Comments on: You Tell Me: Is a Freezer Worth the Money? http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/ Saving money and getting out of debt from a Christian SAHM perspective Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:15:13 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: KM http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-15877 KM Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:38:02 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-15877 My household is just the two of us, and we definitely benefit from having a chest freezer. Just the savings on beef alone make it worthwhile. We pay $2.30 per pound for a mixed quarter of beef from a small farmer. We get extra lean ground beef (90-95% lean) in 1 pound packages and all of our roasts and steaks for the same low price. We can't get that price on even the average ground beef (85% lean is usually more than that). I'm also able to stock up on other items and freeze extra produce from our garden. Once we begin growing our family, we will definitely see a huge increase in our savings. My household is just the two of us, and we definitely benefit from having a chest freezer. Just the savings on beef alone make it worthwhile. We pay $2.30 per pound for a mixed quarter of beef from a small farmer. We get extra lean ground beef (90-95% lean) in 1 pound packages and all of our roasts and steaks for the same low price. We can’t get that price on even the average ground beef (85% lean is usually more than that). I’m also able to stock up on other items and freeze extra produce from our garden. Once we begin growing our family, we will definitely see a huge increase in our savings.

]]> By: Rob in Madrid http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-15469 Rob in Madrid Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:04:48 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-15469 Note we don't have kids, but we only use the small three drawer freezer in the bottom of the fridge but I am slowly getting rid of my pantry as well. A lot of it has to do with the fact the wife and I are getting older and our metabolism is slowing. I'm finding that I don't need to eat as much. A typical breakfasted used to be 2 eggs bacon toast, toast jam coffee juice etc. Now it's a small bowl of cereal, single egg or a piece of toast. That is the biggest reason for getting rid of the pantry. I still using food I bought a year ago. Eating less means less shopping so I'm less concered about price more about portion size. Now my father/mother in law still have a freezer but they love gardening and freeze alot of stuff. Note we don’t have kids, but we only use the small three drawer freezer in the bottom of the fridge but I am slowly getting rid of my pantry as well. A lot of it has to do with the fact the wife and I are getting older and our metabolism is slowing. I’m finding that I don’t need to eat as much. A typical breakfasted used to be 2 eggs bacon toast, toast jam coffee juice etc. Now it’s a small bowl of cereal, single egg or a piece of toast. That is the biggest reason for getting rid of the pantry. I still using food I bought a year ago. Eating less means less shopping so I’m less concered about price more about portion size.

Now my father/mother in law still have a freezer but they love gardening and freeze alot of stuff.

]]> By: Cathy http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-15450 Cathy Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:39:40 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-15450 I guess I should have mentioned that the power was out for 4 days. I guess I should have mentioned that the power was out for 4 days.

]]> By: Cathy http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-15449 Cathy Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:33:15 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-15449 Another tip is to buy a freezer with commercial grade shelves. When my husband bought our freezer (10 years ago), it cost him $10 more for the one with commercial grade shelves. We found out the value of it after we were evacuated in a forest fire for 4 days. When we came home and opened our freezer, we were surprised to find almost everything still solidly frozen...except a few things, such as the hot dogs in the door. Our neighbors who had freezers were not as fortunate. Another tip is to buy a freezer with commercial grade shelves. When my husband bought our freezer (10 years ago), it cost him $10 more for the one with commercial grade shelves. We found out the value of it after we were evacuated in a forest fire for 4 days. When we came home and opened our freezer, we were surprised to find almost everything still solidly frozen…except a few things, such as the hot dogs in the door. Our neighbors who had freezers were not as fortunate.

]]> By: Kim http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-15413 Kim Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:36:34 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-15413 Not sure if anyone still reads this but for those that have long power outages - Try putting in dry ice for a chest freezer. You can't keep the door opened long, but if you keep it opened just long enough to get the dry ice in you can keep the freezer cold for over 3 days. My note on freezers - I live by myself and I have a small chest freezer and like the rest of the responders I stock up on meats when they are on sale. Because the freezer is small I work from sale to sale. I also bake my own bread, why spend $2 dollars on a loaf when to make one costs $.60 cents. I make a few loaves of different breads and freeze them. I like to cook with a lot of exotic ingreidents (banana Leaves for instance) so will freeze them when they go on sale. I love my chest freezer. Not sure if anyone still reads this but for those that have long power outages – Try putting in dry ice for a chest freezer. You can’t keep the door opened long, but if you keep it opened just long enough to get the dry ice in you can keep the freezer cold for over 3 days.
My note on freezers – I live by myself and I have a small chest freezer and like the rest of the responders I stock up on meats when they are on sale. Because the freezer is small I work from sale to sale. I also bake my own bread, why spend $2 dollars on a loaf when to make one costs $.60 cents. I make a few loaves of different breads and freeze them. I like to cook with a lot of exotic ingreidents (banana Leaves for instance) so will freeze them when they go on sale.
I love my chest freezer.

