• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Whole New Mom

Research-Based Healthy Living You Can Trust

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
      • Advertise
  • Recipes
  • Essential Oils
  • Resources
  • Safer Beauty
    • Beautycounter
    • Beauty & Personal Care
You are here: Home / Budget Help / How and Why to Dehydrate – Part One (3 Ways to Save Money Dehydrating)

How and Why to Dehydrate – Part One (3 Ways to Save Money Dehydrating)

by Adrienne 72 Comments Updated: November 20, 2018

983shares
  • Facebook153
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest828

Dehydrator Save Money Wmk

Ever since we purchased this sleek, black machine about 1 year ago, I have almost not stopped talking about it.  Well, not really…

That's the way that I am about things that I'm excited about — that's a lot of the reason why my husband encouraged me to start this blog.  He'd say, “Well, you are always wanting to share with others about great things that you have found, so this way you don't have to keep repeating yourself!”

I didn't know that I was getting that redundant.

At least he meant it as a compliment.  And now you get to hear about one of my favorite things in my kitchen (well, actually, it is now in our pantry) — our dehydrator.

I'll be sharing specific techniques and recipes for the dehydrator in the future, but for now I just want to tell you why you should get one and what you can do with it so that you can benefit from the time and research that I put into our purchase.

First of all, why would you buy a dehydrator in the first place?  Over the next few days, I'm going to show you how a dehydrator will help you:

  • Save money
  • Save time
  • Increase the nutritional quality of your food

Today–the saving money part.  Yes, the machine (especially a really good one like the Excalibur, will cost a good bit of money up front.  However, like other good “investments”, it will quickly pay for itself.  Here's how:

1.  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!

Dried Apples in Dehydrator
Dried Apple Slices

We've also been able to load up that same Nissan's trunk to capacity with discounted bananas from Aldi and then make dried bananas from them.  And these are not the 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 to live beneath your means!

Dried Bananas in Dehydrator
Dried Banana Slices

2.  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!

3.  Finally, you'll save money by being able to make specialty foods for your family without the “gourmet food” price.  We made our own sun-dried tomatoes using last summer's harvest and they are still making their way into omelettes, pasta, etc.

Make Homemade Sun Dried Tomatoes in Dehydrator
“Sun-Dried Tomatoes”

We also made our own fruit leather and —

Homemade Fruit Leather in a Dehydrator
Apple Fruit Leather (sorry, it got a bit squooshed together)

here's a BIG money saver — flax crackers!  No picture for this one (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.  You'll love them and you'll love the price!

I recommend the same dehydrator that I purchased (The Excalibur). I know that it is not cheap.  I'll go into its merits more later, but in a nutshell, it

works great
dries evenly

has a great warranty

If you'd like some thoughts on why spending money on a “big ticket” item like an Excalibur Dehydrator now might actually save you money, please read my post on Inflation – One Way to Beat It.

I guarantee you won't be disappointed.  Join me again tomorrow when I'll share the time and space saving benefits of dehydrating.

What would you most like to dehydrate?

983shares
  • Facebook153
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest828

Come join our Healthy Living Community on Facebook

Join our Facebook Group

Related Posts

Loads of information about probiotics. What works, what doesn't, and whether you need them or not.
The “Straight Poop” About Probiotics
Costco's coconut oil - is it cheap coconut oil or the real deal? Seems like the price is too good to be true - but is it? Is Costco selling substandard junk just to make a buck? Read this and find out the truth.
Is Costco’s Coconut Oil Junk? Or the Real Deal?
Got indigestion or other tummy troubles? Soaking grains can help - here's How and Why to Soak Grains. Your body will thank you for it!
How to Soak Grains (and Why You Should)

Filed Under: Budget Help, How To, What To Buy

About Adrienne

Adrienne Urban is the Founder and Owner of Whole New Mom. She has a background in research, journalism, insurance, employee benefits, financial markets, frugal living, and nutrition. Seeking a better life for herself and her family, she uses research and consults with many physicians and other practitioners to find solutions to the variety of issues they have dealt with including life-threatening food allergies and thyroid and adrenal concerns. WholeNewMom.com is the result of her experiences and knowledge gained throughout the process. Posts are reviewed and verified by the Whole New Mom team.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You have to agree to the comment policy.

