Do freezers really help save money?

Little_miss_sunshine_2

I think you can definitely save money by home freezing. For the most efficient use of any freezer space you have I think it helps to be as organised as you can be.

I always date cooked food I'm freezing- I used to buy special labels from Lakeland but now I just write on a strip of masking tape which I stick to the plastic container (it peels straight off after)- this helps to make sure food doesn't stay frozen for too long (obviously even the freezer won't preserve food safely forever!)

I also keep a list of everything in my freezer- you waste a lot of energy every time you open the freezer to check what's in it. You just have to remember to cross things off the list as you use them.

I've grown my own veg for the first time this year and have already got lots of home grown veg frozen to eat up later in the year. It probably won't taste as great as it did fresh, but it's probably still better than supermarket stuff.

thriftlady_2

I recently bought half a pig for my freezer. It cost me around £100. Sounds a lot I know but it was free range and comprised of 5 very large roasting joints, 3 belly joints, 20 chops plus hocks, feet and bones. If I'd bought all these separately it would have cost me a lot more.

If you eat meat find a good butcher and see if he does freezer deals, they are well worth it.

Freezers are also great timesavers as well as moneysavers. Check out this thread for ideas of what you can freeze that will help streamline meal prep.

As others have said a freezer will help prevent food going to waste. Freeze those crusts of bread as crumbs or croutons, make a chicken carcase into nutritious stock and pop it into the freezer for future soup, stew or risotto. Freeze leftover gravy to add to a stew, freeze all your leftover pastry scraps by pressing them into a flan tin until it is covered -a free pie crust. I love my freezer;)

rosekitten

we have a fridge freezer half
frigde/half freezer.It seems fine
for four of us.Anything more and
we would be stock piling food in
anticipation.Our electric bills are as
low as I can get them the only thing
left switched on over night is the
Fridge freezer.I think it would make
quite a difference to our bill if I had
two or three buring away even if they
were energy efficiant.I like to defrost
mine aboout three times a year