Is it worth having a second freezer

thriftlady_2

My freezer is my greatest old style tool. I find it far more useful for money-saving than any other gadget.

It means I can store leftovers instead of binning them.

It means I can take advantage of good deals on meat, fish and seasonal fruit and veg bought in bulk.

It means I don't have to rush to use up seasonal gluts.

It means I can always have homemade stock at hand.

It means I can bake 4 loaves of bread at the same time and store the extra in the freezer.

At the moment I have in my freezer

lamb, pork, a rabbit, steak, mince, bacon, ham, cooked turkey (big surprise:D )
smoked mackerel, salmon fillets, pollack fillets
loads of turkey stock
breadcrumbs, cubed bread crusts
crumble topping
leftover bread sauce, chocolate sauce, cranberry sauce and beef gravy
cooked chickpeas, haricot beans and kidney beans
peas and sweetcorn
ice cream
milk
vegetable hash (very finely chopped onions, garlic, leek, carrot, pepper)
Christmas pudding muffins
butter
parsley
small quantities of yogurt to use for as starters for hm yogurt
loaves of bread
pitta bread

For other ideas on how to get the best out of your freezer have a look at this thread.

Pink.

Hi kezz,

It's definitely worth seeing if it still works. I have a large chest freezer and a fridge freezer in the garage and they are worth their weight in gold. You can batch cook, buy reduced items when you see them and make individual ready meals out of leftovers that can be easily pulled out and reheated when a teen is in a hurry out or going to be late home.

There's an earlier thread that should help so I've added your thread to it to keep the replies together. This thread may be useful too:

Is it worth buying a chest freezer?

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mardatha

I hate you lot ! I keep trying to save money and you keep MAKING me spend it ! I have a 4 drawer fridge-freezer and was quite happy with that until now.
it's easy to run elect to a shed, my OH did it and he's useless at DIY. Bury the cable inside that grey plastic stuff you get for lagging pipes. Nothing has nibbled through ours and it's been there a lot of years .

nesssie1702

Yes, a second freezer is a must!

We've got a chest freezer out in the garage and then I've got an American style fridge freezer in the kitchen - I store all sorts in both - meals that I've made myself, soups, lasagnes, chilli, curry, RTC foods, things that I've bought on offer and enjoyed, joints of meat, fish, bread - you name it!

Go for it, in my opinion

pigpen

ok.. I am convinced this is one of this years jobs that HAS to be done. Until we moved here we always had a huge chest freezer.. and I mean HUGE.. it was the size of one of the ones in supermarkets!.. I sold it to my BIL who is a butcher as we had no room for it in the kitchen here and I didn't think we would need it having shops at the end of the street, plus Iceland stopped their online shop.. HOWEVER.. I have a larder freezer and a F/F which seems to be either empty or bursting.. if I get a chest freezer I'll resume my Iceland mega stops.. I can get off the bus there on the way home from college and then get back on the bus and have it delivered when I get home.. perfect! ..

My old one was an absolute life saver on occasion.. like when I was unable to get to shop when pregnant or just had a baby.. and I do miss it. I'd say it was a must for anyone who can make the room!

MadMonkey

We recently moved and for the first time ever had space for a 2nd freezer - we now have a larder freezer and it is amazing !

I can freeze any leftovers, bread e.t.c and then batch cook meals so we always have homemade meals ready.

I also cook massive amounts of mash, par boiled potatoes ready for roasting and par boiled cubed pots ready for corned beef hash.

I also make vats of tomato based sauce and freeze it and then it's ready for spag bol, lasagne, HM pizza e.t.c.

JillD_2

We got a second hand frezer off freecycle a couple of years back and used iot loads during my last pregnancy and first year of baba for storing batch cooking stuff.

We recently got one of those plug in electricity monitors and we decided based on what it showed that not using that freezer was something we coud do to save electricity. I dont know what the energy rating of it is, probably not too good, its not even frost free so we ar paying to freeze layers of ice too.

I can't decide if the cost saving of filling it with batch cooking is compared to the cost of running it. Is it a false eceonomy ? I wondered what people's thinking was.

I know I could work out the actual cost to run it, and I could do some massive analysis of buying and cooking in bulk and work out how many meals the freezer fits bla bla bla but I'll never have/find the time (or inclination). Just wondered what people thought.

HariboJunkie

It's hard to say if it's not A rated for energy. I am desperate for another freezer as I am a frustrated batch cooker who frequently runs out of room and have to stand forlornly at the whoopsie counter in the supermarket cos there is no more room for anything else in my poxy little freezers.

If you're serious about batch cooking and don't just do what Pink-winged does and keep filling hers until the stuff at the bottom is older than her children :rolleyes: then I think it would pay for itself in the long run.

Larumbelle

For me, the running costs of a second freezer just weren't worth it - but I am very organised with my freezer, a tiny chest thingy.

Non-frost-free isn't necessarily a problem, I'm sure I've read somewhere that frost free uses more elctricity? I keep mine frost free by regularly defrosting it. I don't find defrosting a palava at all. I just empty everything out into a bin bag, wrap an old duvet round it, switch off the freezer, use a hairdryer to heat the top of the ice for literally seconds, then use a blunt knife to separate the ice from the freezer (use a butter knife at the sharpest - it really does need to be blunt!), then towel down the inside of the freezer. Then bung everything back in - takes half hour absolute tops!

I make sure that everything in my freezer earns its keep. I keep a book of what's in there and I have a psychological limit of 1 month before use for homemade ready meals and 2 months for anything else. I then plan accordingly.

Things that I think will influence whether the second freezer works for you:

1) How much time you have to cook and what happens if you can't cook that evening. I don't have kids so I never have an excuse not to cook, if I am away or really ill OH can fend for himself. If you resort to processed food or takeaways if there's nothing 'easy' on hand, you can afford to allocate more to the second freezer.

2) How you cook - if you use slower cooking methods and use your cooker, or your cooker uses electricity, batch cooking will be more cost effective even with an older freezer. And if you are on a pre-pay neter for that leccy, it becomes even more efficient.

3) How exactly you use the freezer - is it becoming a dumping ground? If so you need self-discipline rather than a second freezer! I know people with second freezers who could just run one if they ate any of what they'd frozen occasionally!

That's just my instinct. Hope it helps, I'm sure someone's done the 'proper' maths though!

Pink.

There was a thread on a similar topic yesterday:

Is it worth having a second freezer

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the replies together

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Haribo I saw that!