New Freezer

pigpen

I have 3 freezers and they are usually full. I rotate stuff.. I buy a shedload of something on offer I put 1 batch in each freezer. I use the stuff from the big freezer in the kitchen and the nice cuts of meat live in the small undercounter size freezer so I know where they are.

A nice empty freezer I would fill it with the things I run out of quickly.. chicken dippers (my 15 y/os staple) bread bread and more bread I tend to buy stacks when reduced in T's. nice cheeses, often reduced after christmas on short dates but freezes beautifully.

My friend used to go get a whole lamb or half a pig from the butcher and fill hers with that.

CupOfChai

I have got a small extra freezer, it came with the flat, I think because the main one in the fridge-freezer isn't that big compared to today's standards. I stopped using it because I suspect it of being a hideously inefficient drain on my lovely finances.

When I did use it, it housed batch cooking, yellow-stickered stuff like bread where you can't use it all up at once, and a bottle of Jagermeister.

I too recently had the problem of not being able to get reduced things because there was no room in the freezer. I'd not get another freezer though, or even start using the extra one, I just made sure we munched out some space!

suki1964

After a week without electricity, my freezer is now a small under the counter jobby ( in the garage ) and a small freezer on top of the fridge

The power cuts here tend to last more then 6 hours, and hit often

Funny cos when I was a Londoner with shops on the doorstep and 24/7 shopping, I filled a chest freezer

Now I prefer to shop more often and buy smaller amounts

The only time my freezers bulge is Christmas when I get the reduced joints and turkeys to see me by the rest of the coming years holidays

We( my family ) can only eat so much food, can only spend so much. No point in stockpiling , forgetting what's there, finding its got burn or having a power cut and losing the lot

But each to their own

TimBear

I would fill it with portions of meals you've batch cooked so you always have a supply of your own 'ready meals'. Along with any reduced items you pick up in the supermarket.

I wouldn't fill it for the sake of filling it though.

esmf73

I'm filling mine with foods that won't spoil if the electricity goes off. Flour, rice, cake!!!! Etc

Nikkisun

Ok - I may be being dense here (wouldn't be the first time) but why would you put rice and flour in the freezer - they last for ages anyway?!

Butterfly_Brain

I would definitely store meat in it, I managed to get 6 medium chickens reduced to half price ( £1.91 from £3.89) in Aldi this morning, so they are nestling happily in my freezer, that is 6 roast dinners, plus another 12 L/O meals and 6 lots of stock that can be used in soup or anything that requires stock all for £11.46

Butterfly_Brain

Nikkisun wrote: »

Ok - I may be being dense here (wouldn't be the first time) but why would you put rice and flour in the freezer - they last for ages anyway?!

I put flour in the freezer for 48 hours, just in case there are any nasties in there, then it comes out and goes in the cupboard

Living_proof

I can see both sides of the argument here. In my former life I had three freezers in an outbuilding. One gave up the ghost and I had to pay the local council to take it away. The small one in the kitchen as part of the ff was replaced and I still have the fridge freezer in the kitchen.

I recently moved and decided not to bring the one remaining chest freezer as I only have a single garage and I thought I would manage with just the FF. I was soon proved wrong - I couldn't benefit by cooking in bulk and buying YSs etc. and have too little choice of meals. I ended up fairly quickly buying a BEKO for the garage and it is slim and tall and is absolutely right for what I need.

When I had a great deal of freezer space it was great if the family were about. If not it was a real problem to keep track of what was where, how long it had been there, and did I now need it?

Peggybabcot

I've got into the habit of using the same amount of mince for example but making it stretch to 8 portions instead of the 4 it used to serve and popping it in the freezer in those tin foil takeaway trays you can get from pound shops so I have a huge stash of ready meals in the freezer for when I can't cook (I've got a neuro muscular condition so not always able to cook) This way my family can always have a hot meal, I get a night off and 500g of mince is suddenly half the price! x