Is a slow cooker really cheaper than your oven….

As you probably know, I’m a huge fan of my slow cooker – it makes life easier for me as a working Mum and it saves me money because it’s cheaper to use than the oven.

I say it’s cheaper to use because that’s what I’ve always been told – that it costs around the same as a household lightbulb to run and is much cheaper than the oven which is rated as one of the most expensive appliances in the house to run.

Even though the question is probably up there in the top five questions that I get asked, I’ve never actually looked into just how much cheaper because I have no idea how to compare the two any and comparisons that I’ve ever found didn’t include actual figures which is what I was looking for.

But then the other day, I read an article in the Daily Telegraph which suggested that if electricity costs approximately 15p per kWh (I’ll take their word for it ;-)) then this would mean that using your oven for an hour to cook your casserole will set you back around 30p (presuming that you’re cooking it on a low heat). If you were to use your slow cooker, which uses around 0.7kWh over an eight hour period (on the low setting) then cooking your tea in the slow cooker will cost no more than 10.5p.

So there you go, according to the Daily Telegraph it’s approximately 20p a meal quicker to cook your tea in the slow cooker.

But that’s not even the best reason for using your slow cooker more to cook tea, there’s lots of others too:

• As a working Mum, I use anything that I can to make life easier for me.  My slow cooker means that I can take literally two minutes on a morning to throw some ingredients in to the pot, leave them to cook all day and dinners ready when we need it.
• The fact that the food is cooking slowly gives the flavours more chance to develop and without exception, every meal we’ve ever had in the slow cooker has been delicious.
• You can use cheaper cuts of meat because you’re going to be cooking it slowly.
• If you have a good sized slow cooker than you can often cook extra so you can freeze a portion or use it for tea the next night.  For example, bolognaise can be used for spaghetti bolognaise one night with the leftovers being turned into lasagne or even chilli with a few added ingredients the next day.
• In a house like ours where we have after school clubs for the kids and Mr Frugal on odd shifts sometimes, it’s not always possible to eat at the same time.  Having a slow cooker with the keep warm setting means that I don’t have to constantly be cooking on nights like that.
• It’s not even just main meals you can cook in your slow cooker – you can cook desserts in there too.  I’ve started a Pinterest board to showcase just how versatile your slow cooker can be….

Follow Cass bailey’s board Slow Cooker / Crockpot meal ideas on Pinterest.

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