How to Save Money With a Dehydrator
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A dehydrator is a great way to preserve food, but did you know that there are lots of ways to save money with a dehydrator too?
Here’s how this handy food preservation tool can help you save lots of money while you stock up your pantry!
There are lots of reasons why a dehydrator is a great tool to have in your home. With a dehydrator, you can:
- Save money
- Save time
- Increase the nutritional quality of your food
Today, I’m talking about the money-saving part. Yes, the machine (especially a really good one like the Excalibur, will cost a good bit of money upfront. However, like other good “investments”, it will quickly pay for itself. Here’s how.
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Ways to Save Money With a Dehydrator
Buy Food on Sale
You’ll be able to purchase food at a discount and then process it for use throughout the year. This past year we went to a local orchard and purchased as many half-bushels of apple seconds that we could fit in the not-so-big trunk of our ancient Nissan Sentra. I spent the next several days slicing and drying fruit and now we are still eating the dried apples from last year and they are delicious!
We’ve also been able to load up that same Nissan trunk to capacity with discounted bananas from Aldi and then make dried bananas from them. And these are not processed with oil and sugar variety that are called “banana chips.” No, these are wonderful chewy dried bananas that sell for about $10 per pound regularly.
What a savings when you can score on some discount bananas for about $.19/lb and then dehydrate them! We sure looked like weirdos pushing our cart up to the register, but it isn’t weird at all to live beneath your means!
Fewer Trips to the Store
You’ll also save money by not making extra trips to the store. This is an often-overlooked part of savings that people forget about. If you have a well-stocked pantry and know how to make substitutions when cooking, you will find yourself running out to the store less often for that “one thing you ran out of” because you now have backups galore. Boy, do those gas savings add up!
Get Specialty Foods at a Discount
Finally, you’ll save money by being able to make specialty foods for your family without the “gourmet food” price. We’ve made our own sun-dried tomatoes using last summer’s harvest and they make their way into omelets, frittatas, pasta, and they’re even great plain!
We also made our own fruit leather….
and even flax crackers! Sorry I didn’t get a picture of these (they all got eaten), but 4 ounces of these sell for between $5 and $5.99 on the internet right now. That’s almost $24 per pound!
Organic flax seed through my local buying club is just $1.40/lb. What a savings!
I recommend the same dehydrator that I purchased (The Excalibur). Yes, it’s an investment up front, but it:
- works great
- dries evenly
- has a great warranty
What do you use your dehydrator for?
I have been experimenting with our Excalibur, too. Love it! We’ve done fruits from the store and herbs from our herb garden, but I am really looking forward to dehydrating the tomatoes and veggies from our garden this year. 🙂
You’ll love them. Check out my posts on sun dried tomatoes! Enjoy!
I too have an Excalibur and I LOVE it! I dehydrate everything and it saves a ton of money.
I grew up a vegetarian and my mom did nothing but dehydrate my foods. I loved them and I love them still. I buy packaged dry fruits and I have the hardest time finding them not loaded with added sugars. I try to cut that out as much as possible. I always look at dehydrators whenever in the store because I am a huge fruit fanatic. Now I can’t wait to hear more on this wonderful Excalibur.
I don’t like the added sugars either. I have a huge amount of soaked walnuts drying right now. I’d be happy to talk w/ you anytime about the Excalibur. Take care.
Seems like excaliburs are taking over the healthy blogging community, haha! And yes, I’d like to join the party and own one. Fruit leather sounds great, and I’ve heard you can use it to make yogurt, too, which sounds way easier than the cooler method I’m using now! Maybe someday 🙂
I’m sure you saw my savings page on them….I’ll see what else I can maybe do.
Thanks for stopping by!
I have always passed by the marked down produce rack at our local Meijer and wondered what I could do with the discounted items. I never even thought of dehydrating them before. I don’t know if I would take the leap and buy a new one at first, but perhaps if I see one at a yard sale this season I will pick it up and try it out. If I get “hooked” I will upgrade!
I think you’ll love dehydrating -thought I must say, the Excalibur is amazing. Let me know when you decide to upgrade and I can help you get the best deal. Take care!
I have wanted a food dehydrator since I was a kid. I used to watch those Ronco infomercials and BEG my mom for one. She finally buckled and got me an imitation and the trays melted! Needless to say, I’ve been eyeing the excalibur for a while. I’m intimidated by its size. I honestly don’t know where we would put it. We just sold our microwave so we could have more counter space.
QUESTION: Have you ever made kale chips? The ‘cheezy’ kind? They’re like $7 at the health food store and never come out right in the oven.
Hi Andrea. I have never made the cheezy kind (you mean with nutritional yeast?). But here is my post on them: Kale Chips – Do It Yourself. I put my dehydrator in my pantry on a small telephone table in a corner. I have seen other “real foodies” put them in their laundry area in the basement. I wouldn’t keep it in the kitchen. It’s a bit too big for that unless you have a gargantuan kitchen. I even (hee hee) had mine in one of our small living areas for awhile until the pantry idea struck me. I’m not the best at organizing. Let me know if you decide to get one. I assume you saw my Excalibur Savings Page. I would love to help you with a good deal if you decide to “take the plunge.”
