Here's a calculator; let me know when you've figured out what you can afford.

[Monterey Jack]

Put in the fridge overnight and then put in your cooker in the morning. Set for 8 hours.

I can't imagine how my electricity bill would skyrocket if I kept the oven on for eight hours.

[Food Lady]

I actually do want a crockpot with all the bells and whistles so I can program it to cook for a few hours and then switch to warm so the stuff doesn't overcook before I get home. I'm gone 9 hours a day. Crockpots don't use an exorbitant amount of energy.

[Jetfire]

This will give you a nice dinner when you get home, but don't dump the pot out. You want that broth for later because I'm not done!

After you have eaten, cut the rest of the chicken off for later and have made up a nice lunch for tomorrow, put all of the bones and stuff you didn't eat into the pot with the peels, then add the rest of the carrots and onion. Cover that with enough water to cover everything and set it to cook for at least 12 hours. Strain the liquid out and now you have stock that you can use for soup!

For the less culinary inclined among us, the Broth is the liquid that you are straining. So don't dump the liquid into the sink and try to make a broth from the stuff left behind. Strain the liquid into a bowl or another pot, and use that liquid for soup.

With a slowcooker you can do a roast beef that way too. I did it a couple of weeks ago. Use a roast instead of the chicken, and do everything listed above (use celery too if you want, maybe add a small amount of oil to 'grease' the pot). Season more than you might expect to (lots of pepper and other spices), and leave it cooking for the day. If you are feeling adventurous, before putting the beef into the pot, sear it off. Heat a frying pan up to a high temperature, then put the roast into it for a few seconds. Turn it and flip it so all sides get a nice brown colouring, and THEN put it into the crockpot.

In this case, you can use the liquid for gravy. strain the liquid left over into a pot, thicken with corn starch and maybe some oxo beef powder packets, and you have a nice gravy you can use with your roast beef and veggies.

I can't imagine how my electricity bill would skyrocket if I kept the oven on for eight hours.

The slowcooker isn't an oven. It's a lot smaller (so the heating element is smaller), and runs on a much lower heat, so it is barely drawing any power at all. Not sure how reliable it is; but a quick google shows that a Crockpot for 8 hours will use about 10cents total. Running your oven for 1 hour will tend to use 20cents of power (rates vary), but ultimately for the same meal the crock pot will use half the power an oven uses.

[nutraxfornerves]

I can't say I don't eat frozen meals, 'cause I do. I just know they aren't cheaper than if I made it myself. But I tend to make a large amount of one thing and eat on it all week for dinner. I just don't feel like eating chicken casserole for lunch and dinner.Too monotonous!

Easy solution. Make a bit more than the week's worth of chicken casserole and freeze the excess. Next week, you make more lasagna than necessary and freeze the excess. The week after, it's chili. Now you've got stuff in the freezer for lunch that is different than the stuff you are eating eery night for dinner.

[dawnfire]

I actually do want a crockpot with all the bells and whistles so I can program it to cook for a few hours and then switch to warm so the stuff doesn't overcook before I get home. I'm gone 9 hours a day. Crockpots don't use an exorbitant amount of energy.

you can also invest in a timer switch to control when the unit turns on but most crockpots will switch to warm when the timer (the inbuilt one) runs out.

[notalwaysright]

Easy solution. Make a bit more than the week's worth of chicken casserole and freeze the excess. Next week, you make more lasagna than necessary and freeze the excess. The week after, it's chili. Now you've got stuff in the freezer for lunch that is different than the stuff you are eating eery night for dinner.

It's a good idea. I can try it sometime, if I make the effort to divide it up and freeze it. I also don't have a great track record for freezing meals. Somehow they don't thaw well. Soup comes out fine though.

Also, I just wanted to point out that at first you totally don't have to buy anything, like a crockpot. Just try an easy oven recipe on your day off. Like you can buy some chicken breasts (or I prefer thighs) throw them in the oven with herbs and veggies and you get the same deal as with the crock pot. Just make sure to buy bone-in if you want broth later. But you don't have to, if you feel like starting smaller just boneless chicken then you shred it and it can be so many things! Casseroles, soups, salads, tacos. Now I'm hungry.

[Slave to the Phone]

For the less culinary inclined among us, the Broth is the liquid that you are straining. So don't dump the liquid into the sink and try to make a broth from the stuff left behind. Strain the liquid into a bowl or another pot, and use that liquid for soup.

Thank you SO much for clarifying that part! Like anyone who does this stuff all the time, I tend to forget that people who don't know the basics really don't know the BASICS. Yes, I am an idiot, but at least I'm not a professional teacher, even if I do sometimes try to fake it online.