]]> By: june http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-15391 june Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:38:18 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-15391 I am probably on the fringe-side of normal freezer ownership: sort of a baglady-at-home. I have a 10 year old Sears that is not self- defrosting but when ice builds up, I just throw everything onto an old shower curtain and srrape down the inside with a plastic pancake flapper dipped into hot water onto a sheet of plastic placed on the freezer bottom. This only takes about 15 minutes. The process is actually a good opportunity to assess what's stored. I never blanch anything and find it works great-perhaps because most of my stuff gets cooked eventually anyway. I label a lot but have evolved into using clear plastic bags for produce one year and then blue the next, so I make sure to use up one year's stuff before the next. (Right now I am frantically eating up all the blue bags, which is a good spring diet too.) Perhaps I shouldn't mention this but since I am the only one eating the frozen leafy greens (just an 87 year old husband and a middle-aged floozie here) last year I just harvested right after a night rain and picked carefully (no outer leaves) and didn't even wash them. (Not company fare-haha and perhaps a few extra minerals!) I use large clear plastic bags to loosely organize the small bags/packages into 4 sections: fruit, vegetables, bread etc. and meat/fish sections with a few discount turkeys floating around on the bottom part of the freezer. On top of that I have 3 fitted, easily removable wire baskets. where I can store things that need to be eaten soon, jars of homemade applesauce, soup, leftovers, frozen juice from reduced citrus, cooked dired beans, cheese, etc. I have elvolved into freezing and eating things like papaya seeds (peppery!), uncooked squash seeds, grape and fig leaves, daylilly, honeysuckle, rose and violet flowers (and leaves),raw coconut, (shredded with brown skin on)- not that I am advising anyone else to eat these things! This January the local IGA sold me all of the left-over loose nuts for practically nothing, so I've frozen a ton of them. (Nuts for the nut!) I am probably on the fringe-side of normal freezer ownership: sort of a baglady-at-home. I have a 10 year old Sears that is not self- defrosting but when ice builds up, I just throw everything onto an old shower curtain and srrape down the inside with a plastic pancake flapper dipped into hot water onto a sheet of plastic placed on the freezer bottom. This only takes about 15 minutes. The process is actually a good opportunity to assess what’s stored. I never blanch anything and find it works great-perhaps because most of my stuff gets cooked eventually anyway. I label a lot but have evolved into using clear plastic bags for produce one year and then blue the next, so I make sure to use up one year’s stuff before the next. (Right now I am frantically eating up all the blue bags, which is a good spring diet too.) Perhaps I shouldn’t mention this but since I am the only one eating the frozen leafy greens (just an 87 year old husband and a middle-aged floozie here) last year I just harvested right after a night rain and picked carefully (no outer leaves) and didn’t even wash them. (Not company fare-haha and perhaps a few extra minerals!) I use large clear plastic bags to loosely organize the small bags/packages into 4 sections: fruit, vegetables, bread etc. and meat/fish sections with a few discount turkeys floating around on the bottom part of the freezer. On top of that I have 3 fitted, easily removable wire baskets. where I can store things that need to be eaten soon, jars of homemade applesauce, soup, leftovers, frozen juice from reduced citrus, cooked dired beans, cheese, etc. I have elvolved into freezing and eating things like papaya seeds (peppery!), uncooked squash seeds, grape and fig leaves, daylilly, honeysuckle, rose and violet flowers (and leaves),raw coconut, (shredded with brown skin on)- not that I am advising anyone else to eat these things! This January the local IGA sold me all of the left-over loose nuts for practically nothing, so I’ve frozen a ton of them. (Nuts for the nut!)

