Whenever we face less water, either because there is civil unrest or a time of waiting for repairs after a natural disaster, or we face high water meter bills, we need to conserve water and find ways to efficiently use stored water.

Also, many foods release their nutrients into water when you boil them.

I have always saved the water from boiling vegetables to use in soup for that reason, but now I am doing something else, too.

After boiling potatoes for potato salad, I use the same water to cook up a big batch of rice. This means one less kettle of water being used and it also means that the rice absorbs the nutrients with the water. I add seasonings at the same time.

Choose a cold day to do a lot of cooking ahead and besides being able to quickly move the water from one use to the next (not giving time for any spoilage) you also will be using the kitchen stove heat to partially offset your household heat.

Over time if you start cooking a lot of vegetables ahead this way, you will find that your bills go down while your nutrition goes up. Avoiding a significant increase in your utilities will involve careful planning of cooking days, but even so, you will probably see an increase in utility expense of ten or fifteen dollars a month compared to a decrease in grocery expense of twenty to thirty dollars a month.