After the liquid is collected, put it in the fridge and let it sit for a day. Most of the liquid will turn into a clear thin jell (yellow/gold color) and then there will be a thick layer of white fat on top. I usually use a spoon to remove and discard that, purists don't.

While raiding relative's cabinets, procure a measuring cup and a pan. Buy some wide egg noodles, another icky carrot and onions if you like them in soup.

Put 4 cups of stock in the pan. If you don't have 4 cups, add water to make 4 cups. Turn the heat to about just under half and let it start to slowly come to a simmer. You want the liquid to have active bubbles on the surface, but not enough bubbles that the pan starts to fill up with them and overflow. This can happen very quickly and is always messy.

(Simmering is the point where you have nice polite bubbles covering the surface of the liquid and boiling is when they are very excited and almost rioting. Over boiling is when you have liquid running down the sides of the pan and making a mess. If this happens, remove the pan from the heat, turn the burner off and then use a different burner with lower heat so you don't burn the boiled over stuff on the stove into a bigger mess than it already is.)

(you might want to practice bringing a pan of water to a simmer and then to a boil before making soup.)

Add a cup of chicken, a quarter cup of peeled and diced carrots and a quarter cup of onions to the simmering liquid. The liquid will stop simmering. This is normal, just raise the heat a little until its back to a simmer while stirring. Add some salt and pepper at this step. Let it simmer for 10 minutes, stirring when every you feel like it.

While you are doing this, read the directions on the noodles to see how long to cook them. After the 10 minutes, add the noodles (stir them a lot while they are cooking) cook according to the directions and then enjoy home made chicken soup.

[Sparklyturtle]

For years and years, I had a super tight budget for groceries. I always knew to the dollar just how much I had available, and usually knew to within a dollar or two how much was in my cart. On those occasions when I went over my budget, it was never by more than about $5, and junk food and snacks were the FIRST things to be taken off. I don't get people who would rather buy junk than real food, especially when those are often the same ones that bitch and moan about 'my kids going hungry'.

Yep, been there. I would keep a running total of what I was spending in a notebook, and things would be put back if I was getting too close to the amount of money I had, and I always put back the frivolous items first. I also couldn't afford to buy sliced meats or cheese from the deli even if I wanted to. That was the era of ramen noodles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and evenings spent at home because I couldn't afford the gas to go anywhere else.

[Sparklyturtle]

Have you considered cooking in larger batches and then freezing individual meals? I'm on a really tight budget atm and I do this. Then all you need to do is pull the food out, nuke it and eat. If you are on the late shift, just move the dinner from the freezer to the fridge before you leave for work.

Some of the best freezer meals are soups, lasagne, spaghetti bolognese and stews. I also make batches of chicken schnitzels, tuna rissoles and things like that. 10-20 minutes in the oven (from frozen) gives me enough time to chuck a salad together or cook some pasta or rice.

I did that when my budget was tight, and still do it because I don't like to cook that much. My slow cooker was my best friend then and still is - I can put together a big pot of chili, Turtleguy and I eat what we want, and I freeze the rest in individual containers. Sometimes I'll cook a bunch of chicken and freeze some, and then if I want to make a chicken casserole the chicken is already cooked. Because Turtleguy drives a school bus it's impossible to predict when he'll get home from work, so I need to make things that wait well. And, despite what I've read elsewhere, it isn't lazy to make things in a slow cooker, it's an efficient use of time.

[Nunavut Pants]

I have a bunch of FB friends who are now raving about their Instant Pots and how quick and easy it makes cooking some things.

I might have to try one out some time.

[ladyjaneinmd]

I have a bunch of FB friends who are now raving about their Instant Pots and how quick and easy it makes cooking some things.

I might have to try one out some time.

I have one. It's nice, but to tell the truth, I don't usually have a need to cook something that fast. It makes great rice, though, and wonderful ribs.

[Dragon_Dreamer]

I've been known to teach my classmates how to cook! It amazed me when an 18 year old didn't know how to make spaghetti. As in, how to boil the noodles.

On a recent camping trip, I taught the vegans how to make steamed veggies on the grill (make a tent of foil, add the chopped up veggies and a bit of water, then close the tent and let it cook until the veggies are soft), and taught everyone else how to make kebabs. Skewer chunks of meat and veggies, and cook until the meat is done.