]]> By: Sarah http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-15387 Sarah Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:31:58 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-15387 I have had a chest freezer for many years, and used it religiously, we once had 128 boxes of (generic) Cheez-It and Ritz crackers that we bought for $.25 a box- we had crackers for two years for $35. (About 90% off, and they froze BEAUTIFULLY) I buy frozen vegeatables on sale, the chopped onions and ready made 'soup starters' are so convenient, and if you find the right sale, much cheaper than fresh. A WORD OF WARNING- We just went on vacation, and while we were gone we experienced a power outage. All the clocks were flashing when we returned, and sure enough- everything in our freezer was gone. I was devastated, but I still don't regret using a freezer. I don't think that even with the approx $600 loss in food, we have even scratched the savings that we've had over the last 10 years. THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER: 1) Put in a thaw indicator- ***EASY and FREE***- Take an old plastic peanut butter jar (something with a screw on lid) fill it halfway full of water- put it in the freezer and let it freeze. Then- FLIP IT UPSIDE DOWN and put it back in your freezer. The ice will then be at the TOP of your jar, and if there ever is a thaw you will know that the freezer has gone above freezing because the water has thawed and re-frozen at the bottom of your container. Sometimes power goes out without your knowledge for an extended length of time (for example utility companies working in the area) 2)Filling milk jugs with water and freeze them along with your food. The more frozen stuff in your fidge, the longer it will stay cold when the power goes out. Air heats up much faster than a solid block of ice. So, if your freezer is not full, fill up the empty space with water jugs, that way if the power goes out those blocks of ice might buy you just enough time to save what is in the freezer. 3)CONSIDER THE POWER SOURCE YOUR FREEZER IS HOOKED UP TO. This is how we lost our freezer stash. We were gone on vacation, and the power went out. We had someone watching the house, so we know the power wasn't out for long. HOWEVER, the outlet that the freezer was hooked up to in our garage was part of a ground fault circuit that only ran the outlets in the bathrooms. Our house-sitter had no idea that circuit had flipped because everything else was working. When the power came back on, that circuit did not get reset, and by the time we discovered it, it was too late. This seems like a one-off kind of deal, but it needs consideration. -Make sure your freezer is not on a ground fault outlet- probably not a problem for most people, but check anyway -Make sure that your outlet is secure (kids may knock the plug loose, especially if your freezer is in a high-traffic area, like the garage, near where you store other stuff they may get into) -Check on your freezer regularly- you may catch an issue before it becomes a problem. IF the freezer fails- compressor goes out- whatever, you may catch it before you lose all your food. I used mine at least twice a day, so if I had NOT been on vacation, I would have discovered the problem before it was too late. I miss my stash- My freezer was like a grocery store. Even when I hadn't bought groceries for weeks there was always SOMETHING in the freezer I could throw together for dinner. Now all I have is a box of popsicles and a can of frozen concentrated OJ. Its going to take me a while to recover, BUT on the bright side I won't have to figure out how to use the box of salmon patties that we bought during a moment of insanity last month at Sam's. I have had a chest freezer for many years, and used it religiously, we once had 128 boxes of (generic) Cheez-It and Ritz crackers that we bought for $.25 a box- we had crackers for two years for $35. (About 90% off, and they froze BEAUTIFULLY) I buy frozen vegeatables on sale, the chopped onions and ready made ’soup starters’ are so convenient, and if you find the right sale, much cheaper than fresh.

A WORD OF WARNING-
We just went on vacation, and while we were gone we experienced a power outage. All the clocks were flashing when we returned, and sure enough- everything in our freezer was gone. I was devastated, but I still don’t regret using a freezer. I don’t think that even with the approx $600 loss in food, we have even scratched the savings that we’ve had over the last 10 years.

THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER:
1) Put in a thaw indicator- ***EASY and FREE***- Take an old plastic peanut butter jar (something with a screw on lid) fill it halfway full of water- put it in the freezer and let it freeze. Then- FLIP IT UPSIDE DOWN and put it back in your freezer. The ice will then be at the TOP of your jar, and if there ever is a thaw you will know that the freezer has gone above freezing because the water has thawed and re-frozen at the bottom of your container. Sometimes power goes out without your knowledge for an extended length of time (for example utility companies working in the area)
2)Filling milk jugs with water and freeze them along with your food. The more frozen stuff in your fidge, the longer it will stay cold when the power goes out. Air heats up much faster than a solid block of ice. So, if your freezer is not full, fill up the empty space with water jugs, that way if the power goes out those blocks of ice might buy you just enough time to save what is in the freezer.
3)CONSIDER THE POWER SOURCE YOUR FREEZER IS HOOKED UP TO. This is how we lost our freezer stash. We were gone on vacation, and the power went out. We had someone watching the house, so we know the power wasn’t out for long. HOWEVER, the outlet that the freezer was hooked up to in our garage was part of a ground fault circuit that only ran the outlets in the bathrooms. Our house-sitter had no idea that circuit had flipped because everything else was working. When the power came back on, that circuit did not get reset, and by the time we discovered it, it was too late. This seems like a one-off kind of deal, but it needs consideration.
-Make sure your freezer is not on a ground fault outlet- probably not a problem for most people, but check anyway
-Make sure that your outlet is secure (kids may knock the plug loose, especially if your freezer is in a high-traffic area, like the garage, near where you store other stuff they may get into)
-Check on your freezer regularly- you may catch an issue before it becomes a problem. IF the freezer fails- compressor goes out- whatever, you may catch it before you lose all your food. I used mine at least twice a day, so if I had NOT been on vacation, I would have discovered the problem before it was too late.

