The holiday season can be expensive and tiring. In this week’s episode I’m going to share my cost and energy saving tips.
What do you want to remember about Christmas?
We can become obsessed with the material things, but I urge you to think deeper and explore your childhood Christmases. When you look back what is it that you remember fondly? Start with those memories before you even think about shopping.
And then keep that thought with you when you look at each of my saving areas, which are going to help you save money and protect your energy levels of the holiday period. But be warned, you need to put some time into the preparation, this is not a time to leave it all to the last minute.
How to save money food shopping.
This is going to take Make a meal plan, work out how many days you will be eating at home, as many of us will eat out over the holiday period, and how many you are catering for for each meal. Then do a meal plan – when doing your meal plan make sure you optimise leftovers, don’t be tempted to over cater, if you are having a big breakfast then one other meal in the day is more than enough.
Then make your list. And if you can, order your shopping online, this way you will only get delivered what you need. Saving your personal energy levels not having to battle the shops, and your money as you won’t be tempted to buy lots of things you need.
Save Energy Bills
We are all concerned about energy bills right now so optimising your usage of the oven and hob is essential. You should never have to turn your oven on to cook just one thing, so if you can prepare and cook dishes in advance do so. And even better, cook double the portions. You have saved yourself time and energy.
You often don’t need to reheat your oven, in recipes we reheat so we can give you more exact timings, but most of the time at home I just pop something into the oven to start to cook straight away. And if you do preheat your oven make sure you are ready to put the food in as soon as it is heated, it can take less time than you think.
If you have a slow cooker, or an airfryer, check to see what you can cook in them as they are much cheaper to heat than a full oven.
Can you cook more than one vegetable in the water? This is something my grandma often did, and I do the same. I might boil carrots in the water and drain them with a spoon into a serving bowl, then use the same water to boil broccoli and then make gravy with it. This also helps keep the nutrients.
Prepare as much ahead as you can
Pre-cooking and preparing as much of the holiday meals as you can in advance is a great way to protect your own personal energy. Christmas can be a demanding time, and if you have been woken at 5am to open presents (is that just me?) then it’s a long hard day. Try and get as much done in advance, this way you can enjoy the day and create new memories that last a lifetime.
Are you ready to get ahead to save time and energy this Christmas?
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Want to know more about ways to work with me?
There are many ways that you can work with me to balance your hormones and improve your health and wellbeing.
On Facebook the Fab Female Nutrition Club is a wonderful FREE community where I offer lots of support and advice on female health and wellbeing. I also love to cook and create recipes and I’ll often be seen in the group cooking live and sharing all the wonderful health benefits of the ingredients used.
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