Freezer Help Needed

CACHAF

Hello,

I was recently fortunate enough to receive a chest freezer from someone on freecycle and it is going to make a massive difference to my food bills as I won't need to buy fresh, can freeze extra portions, buy 'whoops' etc. The problem is that I can't afford to fill it all in one go and cannot run it empty / virtually empty as it won't be economical.

Does anyone know what I can do? I am wanting to buy a few frozen items a week till I can get it filled and I want to be able to buy reduced things but the freezer is completely empty so I am unsure how to get started. Is there something I can put in to 'fill up' the freezer so I can start adding food and slowly swop from 'filler' to food?

Thank you for your help x

lizzyb1812

Water - in rinsed plastic milk containers, plastic storage boxes, etc
Milk - give it a good shake when you defrost it
Bread
Smart Price frozen peas and sweetcorn
Dried pulses - soaked and cooked then frozen
Cooked rice - be careful to reheat really thoroughly when you come to use it
Polystyrene

HTH

Lizzy

CACHAF

Thank you for your suggestions. I hadn't thought of freezing water in containers, that is definately worth a try. will have to look for something to put it in though as our dog's favourite toy is empty milk bottles (2ltr plastic ones) and he will even go in the recycling bin to get them out by the handl and carry them around!
The other sugestions are really helpful too. I was thinking about seeing if there was any bread reduced at the local supermarket and freezing that for later anyway so i am guessing that will be quite bulky and fill some space.

Thank you again and if anyone else can suggest anything I would be very grateful x

kathie1101

I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable will be along to correct me if I am wrong, but I am sure I have read somewhere that you can fill freezers up with scrunched up newspaper to make it more economical to run.

Yep, just googled it, this site - http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/freezer-efficiency-tips.html says newspaper is good to fill up your freezer with. It also has a a few other suggestions, some of which lizzy suggested.

lapis_lazuli

Can you fill it with things you make yourself as well as stuff you buy? You could make a stew and that would take up more freezer space than the mince you bought to make it.

katie89

I've newspaper in the bottom of mine, and about a dozen loafs of whoopsied smart price bread!

MaggieBaking

Yes I normally hear you should use newspaper to fill up the cracks.

I think I'd probably use bottles/buckets/tubs of water and scrunched up newspaper till you get more stuff. I'm jealous of you!

miggy

I think that if you freeze milk, it helps to pour off a small amount first (so put the kettle on!) as it expands when frozen - which isn't a problem till you defrost and discover it can get out by itself.

rosieben

I stuffed my half empty chest freezer with carrier bags full of crumpled newspapers

madtrekker

I was going to recommend scrunched up newspaper as well.

CACHAF

Thank you all so much for your replies, not been able to get online for a few days as gran has been very poorly but was very grateful to see so many replies just now!

I have never heard of using newspaper but am really pleased as we usually have a lot, its very cheap (or free!) and means I can get started! Yay!

Will start making bags of it tonight and then from tomorrow can start looking for items to go into it - thank you all so much x