10 Helpful Gadgets for the Frugal Kitchen
Here are a 10 Helpful Gadgets for the Frugal Kitchen from guest poster, Christina Brown. Her mission is to help you take control of your finances with coupons, freebies, and money-saving ideas. Molly
Saving money and time on the food you cook can be a challenge. I have a love of gadgets, but because I don’t have unlimited funds (or cupboard space), I’ve found that I have about 10 gadgets I like to have around. These gadgets consistently make my life easier and cooking more enjoyable. See if you don’t agree.
- Slow Cooker. I cannot live without my slow cooker. The possibilities are endless – from breakfast to desserts and everything in between. Slow cooking tenderizes the toughest (cheapest) cuts of meat, meaning you can really save time and money with this tool.
- Food Processor. The first Christmas I was married, I asked my husband for a food processor. Twelve years later, that gadget has made everything from salsa to homemade baby food. Buy a model that comes with a grating and slicing attachment, and you can shred your own cheeses. People think it’s horrible that my hubby gave me a food processor for Christmas, but it has been an excellent gift that has made my life easier.
- FoodSaver Vaccuum Sealer. The FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer is an indispensable tool for preserving garden harvests, storing freezer meals, and bulk buys of meat. The bags aren’t cheap (unless you find a good coupon), but you can even get an FoodSaver attachment that allows you to vaccuum pack a wide-mouth glass canning jar. The FoodSaver is also handy outside the kitchen. I’ve used it to protect clean baby clothes in a diaper bag (the FoodSaver makes the package of clothing tiny!). You could also use it to keep camping gear dry.
- Food Dehydrator. I have a food dehydrator that I’ve borrowed from my Dad months ago. I use it to dry fruit, make homemade fruit rollups, and jerky. You could also use it to dehydrate garden veggies to use in soups and stews during the winter months.
- Rice Cooker. Rice seems so simple to make when you look at the instructions on the bag or box. Yet I always had my rice boil over and make a giant mess. The rice cooker changed all that! I no longer have big messes to clean and the rice turns out perfect every time. I got a cheap 3-cup model at Walgreens for less than $5 years ago, but someday I’d love to get a programmable one.
- Blender. Perfect for making homemade smoothies, shakes, and other beverages. It can also be used to make baby food.
- Bread Machine. There is nothing like fresh-baked bread, and having a bread machine makes this task so simple. You can also use the bread machine to make pizza dough, and buns and rolls. And since you control the ingredients, you know exactly what your family is eating.
- Pressure Canner. Confession: I don’t have one yet – but it is on my wish list. My Dad currently has one that he uses to make canned smoked fish. I’d love to make my own pasta sauces and salsas with ingredients from my garden.
- George Foremann Grill. I have the George Foreman Next Grilleration Electric Nonstick Grill which has interchangeable plates that are washable. It’s great to be able to grill up a large batch of chicken breasts or burgers when the weather is too cold to grill outside. And with the different plates that are available, I’ve made everything from omelets to panninis to desserts!
- Computer. Your computer is probably the most important gadget you can use to save money and time in the kitchen. From finding inspiration on Pinterest to searching for recipes, you won’t need to buy a cookbook ever again. Use the internet to find alternatives for missing ingredients, help with dinner details (how long does a turkey need to thaw anyway?) and plan your dinner menus and shopping lists. And don’t forget about printing coupons!
Now I know (as well as you) that the items on this list are not frugal to buy. Some of them are downright spendy, but there are plenty of cheap alternatives to popular kitchen gadgets available. You could borrow some of these gadgets from family and friends. You can also find them for cheap at garage sales, estate sales and thrift stores.
I share this list because I find that these items have added a great deal of value to my experience as a home economist. They’ve made my life easier. They’ve made making meals for my family more convenient.
Consider this to be a list of suggested investments you can make. Every item on this list can help you save money and time in the kitchen. And when you can save money and time in the kitchen, you are less likely to blow your money eating out at restaurants or loading up on preservative-laden convenience meals.
What kitchen gadgets do you have that help you save money or time?