I miss my stash- My freezer was like a grocery store. Even when I hadn’t bought groceries for weeks there was always SOMETHING in the freezer I could throw together for dinner. Now all I have is a box of popsicles and a can of frozen concentrated OJ. Its going to take me a while to recover, BUT on the bright side I won’t have to figure out how to use the box of salmon patties that we bought during a moment of insanity last month at Sam’s.

]]> By: Heather http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-14420 Heather Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:17:55 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-14420 Freezers are wonderful! We got ours from Freecycle.com and its a bit battered, but otherwise very useful. I like freezers because you can stock up on all the wonderful sale items like bread, juice, frozen veggies (if you didn't put enough up), etc. Also, if you find someone to go in on a cow or pig with you you can buy a 1/2 or 1/4 cow or pig and really save some money on meat. Often it is much less than the supermarket prices per pound and because you know who you are buying it from, it is also better for you. Freezers are wonderful! We got ours from Freecycle.com and its a bit battered, but otherwise very useful. I like freezers because you can stock up on all the wonderful sale items like bread, juice, frozen veggies (if you didn’t put enough up), etc. Also, if you find someone to go in on a cow or pig with you you can buy a 1/2 or 1/4 cow or pig and really save some money on meat. Often it is much less than the supermarket prices per pound and because you know who you are buying it from, it is also better for you.

]]> By: Kate@Living the Frugal Life http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-11478 Kate@Living the Frugal Life Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:04:51 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-11478 Wow, I just stumbled onto your blog and here I find you asking about a topic I tackled recently in three separate posts, the first of which can be found here: http://livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com/2008/09/chest-freezer-good-frugal-tool-for-you.html I wouldn't be without my chest freezer, but there's definitely a learning curve to using it efficiently. My only qualms involve post apocalyptic scenarios where the electricity gets cut off and I'm facing a freezer full of thawed food that we'll never eat up before it goes off. Anyway, I'm confident that we save a great deal by having the chest freezer. Maybe my posts will help you think through your decision. Wow, I just stumbled onto your blog and here I find you asking about a topic I tackled recently in three separate posts, the first of which can be found here:

http://livingthefrugallife.blo.....r-you.html

I wouldn’t be without my chest freezer, but there’s definitely a learning curve to using it efficiently. My only qualms involve post apocalyptic scenarios where the electricity gets cut off and I’m facing a freezer full of thawed food that we’ll never eat up before it goes off. Anyway, I’m confident that we save a great deal by having the chest freezer. Maybe my posts will help you think through your decision.

]]> By: Marci http://beingfrugal.net/2008/09/12/is-a-freezer-worth-the-money/comment-page-2/#comment-11466 Marci Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:24:17 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=979#comment-11466 Lynnae - if you cook double ahead and freeze one it should definitely help the eating out! And I like to have meals ahead for when company or the out of town kids/grandkids show up. They get Mom's homecooking without my having to cook, so I can enjoy the grandkids instead! Right now there's homemade Lasagna, Chicken and Yellow Rice, Ham and White Bean soup, (all family favs) various veggie dishes, and frozen marbled brownies. Makes it so easy! Plus leftovers packaged in meals for me to take to work for lunch! Enjoy! Lynnae – if you cook double ahead and freeze one it should definitely help the eating out! And I like to have meals ahead for when company or the out of town kids/grandkids show up. They get Mom’s homecooking without my having to cook, so I can enjoy the grandkids instead! Right now there’s homemade Lasagna, Chicken and Yellow Rice, Ham and White Bean soup, (all family favs) various veggie dishes, and frozen marbled brownies. Makes it so easy! Plus leftovers packaged in meals for me to take to work for lunch! Enjoy!

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