I just bought an Excalibur about a month ago. I just found your website the other day. I wish I had seen your offer before purchasing. Your offer is really a good deal! I would have loved to get the Paraflexx sheets for free.
Thanks for stopping by! Yes, it is a nice deal. The cookbook is quite nice as well.
I found your blog through Kitchen Stewardship (I think… ) when she (or someone else) posted something about your Moroccan Viniagrette. We make it All. The. Time. now and love it!
Anyway, I’m commenting here to ask you about the Excalibur.
I have been wanting one forever, but haven’t yet taken the plunge 🙂
Is this the one that you can take the trays out of and put jars in for making yogurt?
I need a place that is a stable temp (90*-110*) for 24 hours and I just don’t have it at my house.
My oven with the light on gets over 130*
So anyway, I just wanted to know if you’ve tried that or if you know if it works.
Thanks!
Jessica
Hi Jessica!
Thanks for coming by and I’m so glad to hear about the vinaigrette. Isn’t it amazing?!
Yes, the Excalibur is the one that you are talking about. I am actually a dealer (my button is off my blog right now….I need to get it back on there :-).
I love it and just used it tons over the weekend to process about 60 pounds of tomatoes (some I had to freeze).
I can offer you a great deal (I think it really is the best on the market) where you can get 3 free Paraflexx sheets and a really nice cookbook to go with it. The info is on my Excalibur Savings page.
Let me know what you think after you read that and I would be happy to answer any questions that you have.
By the way, I think it was Modern Alternative Mama that you came from, but Katie and I are friends. She lives here in the same city :-).
Adrienne, it does sound like a great value, but right now there’s no room in my budget for an expense that big. I’ll keep it in mind in the future, though. Thanks!
Oooh, I want one now! I have appliance envy!
🙂
Where does one get one of these at a thrifty price?
Hi Niki. I don’t know if you noticed it, but there is an “Excalibur Dehydrator Savings page” on my blog that you can link to here. I am quite certain that my offer is one of, if not the best, available. I would be happy to talk with you about getting one. I assure you will get a lot of use out of it! Let me know!
Thank you for the post. I have been thinking about getting a dehydrator and wondered if and how I would use it. I am looking forward to reading more.
Heather
Please contact me about a dehydrator purchase – I tried to write to you at the other spot on your blog, but there was no captcha code to enter??? Thank you. I am interested in purchasing a dehydrator.
Thanks for linking to our Frugal Tuesday Tip. Hope you link in the future!
I might be interested in buying the Excalibur if I knew how much it cost.
Thanks,
Gail
I will forward you more information. For now, you can check out my Excalibur Savings page and click through to Excalibur there to see more information on their pricing. They are more money up front, but really are worth it.
I have an old small dehydrator that I use every summer but I’d love to hear more about your dehydrator and how useful it is. I haven’t been able to dry blueberries, but pie cherries are my very favorite fruit to dehydrate.
I have more of information on my site regarding my dehydrator. You can check out
this post about saving space and time and the other is on increasing nutrition w/ a dehydrator
This post on Sun Dried Tomatoes is another one to check out.
Also this post on soaking and drying nuts and seeds?
I hope all of that helps. Let me know if I can be of further assistance!
I have never considered a dehydrator, but after looking at your sun-dried tomatoes, I just might have to look into one. I use them in a lot of my cooking.
Thanks for linking up to Kitchen Economics. I hope to see you this Wednesday.
Hi Kristia! I have to say, that the sun-dried tomatoes are wonderful!! They are one of those things that I would love to buy but will not since they are so expensive. And this way I can get them even “no spray” or organic, or out of my own backyard (provided that our garden works out this year :-)!) I am scheduled to do a guest post on them at Kelly the Kitchen Kop sometime within the next few months so it you are following my blog you will see it for sure. I will for sure try to make it over to your blog again on Wed.
I love the idea of being prepared with dried items from a dehydrator. Like the soup base–that could save me $ on evenings when there is nothing to fix that is fast. Great post! Found you from the Family Balance Sheet.
Hi Adrienne,
I just discovered your blog, through Kitchen Stewardship, and I love it! Thank you for sharing your tips and secrets to make other people’s lives easier!
Kiwi was on sale a few weeks ago and I dried that.
We love our dehydrator; using it most often for drying produce (used for snacks on the go). We have made a dehydrated “soup base” using onion, garlic, carrot, celery and some fresh herbs…wonderful and small storage space.
How interesting…I just purchased some dehydrated vegetables in hopes of making a new vegetable soup base. Do you have specific measurements and if you would be willing to share instructions for your broth I would be most grateful!