When is the last time you used your microwave? Maybe it was at dawn to reheat a cup of coffee from the day before. Maybe it was this morning to cook a quick egg for breakfast. Maybe it was last night to pop a bag of microwave popcorn before watching your favorite movie or series on Netflix. Or, perhaps it was this afternoon to heat up leftovers for lunch.
Microwaves definitely save time, but they can also save energy and money when they’re used in place of an oven or stove. When you use your microwave to heat up pricy convenience foods from the frozen aisle, you may not save a lot of money, but when you use them to reheat meals you cooked from scratch, you can save tons of money. If you use your microwave to avoid eating out just once a week, you could save hundreds of dollars a year.
How Can My Microwave Save Me Money?
The last time you looked at your microwave, you probably didn’t think of how it can be a money-saving appliance, but it really can be! To get the most bang for your buck when it comes to your microwave, it’s time to start thinking about all the different jobs it can do in your kitchen, such as:
- Melt butter and chocolate
- Pop popcorn
- Reheat leftovers
- Soften butter
- Thaw meat (great when you’re in a hurry)
- Cook veggies
- Cook potatoes and sweet potatoes
- Dry fresh herbs
- Froth milk for lattes
- Make homemade potato chips
- Make a quick breakfast sandwich
- Make a dessert for one
“Although a microwave may not save much energy or money over a stove burner when heating water, it can be much more energy-efficient than a traditional full-size oven when it comes to cooking food. For starters, because their heat waves are concentrated on the food, microwaves cook and heat much faster than traditional ovens.
“According to the federal government’s Energy Star program, which rates appliances based on their energy-efficiency, cooking or re-heating small portions of food in the microwave can save as much as 80 percent of the energy used to cook or warm them up in the oven,” according to Scientific American.