Christina Brown is the founder and editor-in chief at Northern Cheapskate. She writes her blog from the woods of northern Minnesota, where she clips coupons, pinch pennies and chase three boys (a 6-year old and twin 4-year olds) as a stay-at-home mom. In a “past life” she’s been an assistant newspaper editor, a college admissions representative, and a community college instructor and academic adviser.
A stick blender – if I had to choose between a regular blender and my stick blender I would choose the stick. It can do everything from making whipped cream to pureeing hot soup right in the pot.
Molly says: Great addition to the list! I love my immersion blender as well, I even froth steamed milk with it.
I’d say a good stand mixer is one of the staples of our kitchen. We got one as a wedding present 14 years ago, and it’s made everything from bread to ice cream for us. It can even make the icing on the cake!
Molly says: Stand mixers are worth their weight in gold in my home as well!
I totally agree on the slow cooker and food processor, but I just gave our George Foreman grill (purchased at a garage sale) to the charity thrift shop: we never used it. We do, however, get a lot of use out of one of those apple peeler/corers. It saves me a lot of time because the five-year-old is so excited to use it.
Plus it makes it easier to chop up apple pieces for freezing to keep over the winter.
Molly says: I treasure our apple peeler/corer as well for putting up apples. My girls love to wear the apple peels as necklaces and munch as they play!
I asked for a leaf blower one year for Mother’s Day. We had a porch and deck that were always covered with leaves or flowers from several trees. He got me a light weight one that I could easily use and I still have it! It must be 12-15 years old. Now I use it to quickly blow dust and sand out of garage stalls too.
Molly says: If Mama is happy, everyone is happy. Right? Awesome (and functional) gift!
I have a lot of gadgets that you’ve mentioned and out of all of them my blender/food processor is my favorite. The other all-time money saver is my pastry cutter. It gets used to mix pizza or bread dough, pastries, mixing corn starch for gravies to puddings and everything else in between. It’s also good if you don’t have a whisk handy.
Molly says: What great ideas for a pastry cutter! I have to admit I don’t have one but now I think I need to buy one just to try out your suggestions. Thanks for sharing!
All the gadgets you mention are life savers. I would add a microwave oven to the list. I have made rice ( 16 minutes for 2 cups of white rice and 30 minutes for 2 cups of brown rice), brownies (7 minutes), chai ( 2:20 minutes for a mug), etc., in a microwave when I ran out of cooking gas in Asia.
Molly says: Microwaves can definitely be a life saver when one is short on time!
About 10 years ago I found an electric juice squeezer that still worked. After a thorough cleaning I use it for fresh orange or grapefruit juice drinks. This is the older kind where you half the fruit and sit it the squeezer pressing gently down and it scoops out the juice for you which you have to catch in a cup or jug. Added bonus is that squeezing fruit is good use of hand and arm muscles and is linked to keeping blood pressure low.
Molly says: I love squeezing fresh juice (when I can find the fruit at a good price)! And what an added bonus, stronger hand and arm muscles!
I went 25+ years w/o a food processor, my mom couldn’t believe I didn’t have one and gave me my grandmother’s old one. I love it.
I have 4 crockpots going at the moment w/ applesauce in them. I love crockpots. All sizes. Make yogurt in them weekly.
Gave away my bread-machine but couldn’t do w/o my wheat/grain grinder or my heavy-duty stand mixer. Both have been replaced once in the past 33 years.
I now buy expensive blenders and good knives because my time and patience are too valuable to waste on worthless things.
Got rid of the Forman grill because it didn’t go in the dishwasher, have a Cuisenart (sp?) that I love that does.
The only other thing I love and hope I wouldn’t have to live w/o is the Barista espresso maker my kids bought me for Christmas several years ago to save me $$ at Starbucks.
I truly love my pressure cooker. I was scared of them for years and held off on getting one, but I was remembering my granny’s pressure cooker–the ones available now are so much safer and practically foolproof. It cooks up a tough beef brisket into a tender dish in just an hour, and is a real time-saver. Also in the hot summer months when you may not want to have a slow cooker or an oven heating up your kitchen all day the pressure cooker is a faster and cooler alternative.