ive used it for steak, whole chicken, sausages, HM goujons, HM Chicken Tikka masala , jckt spuds, as well as heating up sausage rolls and pasties

Been a god send in this weather as well, kitchen stays cool. Plus usually after I cook curry, the house will smell for a day or even two ( unless I get the filters out of the extractor and scrub them ) and whilst there was curry smell last night - gone today - result

Sounds nice & a good variety with less hassle, win win.

It's been a strange last 3 years for us what with Mrs E retiring early, covid  & now inflation , we've found that mealtimes have become something of a chore ( lock downs were the worst) , not just thinking of what to make but also buying  food / cooking it economically & also having different & tasty meals.

I used to bake quite a lot but i overdid that in lock downs ,we started to tire of too much pastry based foods & not good for the waistlines . anyhoo after a long break from oven baking Mrs E is now starting to hint at me starting again just as electric prices are set to rocket again, unfortunately baking in the actifry is a none starter really so back on Fb market place & I'm now the owner of a second airfryer , a Cosori 5.5l with 6 piece accessory set new & unused for under half of shop price.

After a check over to see how the thing worked i made a quick 170g x4 esff pound cake mix , lined the cake tin ( from accessory pack ) with baking parchment , poured in mix & cooked for 30 mins at 190c monitored the electric use at 0.35kwh at completion. As a first attempt i was really pleased, an acceptable cake at a low cooking cost, lost more things to now try out, i have a bad feeling about our waistlines now.

Tonight I made fish pie - the traditional way, two saucepans on the hob and then had to go out so left it down to them to reheat for their tea. Both have not listened to a word when Ive explained how to use the air fryer so whilst I was out the oven went on for 40mins and mother will only cook peas in a pan and boils them to death ( I nuke for 3 mins )

I will get my revenge tomorrow, pie in the Ninja and if they are really unlucky - Ninja chips lol

I do love a fish pie though that's Mrs E's job, along with tuna casserole & cottage pie, will have to get her up to speed with the A/F.

Revenge is a dish best served with Ninja chips

Working_Mum said:

Another vote for the Cosori - it is a lovely neat shape and doesn't take up any space on my work surface - I do all sorts in it and use it almost every day. My kids are much more adventurous than me with it and they love using it too.

Good to hear the positive feedback for the Cosori, it was close, at the right price & with good reviews from the quick research i did, looks like i've dropped in well.

I got a bit adventurous myself today as we have a glut of home  grown courgette & French beans, wait for it.................... courgette & bean Franken-pakora, i was short of the correct flour & a few spices but with a bit of eye of newt & wing of bat it ended up resembling a pakora & tasted pretty close to what i remember, the Cosori did well.

GaleSF63

Nice to see good reports on the Cosori as I was interested in it but hesitant as I have never heard of the make before seeing it recently on Amazon. 

otb666

since retiring 6 months ago I have mainly veg based meals with I tend to zap in microwave then transfer to slow cooker for an hour to finish off.  I only bath once a month and top and tail twice daily rest of month (I dont like showers) Keep aware of spends by using big white board visible in bedroom. I have moved away from building up food stocks as still working my way through all the tins we bought in lockdown. I use bicarb and vinegar to clean everything. I have a large sack of bicarb which seems to be lasting forever, but works in DW WM and as general cleaner. I have fixed fuel costs til feb 24 but obviously will have to cut back after then as £4 a day on electric seems quite excessive.  Will have to talk hubby out of daily long showers and 5 PCs on 24/7 then.  I dont have any food waste as veg not peeled before cooking and gets blitzed at the end.  I am determined not to have to go back to work.  whatever it takes.

Jellytotts

We have the family sized tower air fryer which is fab.  I’ve also got a halogen oven which gets used just as much.  Main oven hasn’t been on since April time.

We have just defrosted our chest freezer and I think it will be sold.  It costs £82 a year to run (on our fixed tariff price) and that’s a lot to basically store stuff that doesn’t get used as regularly as it should.  I’m sticking with the 3 drawer freezer under the fridge for now and will see how we go.  

We use our local food pantry which is amazing at taking the supermarkets short date meat/veggie items and freezing, the fruit and veg is always plentiful (again, short or out of date) and then there’s always a good supply of bread, tins and packets.  For £5 today we got a 2kg pork loin, a pack of chicken and chorizo kebab sticks, 5 tins of tins/kidney beans/fruit, a pack of rice, 2 loaves of gluten free bread, 2 packs of “side salad”, a bag of baby spinach and a bunch of bananas.  Well worth checking if there’s one in your area. We also use the Olio app regularly which is fab.

I’ve purchased a couple of bits at boot fairs to help out, a couple of plug in neck and back warmers - ideal for DH who is disabled and feels the cold and also works the theory of heating the human not the home.  I’ve picked up several large bags of wool and am making blankets for anyone in the family that needs them and last week I managed to find one of those large thermos flasks with a pump action spout (like the have in restaurants), for a whole £2.50.  Cleaned and tested and it kept water tea/coffee hot for around 4 hours but 10 hours later it was still acceptable for making a warm squash (a winter favourite of ours).

We popped to the library last week, we’d not been to our local one since we moved 3 years ago, so updated our cards, scouted out the seating arrangements and will be popping in once a week to sit and use their heat/newspapers/computer before heading along the road to a chain pub that does free tea/coffee refills all day.  We can utilise their heat too and it will give us one whole morning out of the house each week (not easy to do when one of you is disabled/wheelchair reliant) that doesn’t cost the earth or encourage us to spend copious amounts of money.  

Tonight we are starting to investigate new dehumidifier options.  We have 2 small ones that do their job nicely but I’d like one for helping with the washing.  I do try and hang it out where I can, I have 3 lines in the garage and this year thanks to a 2nd greenhouse I can empty one and use that too but there will be days it needs to dry indoors.  Any dehumidifier recommendations welcomed.

Longwalker

Sounds like you are utilising whatever is available in your area pretty well

We have a community fridge open a couple of days a week, Ive not yet managed to get along there to make use of it, although I do send up stuff to be used. Its a great resource, its about stopping food going to landfill , anyone can use it, all thats asked is you take only what you will use. Most of the food is from the supermarkets but theres also proper fridges so if you are going on holiday and have fridge contents , take it up, someone gets use of it

Im extremely lucky that I get free veg from work, well free root veg, but it all helps.

Loving my air fryer. Tonights tea of pork chops, tomatoes, mushrooms. mixed veg, onion rings  and croquet potatoes cooked and on the plate in 25 mins. No waiting for the grill or oven to get hot, just in the airfryer and it starts cooking right away

Oh I use the hob, and microwave just as much

We always use blankets on the sofa. Mr L has one wrapped around him right now, Im wearing a vest lol. He feels the cold more then me, I cant stand having the heat on and prefer a blanket if needed. Mother also feels the cold, her beds and circulation problems. We keep trying to get her to use the electric fire in her sitting room but she insists on running the CH and then because I moan Im hot, she would rather sit there cold, makes me feel really guilty