Would a bigger freezer save me money?

HairyHandofDartmoor · 6 November 2007 at 6:40PM

I have an average sized freezer, but as we are a family of 5 it gets a bit full, and I wonder sometimes whether a bigger freezer would save us money.

The arguments for buying a bigger freezer are:

1: I could stock up on bogog's and reduced price food and freeze it all (at the moment I can only buy a very limited supply and have to pay full price when the offer has ended)

2: Sometimes we have too much bread and sometimes too little. If I could freeze bread we wouldn't run out and it wouldn't go off either if we have too much (I don't have room in the freezer for bread at the moment)

3: I could freeze leftovers from meals and fruit that is getting a bit old, and then cook something with them later in the week

On the negative side, it would cost £200 to £260 and we are already in debt.

What does everyone think? How quickly do you think the bigger freezer would pay for itself?

I am convinced we would waste less food with a bigger freezer, but am I just kidding myself because I fancy having one?

lil_me · 6 November 2007 at 6:51PM

Bigger freezer space has definately saved me money, well over the cost of it since I bought one. The only negative really is more electricity usage powering an additional one. Oh and I overstock up, it all gets used but can go a bit mad at times.

Another thing maybe worth a try is you could ask on freecycle or www.dontdumpthat.com and see if anyone has one going spare or buy second hand maybe from www.adtrader.co.uk or similar, see if it does save you money before buying a new one.

Costing up waste to see if it would be worth it might be an idea, for a month or even a week, write down what you throw away and how much worth of that you could have rescued into the freezer.

maddriver · 6 November 2007 at 7:04PM

Have been looking at freezers on Ebay, seem to be going round the £50 mark for second hand ones.

Also, if you have room, how about a second, smaller one? might be less outlay?

HairyHandofDartmoor · 6 November 2007 at 7:05PM

Thanks. If I do buy one I would look for an energy efficient one to save on running costs.

I have a large upright fridge and a separate freezer that is half the size, so I would sell or give away the old freezer and put the new taller one in its place. So I think if anything a new one might use less electricity or at least not any more.

Pink. · 6 November 2007 at 7:07PM

Hi HH,

These older threads might help:

Is it worth buying a chest freezer?

Second freezer

Pink

HairyHandofDartmoor · 6 November 2007 at 7:08PM

Maddriver I don't have the space at the moment for a second freezer, so would do as I said above and replace it with a taller version.

I could look on ebay, I never thought of that. But would a newer one cost less electricity to run than a second hand one do you think?

HairyHandofDartmoor · 6 November 2007 at 7:16PM

I've had a quick read of one of those threads and already I feel convinced that I do need a bigger freezer! My daughter is kicking me off the computer now but I will read the threads properly tomorrow.

The next question is, do I get new to save on running costs, or second hand to save money up front?

lil_me · 6 November 2007 at 7:46PM

Depends how much on running costs you will save, don't pressume because things are newer they are higher rated, the freezer I gave away on freecycle last month was A rated, always worth doing some research into what is available. You can usually find info online as to what rating they are etc. I know in the last few months all ones friends have bought either on ebay (I forgot about that one) or from paper etc have been lower energy users, one my friend got was only 3 months old but the couple were changing colour schemes, she paid £40 for it, was £400 new. You might even get 'more' for your money.

HairyHandofDartmoor · 7 November 2007 at 12:06AM

Thanks for that. I will definitely look at ebay and the paper to see if anyone is selling a newish freezer with cheap running costs. It's worth a punt!

kunekune · 7 November 2007 at 9:04AM

I have quite a lot of freezer space, though it is by accident. When we rented our last place, we bought the appliances that were there: a fridge-freezer and also an under-bench freezer. We moved a couple of weeks ago, and there is an integrated fridge-freezer in the kitchen. So, we have the old ones in the garage and I have two fridges and three freezers of varying sizes. At the moment, they are 2/3 full, I haven't been able to plan how to use the space best yet because I had my MIL to stay, I thought it was for a week and got the food for that, and then it was only 3 nights! So there is a lot of fairly expensive meat to use up. But I am planning to buy BOGOFs and reduced stuff and avoid mid-week shopping by having heaps of bread and milk stored up. If only you could freeze bananas ...

Fran

PS. The extra fridge means DH has the most luxurious beer fridge going, and I don't run out of space for cheese, yoghurt or veges. Onions are so much easier to chop if cold.

Kantankrus_Mare · 7 November 2007 at 9:25AM

I recently bought a second freezer to go in the shed for exactly the same reasons.

It means I can stock up on bread when its on offer...(I really begrudge spending more than a pound a loaf!)

I bulk buy from my butchers when he has an offer on.

I have room for all the lasagnes, shepherds pies and chillis i make and hope to expand on this batch cooking for time and money saving.

Im not sure how to work out the savings but Im sure that over time it will pay for itself.

Only thing is........second freezer is now bulging and I don't know how I managed before. :rotfl:

P.S. I got my freezer second hand from the ads in the local paper.

£30 and its as good as new.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Would a bigger freezer save me money?

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free