A woman has shared her 'game changer pasta alert' to help families cut down on their energy bills.
With people struggling to make ends amid the cost of living crisis, there are lots of money-saving tips doing the rounds - some more useful than others. But one that people do seem to be impressed with involves drastically reducing the cooking time for pasta and therefore helping to keep those energy bills down.
Instead of cooking it from scratch for around 10 minutes on the hob, it can be soaked in cold water first and then takes just a couple of minutes to cook as it's already soft. It's a tip Sarah Hyland saw online and decided to give it a go herself.
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She was so impressed with the result that she decided to share it with others in the Reduce Your Supermarket Spend Facebook group.
"Omg GAME CHANGER PASTA ALERT," she wrote. "I tried it. Soak pasta in cold water for a few hours. Yes it looks hideous grey and grim. Empty water. Add boiled water from kettle to cover pasta. Boiled for literally a minute. Pasta perfection."
She said the tip worked well with the cheapest Hearty Food Co pasta from Tesco costing from 20p for 500g, adding: "Hubby and kids said pasta was lovely, not so sticky."
It was a photo from Reduce Waste Now which Sarah spotted being shared last month. It stated 'old me' with a photo of a pan on the boil for 10 minutes, next to the words 'new me' and a tub of pasta soaking in cold water.
While the post suggested soaking it in water overnight, Sarah did it for just a few hours and others have said it takes even less time, depending on how you want your pasta.
The tip comes after we shared another money-saving hack earlier this week when shoppers were reminded of a 'centuries old tip' for reducing the cost of family meals.
Budget meal planner Lorna Cooper said that with meat often being the most expensive part of a meal, it's easy to cut back by using less of the stuff and bulking meals out with lentils, chickpeas, beans, barley and oats instead.
"It isn't a new phenomena," said Lorna, the brains behind the popular Facebook page Feed your family for about £20 a week.
"Yorkshire puddings are used to fill up people so they eat less meat, same with dumplings and stuffing. Breadcrumbs are used in sausages, meat balls and meat loaf to reduce the meat content. Lentils, chickpeas, beans, barley and oats are used for the same reasons.
"It is a tip that has been used for centuries. If you don't want to do it we won't force you. But if you are meat eaters who want to reduce the cost of your weekly shop then is a very quick and easy way to do it."
Have you tried cooking pasta like this? Do you have any other tips for helping people to cut costs? Let us know in the comments here.
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