Comments

  1. Bob says

    July 25, 2012 at 7:15 pm

    We found your site from wholenewmom.com while looking for carob chip recipes. We bought an Excalibur dehydrator about 3 years ago after finding a Yahoo group about dehydrating. A lot of the people on that site were praising the Excalibur dehydrator. We tried using it the first summer and fall we had it. We dried peaches, apples, blueberries, watermelon, Vidalia onions, grapes, tomatoes, and some herbs.

    Unfortunately everything we dried ended up being moldy after a period of time. We went back to the Yahoo group and tried to find answers, no help. After seeing your site, we thought maybe you could help give us some ideas of what we did wrong. We thought we followed the recipe book directions, but???? We dried until the items would either snap when bent or would bend and more or less keep their shape for a while. The blueberries turned into little rough blue rocks that when we tried to use after soaking in hot water, had no taste.

    Any ideas?
    Thanks, Bob & Betty

    Reply
    • Adrienne says

      July 25, 2012 at 7:27 pm

      Were they moldy after drying you mean? I have never dried blueberries, but cranberries didn’t work well and I am not sure why. My tomatoes and zucchini all came out fabulously. Maybe try calling their headquarters? I would think that you aren’t drying them enough if they are molding.

      Reply
      • Bob says

        July 25, 2012 at 9:19 pm

        The blueberries were just like rocks, and no flavor. Everything else got moldy.

        Reply
        • Adrienne says

          July 25, 2012 at 9:22 pm

          I really don’t know. I use my dehydrator a lot but mostly for nuts, seeds, flax crackers….and I did a ton of apples and pears awhile ago….and fruit leathers. I really wish I could help but I think perhaps you should call Excalibur. I’d love to hear what they say.

          Reply
  2. Susan says

    June 16, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    I’d love any more information on the dehydrator. I have a round one that I’ll be using again this summer, but I am also beginning to think really long term (camping, survival type stuff) and I’d like to know more about yours.

    Reply
    • Adrienne says

      June 16, 2012 at 4:03 pm

      I’d be happy to correspond via email. I’ll send you one now.

      Reply
  3. Laura says

    June 1, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    Inviting you the Carnival of Home Preserving on my blog today and every Friday. Hope to see you there. Laura Williams’ Musings https://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com

    Reply
  4. Ann says

    May 26, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    What is the electrical use on running a dehydrator for long periods? Every time I’ve used one our bill went nuts, almost as much as running an electric heater, which it was plus the fan. Anyone have info on power use/costs?

    Reply
    • Adrienne says

      May 26, 2012 at 5:31 pm

      Your actual cost for using the dehydrator will depend on your local utility company, and how much they charge per kW/hour. And what dehydrator you have, of course. The Excalibur dehydrators use 600, 440 and 220 watts for the 9,5, and 4 tray models. So check your utility costs and get back to me — I couldn’t find my Kw/hr rate so I am not sure what I am paying now, but I don’t think it’s that much.

      Reply
  5. Jenny in Colorado says

    May 26, 2012 at 2:56 pm

    We have the Excalibur and LOVE IT! Best dehydrator out there, worth every penny. I use mine mostly to make beef jerky, and I’ve also dehydrated sprouted grains in it. We don’t do too much fruit because we try to regulate our blood sugar, but kiwi is out of this world when dried. Definitely need to use it more, for veggies and the like. I think because we keep it in the garage it becomes “out of sight, out of mind” for me. Thanks for the reminder! : )

    Reply
    • Adrienne says

      May 26, 2012 at 2:58 pm

      You’re welcome :-). We are the same w/ the fruit restrictions. But it does a great job. Take care!

      Reply
« Older Comments
Newer Comments »
Please note: these comments do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of Whole New Mom.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2019 · Whole New Mom · Log in

Privacy Policy

Disclaimer

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube