How You Can Save Money With An Air Fryer

We’ve had an air fryer for over six months now and it’s one of the best investments we’ve made for our kitchen. We rarely ever use our oven anymore, it’s generally for a toad in the hole, a roast dinner or pizza. So maybe once or twice a month. We opted for a slightly pricier model and I was unsure whether I could save money with an air fryer but it’s made such a difference.

What is an air fryer and how does it work?

An air fryer is like a mini fan oven that cooks, roasts and bakes. It cooks by blowing around hot air at a high speed all around the food helping with an even cook. It’s like a fan oven but much smaller and the fan is usually stronger, so you’ll find an air fryer nosier than a conventional oven. As the cooking space is smaller and more powerful it is more efficient. For example a piece of chicken may cook in 20 minutes in the air fryer, but in an oven it would take longer.

Unlike a regular oven, air fryers only need a couple of minutes to preheat and most models will have a light or sound to alert you when it’s the right temperature.

There are lots of different types of air fryers with different size baskets so how much you can cook will depend on your model. We spent a bit more and got a ninja air fryer with two separate compartments. This means we can cook two things at the same time at different temperatures and lengths of time.

Air fryers give food and nice crispy result in little time using minimal oil, so it’s also healthier.

How you can save money with an air fryer

Air fryers are more energy-efficient and economical than other forms of cooking. They cook food quickly at a high temperature with a fan. And while they may have a similar wattage and energy consumption to an oven, but it heats up quicker and meals can be cooked in a shorter timeframe than in an oven.

Generally it something takes 30 minutes in an oven at 200 degrees I can put it in the air fryer at 180 for 25 minutes. And the air fryer will take just a few minutes to get to 200 degrees. An oven can take a lot longer to get up to temperature.

You can cook pretty much anything in them from fresh to frozen items. And you can put in a silicon or other type of dish to cook things like pasta bakes etc. Even though items are cooked at slightly lower temperatures and for less time things come out crispier. So chips in particular come out perfectly in the air fryer.

How we save money with an air fryer

Anytime we have a smaller batch of things to cook that will fit in the air fryer that’s what we use. Our Ninja air-fryer allows us to sync start or finish times if we’re cooking two things at different timings which is good. This means that we can make sure everything is cooked to eat together.

The only time we now use an oven is when we’re doing a large meal that would require multiple batches in the air-fryer for example a Sunday roast. Or when I want to make something much larger than my air-fryer like a pizza or a toad in the hole.