Feeding on a budget without a freezer!!

adelight

I have very little freezer space so use lots of tinned and dried foods. Meals are more likely to be meat free and pulse heavy which also makes them a bit cheaper.

mardatha

I got a good Zanussi freezer on Gumtree for £40, didnt use it and resold it again for £40. I dont tend to keep mine full and we get powercuts anyway so the big f/f is enough. I tried batch cooking and freezing half but the labels dropped off or the writing got smudged and the greeny/browny goo in polybags always looked so awful that I just left it in there LOL

valk_scot

I have a table top sized freezer in the utility room...I was given it when a friend bought it without checking the size of the gap in her kitchen and couldn't be bothered taking it back. (!) I have a smallish chest freezer to so the tabletop isn't essential but I must say it does hold a lot and it's very compact. How about getting one of these? Then when you move you could keep it in a garage or utility room for overflow.

kittycat204

can i ask why you have referred to everybody as ladies? there on males on here who can offer equally good advise.

Sheahaven

Hi Pink_numbers


Do you have much storage space?

Or have a small kitchen that can double up as a larder?

Reason I ask is:
I have a galley style kitchen with no space for even a dinky dining table. Any entertaining/dining is done in the lounge (with the door shut to the kitchen).

So, since I won't use my small kitchen as a 'living space' (like bedrooms and lounge), I chose to turn off the kitchen radiator (to save fuel costs), which meant the kitchen stayed reasonably cool.


And what I've discovered is, a cool kitchen helps ALL perishable food stuffs have an extended shelf life - bread, eggs, fruit/root veg, etc.

I HTH if you have a dinky kitchen too.



PS: If you've got the room, try a small chest freezer too. I've recently picked up a small chest freezer from Freecycle, which has been a help when I bulk buy/batch cook to help me on my not-so-good days.

seabright

This is a great thread! I'm about to move onto a boat (with just a freezer at the top of the fridge) so all ideas are really useful.

westcoastscot

I only have a small freezer now - gave away the big one as power kept going off for longish periods of time wasting loads of food. I use it mainly to store meat that I have to travel some distance to purchase.
I think the trick is to work the truely os way and shop every two/three days for perishables, buying only the amount you need and planning carefully to use every scrap you buy. As others have said a cool shelf in the kitchen is adequate for fruit and veggies - no need to be in the fridge really and certainly most fruits taste better when at room temperature i think.
It's an excellent opportunity to use local shops if you have them, or to take advantage of reduced items if you only have larger supermarkets.
WCS

yellowbelly3

I was in the same boat many years ago when chest freezers were first available for domestic consumers, and rather than go without, I put it in our lounge and covered it up with a colourful killim/bedspread/shawl combination. Much better than going without!

joehoover

Not a lady I'm afraid, but I am a freezer addict, I would recommend buying one or looking for second hand or often people give away. You could even sell it when you leave, Argos cheapest is £120 for an under couter freezer, split over two years if you stayed that long is not a lot, maybe if you just paid for flat and deposits etc, but worth getting for the long run as you'll save much more than £120 on food you won't waste and then sell it after a couple of years. You can naver have enough freezer space though so you could find you use it in a future home. Personally I'd leave it for future tenants if it's only cost me £5 a month over 2 years, and I know people waste much more than that a day on food they throw out

Sorry, doesn't really answer your question, but what else can you do with many leftovers, bread, egg whites, sauces, tortillas, meat/fish supermarket deals etc etc. You can use them up but if you don't need that food now then you end up making somethign for the sake of it to use bits up that you may not need to eat that day or the next day. Before I became savvy with the freezer I would just eat more to use stuff up, not good for the moobs!

joehoover

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I don't have a working freezer either, so I know how difficult it is. I make stuff and just keep cooked soup and meals in the fridge. Often for over a week until it's used up. I just think of those cook/chilled ready-meals on the cold-shelf in the supermarket and imagine how long their use-by dates are.

If you're going to be in that property for 1-2 years I think it's definitely worth it to get a freezer, even if you have to keep it in the bedroom if there isn't enough room in the kitchen. You could always ebay it later if you're not going to need it when you've moved.

Bear in mind the supermarket ready meals are loaded with preservatives to keep them on the shelf longer, your meals being fresh won't.