Desperate for Help

RAS

Some basics:

Plan to be flexible, because you don't know what yellow-stickers might offer.

Pasta: for one cook, two and a half portions as per annieb64; 200g if you are frugal, 250 otherwise. One hot meal, a pasta salad the next lunch-time and another hot pasta dish via the microwave the following day. For reference, cold and re-heated pasta have much lower GI index levels.

Cheap chicken bits. Worth the cooking but at least add a tray of veggies to bake. Also check out scones, biscuits, basic cakes (2 eggs and the same weight of fat, sugar and self-raising flour cooked in whatever tins you have with or without additions). Veggies can make soup, couscous, pasta sauce, with or without chicken. 

How many eggs fit in your pan, as half the cost is heating the water? Cook them all on the hob, and chill (pour the hot water into the washing up bowl) and add cold water. Use them over the week for breakfast, open sandwiches, egg mayo, wedges on pasta or bean salads, or egg curry. 

theoretica

As above - a lot of things that cook in boiling water don't actually need the heat on all the time - bring them to the boil then leave them or pop then in the oven (off - it is an insulated box!) to cook.

Whenever I use my oven it is absolutely brim full - cooking lots of meals worth which I can reheat. Even things like rice which have a 'do not reheat' reputation are fine, they just don't want to sit around for ages luke warm.  If you happen to have a microwave at work, even better - you get a hot meal and someone else pays the electricity bill!

bupster

Also, don’t panic.  Have a look at your meter to see just how many units the oven uses.  I saw all the doom and gloom estimates, and then conducted my own experiment only to be agreeably  surprised that the oven didn’t use nearly as much as all these ‘experts’ said it would.

I was just this minute doing the maths on this, and found the table below (before today's price rises so double these costs in your head when working things out). Using the hob is clearly much cheaper, especially if you use it for less time as most of us do - but having had a look I'm less concerned about using the oven maybe once a week for batch cooking. My slow cooker broke when I moved six months ago and I was going to replace it with an air fryer but I'm not sure now that it will make enough of a difference. 

Anyway, my point is, if you only used your oven once a week or a fortnight for an hour or so to roast or bake lots of things at once that might be manageable (and would heat your house that evening too). 

theoretica

bupster said:

Also, don’t panic.  Have a look at your meter to see just how many units the oven uses.  I saw all the doom and gloom estimates, and then conducted my own experiment only to be agreeably  surprised that the oven didn’t use nearly as much as all these ‘experts’ said it would.

I was just this minute doing the maths on this, and found the table below (before today's price rises so double these costs in your head when working things out). Using the hob is clearly much cheaper, especially if you use it for less time as most of us do - but having had a look I'm less concerned about using the oven maybe once a week for batch cooking. My slow cooker broke when I moved six months ago and I was going to replace it with an air fryer but I'm not sure now that it will make enough of a difference. 

Anyway, my point is, if you only used your oven once a week or a fortnight for an hour or so to roast or bake lots of things at once that might be manageable (and would heat your house that evening too). 

The oven might be even cheaper than that too - as the calculation looks like it is simply power x time on.  But the oven will have a thermostat to turn the power down/off once it has reached temperature.  So running the oven for an hour will be cheaper than two lots of 30 minutes

DaysofQuiet

I have a teenage son. He will (rightly so) not forgo a shower (electric) once a day....but I've asked him to have quick showers. we have a combi boiler. How does having a shallow bath compare to a 5 min shower???

bouicca21

theoretica said:

The oven might be even cheaper than that too - as the calculation looks like it is simply power x time on.  But the oven will have a thermostat to turn the power down/off once it has reached temperature.  So running the oven for an hour will be cheaper than two lots of 30 minutes

^^^ this.  That’s why you need to read the meter.  The oven isn’t consistently drawing  the same amount of power all the time it’s on -  it heats up then ticks over.  

bouicca21

DaysofQuiet said:

I have a teenage son. He will (rightly so) not forgo a shower (electric) once a day....but I've asked him to have quick showers. we have a combi boiler. How does having a shallow bath compare to a 5 min shower???

Pretty sure even a shallow bath takes more water, therefore more heating of the water.  Maybe turn the water thermostat down?

At one stage Thames Water were handing out waterproof  4 minute egg timer thingies to encourage people to spend less time in the shower.

KxMx

Hob, grill or main oven I frequently turn off while hot & use the built up residual heat to finish off cooking the food for the last minutes. 
With severe IBS which I have to fight with to get into remission after flare ups I am VERY careful and cautious with every aspect of food safety, this method is safe because the food still gets cooked throughly. 

poppellerant

I hope this isn't so obvious that I look daft for asking.  But is a gas cooker cheaper than an electric oven, as i have a gas oven.  Would a slow cooker be even cheaper than a gas cooker?

theoretica

DaysofQuiet said:

I have a teenage son. He will (rightly so) not forgo a shower (electric) once a day....but I've asked him to have quick showers. we have a combi boiler. How does having a shallow bath compare to a 5 min shower???

If the shower is over the bath, put the plug in while you/he showers and compare the depth of water at the end with the depth you would run for a bath.