A couple of my cheap favorites:

Stir Fry Ramen

Soften ramen noodles in hot water, like you would for soup. Throw the spice packet in the trash, it's all sodium.
Chop up some veggies, favorites are onions, carrots, zuchinni, celery, etc.
Take a large frying pan (non-stick is best) and give it a quick spray of PAM, or even melt a tablespoon of butter, to give it a good coating.
Toss in the veggies, stirring constantly. Add a bit of soy sauce, and as the veggies get warm, strain the noodles and add them (not the water) to the pan. When it's all warm and before the veggies get too soft, it's ready to serve! You can also add pre-cooked chicken or pork if you want, before the cooking is done.

Ooh, and a dessert. A treat is always good. Take 2 baking apples (granny smith, honeycrisp, any firm, crisp apple), and either core or slice them into eighths, your choice. Place them in a GLASS (pyrex) baking pan small enough to fit into your microwave. For the cored apples, set them on end so the holes run up and down. For the slices, try to layer them evenly along the entire bottom.

In another bowl, mix a handful of brown sugar (about a cup), a quick dash of nutmeg (about 1/4th teaspoon), and as much cinnamon as you like. (I average 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon.) Add a tablespoon of butter, and with a fork, mash it all together until you a get a crumbly mixture.

For the cored apples, stuff the holes with this mixture, really cram it in there, and place a tablespoon of butter on top of each.
For the slices, sprinkle the mixture evenly on top, then add a teaspoon of butter in various places around the top (4-5 teaspoons total). This is called dotting with the butter.

Place in the microwave for 3 minutes, or until the brown sugar has mostly melted. Be careful removing the pan! Not only will the glass be hot, but molten sugar is like napalm. Using a spoon, mix the sauce the sugar has become until it becomes smooth. Spoon over the apples, anywhere it didn't settle while baking.

Best served with ice cream, but delicious on its own, especially on cold winter nights. The kids will adore it.

[Pixelated]

Do any of them die of dysentery?

I sometimes wonder if people deliberately play games at the cash register because they think they can get better deals if they inspire sympathy. Sort of passive aggressive haggling as it were.

We had a customer like that at the tea store. She'd come in and order a drink and then get to the cash register and oh dearie me, I don't seem to have quite enough money. Then she'd put on this sad face. It didn't hurt that she was in a wheelchair ... invariably somebody behind her in line would take pity on her and pay for her drink.

Somebody told me to call her out next time ("You are here ALL THE TIME and you do this ALL THE TIME.") The store closed down, though, so I never had a chance to try it out.

Dragon_Dreamer, that apple recipe does sound fantastic; I will have to try it.

This post led to some amazing cooking responses! Like some respondents, I am single and so don't usually like to make large quantities of anything, since there are only a very few dishes that I want to eat for three or four days running. And I find the freezer atop your refrigerator isn't good for long-term freezing.

I do have a very small deep freezer here at Mom's house, but I've found over the past five years that I've barely used it. Or to be more specific, I would put stuff in there and then forget it was there. I'll be moving to a very small apartment and while I could probably fit the freezer in there with some effort, I'm not sure it'd be worth the effort (although I also think that, because it would be mere steps away, I might use it more ...) At this point I'm even debating whether to take my microwave with me. I do plan to make full use of the stove and oven when I move, though.

I do have a tiny little crockpot, though -- a one-quart one. The cord is damaged (it sat too close to a burner on the stove once) but my brother has looked at it and opined that it is okay, as the rubber over the wiring has softened but the wiring itself isn't broken or damaged.

[Mental_Mouse]

Pixelated: Well, you definitely want a microwave, whether or not it's the one from Mom's. A microwave often makes the difference between "just heat it up", against "well, do I really want to dirty another pot and a dish or two?"

[Jay 2K Winger]

I've recently moved out and have had to start cooking more for myself. I will admit I've bought a few frozen meals for reheating and have ordered out more often than I should, but I've started acquiring easy or simple recipes from websites and such. Mom has helped with that, sending me links to some when she finds them.

One simple one that I've made twice so far is a Taco Pasta Skillet recipe.

1 pound lean ground beef (I usually go for 95% lean)
8oz spaghetti
1 10oz can of Ro-Tel diced tomatoes and peppers
1 1oz packet of taco seasoning
2 1/2 cups water
Sour cream

1. Cook ground beef in skillet on medium-high heat for 7min or until all meat is brown and crumbled.
2. Add seasoning, tomatoes/peppers, and water, stir to combine. Bring to a boil.
3. Break spaghetti in half and add to skillet. Cover and reduce heat. Cook for 10min or until pasta is tender.
4. Serve with 1 tbsp sour cream per serving.

When I made it, I had several boxes of pasta to use up, so rather than spend money on spaghetti, I used bow-tie pasta one time and rotini another. It was still good. You can also use plain diced tomatoes instead of Ro-Tel.