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Your kitchen could be one of the things that makes or breaks your budget. Every time I talk to people who are trying to save money, the first thing that comes up is saving money on food.
Investing in a few things for your kitchen can making saving money HUGE.
I do have an advantage because my husband and I actually both enjoy cooking so that alone has saved us a significant amount of money. But we do also love eating out with good food.
After I bought my house, I wanted to make sure that my kitchen was set up for success to save us money in the long run. Food can be the biggest killer of a budget if you are not intentional.
Here are things in our kitchen that save us big money.
1) Our Instant Pot
I love our Instant Pot. It saves us so much money because it takes frozen chicken to fully cooked in 20ish minutes. We usually pull our Instant Pot out in a pinch when we don’t get meat thawed in time.
There are so many one pot instant pot meals on the internet to turn no plan into dinner quickly!
2) Epicure Steamer
I LOVE this thing. This steamer is a food safe silicone that makes quick meals in the microwave so easy. Throw it together, pop it in and have dinner on the table while you are doing other things! It is so easy to clean and dishwasher safe.
I feel like most of my kitchen tools come down to not having a plan or having the plan derailed by something else happening and needed to get good food on the table quick. That’s why we have partnered with Epicure to have real food real fast. We have been trying their food and have been loving having a easy food planned throughout the week!
3) Marker board Meal Plan
This is your reminder that meal plans don’t have to be complicated. You can literally write chicken nuggets on three nights if that is your plan, but having a back up plan for your food will create less stress throughout the week and help you save money from fast food. I love using my marker board to keep track of some of the foods that we have on hand. Because I have it written down on the front of my fridge, I can make a plan to use up food before it goes bad.
I use a marker board to help me start my meal plan. I keep it on the side of my fridge so I know I am ready for the week.
Here is my blog post all about how I use a marker board for my meal plan.
4) Crock Pot/ Slow Cooker
I feel like this is an obvious one, but I had to include it. My Slow Cooker is my best friend when it comes to not spending hours in the kitchen all of the time. I try to include one meal a week that I can just throw in the slow cooker. I have found a ton of slow cooker recipes on Pinterest and Tiktok!
5) Pyrex Glass Dishes
I have used a lot of cheap meal containers but nothing stands up to these Pyrex Glass dishes. I love that they are really reasonably priced for a set but they NEVER stain. We have been using them for years now and I still absolutely love them.
I think we have invested in 3 sets over the past 5 years and it is basically all that we use now for leftovers.
6) Meal Prep Containers
Okay, after raving about the Pyrex, this one might seem a little weird. When I was working in the office and brining my lunch every day, I loved having some cheaper Tupperware containers that I didn’t have attachments to. As much as I wanted to be responsible with my containers, it never seemed to fail that I would lose one piece every once in a while. Either I would leave it at the office and it would get picked up or I would leave it in my car for just slightly too long to save it.
These were containers that I was okay losing if it came down to it and perfect for packing food on the go to save money. I would have been a lot more upset losing my nice glass Pyrex dishes.
7) Basic Coffee Machine
Some of you are going to laugh at this one. I have mentioned in the past that I absolutely love my Keurig and it was great when I was single and on the go. But now that we are making coffee for two and home all day, I love having my basic coffee maker to make 10 cups of coffee. The Keurig pods add up quickly when you are talking about 1-2 cups per person per day.
We still have our Keurig and use it every once in a while, but it is definitely nice to have a bulk coffee maker too!
8) Air Fryer
Having an air fryer has been a game changer for our meals. Sometimes when we do No Spend Months we feel like we are missing out. So being on wings and other fun fried restaurant food. But we have started cooking more at home and been able to save so much money by recreating our restaurant favorites. My favorite things to cook in the air fryer are wings, chicken tenders, and fries! It is also great for reheating pizza!
I held out on buying an air fryer for so long because I was so hesitant about having ANOTHER kitchen appliance, but honestly it has been one of my favorite gifts we have gotten for Christmas.
Having the tools and the confidence to work in the kitchen was a HUGE part of my single debt free journey! And now as a family it is saving us even more!
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