Buying food in bulk and freezing for later is a common piece of money saving advice. In fact, I assumed that once we moved out of our tiny townhouse into our much larger house that I would be buying a huge freezer and fill it up with all kinds of goodies. After all we have a family of seven and would surely need that kind of food storage.
However, we’ve been in this house for two years now and we still haven’t bought that freezer. Our reasons are simple…
- I prefer to shop when needed because we go through perishables like produce, milk, eggs and bread so quickly with five children. We live in a dense, urban area and there are grocery stores, produce market and a discount bakery all located conveniently near my children’s schools so it’s not a problem to just pop in and grab what I need. Going to the specialty shops lets me avoid the temptation of a grocery store when all I need is fruit for lunch boxes or a couple of loaves of bread. I also work from home so I can easily shop during off-peak hours.
- We don’t hunt or buy meat in bulk. I looked into buying a half steer for our family but decided it made more sense for us to buy meat every week. Instead, I plan our meals by what’s on special that week at the grocery store. I do take advantage of meat that’s reduced for quick sale and freeze that for the following week, but the quantities are limited and there will always be another deal so I don’t feel the need to stock up for months at a time.
- We don’t have a vegetable garden and thus have no need to freeze all the leftovers. Again, we live in a city where lots are small and our property gets very little sunlight because of all the trees so we don’t grow any of our own food. We prefer to use the space we do have for the children to play. I also don’t have the knowledge or time to put into making it work, so it makes sense for me to buy as much local produce as we can from the farmer’s markets and produce stores.
- I am not the most organized person. While frozen food should say safe to eat for quite some time, the quality can suffer if you don’t regularly rotate the foods and eat the older stuff first. Again, as there is always another deal and I do go shopping regularly, I’d just as soon not add that to my plate.
- So far the freezer on the top of our refrigerator has been more than adequate. Why spend the money to buy and operate a separate freezer when to date there hasn’t been a need. The only time I’ve wished we had a chest freezer is when we have leftover ice cream cake but it seems easier to just buy much smaller cakes or pies for special occasions and not have to deal with the leftovers at all.
Of course, for many people a separate deep freezer makes a lot of sense and can save them both money and time. The real point is that it’s important to think about your own lifestyle and preferences before making an investment or lifestyle change based on common wisdom.
Whether it’s stocking a freezer, couponing, paying off your mortgage early or how much to put into an emergency fund, you should research and make a decision based on what makes sense for your own situation and what will fit in best with your own lifestyle.
How about you? Does a deep freezer make sense for you?
Photo Credit: mafleen
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Likewise, we don’t have a deep freezer in our home either simply because we don’t have anywhere to put it at this point. There’s never really been a need for it either because we realized that whenever we needed that extra space in the freezer, we’d just end up re-organizing our regular freezer and throwing out old stuff anyway so it’s nice to do that every once in awhile.
You’re right, it’s much easier to keep on top of what you have and regularly rotate food so that it doesn’t get freezer burned with just combo fridge/freezer.
I think personality and natural inclination plays into it, too. I’m one of those who spend far more buying in bulk and stocking up because there is never *not* a really good deal and I’m constantly buying huge quantities and never actually getting to the savings part.
Personally, I much prefer buying small quantities of fresh food a few times each week. Even with careful protection in the freezer, frozen-then-thawed food just doesn’t taste the same as fresh food. Even if there are savings in buying large quantities and freezing, it’s not worth it to me.
Yes, this is very true. I do try and keep something dead simple and quick in the freezer for days when everything has gone wrong, but with five kids, that day comes around every other week.
Plain frozen vegetables without sauces or seasonings can also be a great convenience but I don’t need to pick up more than a couple of bags at a time. Fresh is usually better tasting but frozen seems to be just as nutritious and is super easy.
We don’t have a deep freezer (although we have two refrigerators with freezers) and I don’t think I’ll ever have a deep freezer. It only seems to make sense if you have a bunch of meat to save (hunting family) or a bunch of fruits / veggies to save (garden family). I don’t fit into either of those categories… Although I’m thinking about getting a a kegarator for when I move out for my home brew.
Jenna, the kegarator made me smile because I’m half Korean and I would absolutely get a small kimchi fridge before a chest freezer.
We all have our own priorities.
Hahaha. Love it. Our neighbor across the street from us growing up was Korean and she would make TONS of kimchi, freeze it and hand it out at any holiday party, BBQ, birthday, etc. I loved it.
Depends on your lifestyle, I reckon…
For me – yes – as there is so much seasonal “free” food to put up…
bottom fish, clams, crab, oysters, tuna, salmon, elk, deer, beef, bones from butchering to save for soup…. plus all the garden produce that I don’t have the time to dry or can sometimes. And I make pies and quiches up ahead of time for the family, so need the freezer space. Also need room for those $5 turkeys – 2 of them take up a lot of space
Sometimes I just need a place to park frozen meat also until I have the time to can it
I’m not passing up free food 
I always cook up extras when I cook for family and friends to share.
I am trying to can more tho – as I worry about loosing the freezer contents when the electric goes out – as it does so much here in the winter.
I don’t have a deep freezer either and probably never will when the grocery store is the perfect deep freezer. Buying only what you need always seems to be the cheapest option for us, whether it’s food or bedding.
On a side note though, I always wondered how anyone could have long enough hands to actually pick something up when it’s at the bottom of those deep freezers unless they dive in.
While a deep freezer is more economical, and upright is a lot more practical
And when you’ve got free food…. well nothing’s much cheaper than that, even figuring in $325 for the freezer over 20 or more years, and the electric at $15/yr tops.
Free food sounds good, but I don’t usually get that anymore
I’m glad it works for you though.
I don’t have a deep freezer either. You go, girl. I also don’t have a bread maker, vegetable dehydrator, wine cellar, touchless paper towel dispenser, UV-C sanitizing wand…
Wait, this is where we list the household items we don’t own, right?
Ha. My list would be sort of blank though because I don’t even know what half of those things over at William Saloma are. (To prove my point, I don’t even think my spelling of the place is correct.)
Frankly speaking I go to the store once a week and stock up on everything. I just don’t have much time for going to special stores, looking for some poducts and buying stuff every day. It requires much time. I should say. I prefer go to the market by the end of Sunday, when everyhitng is deadly cheap and stock up full fridge for the whole week. It saves me great amount of money, because the prices there are about three times smaller than in usual city shops.
I defintely enjoy our freezer. i cant find enough room in my fridge…hehe..its funny because i just cleaned it out today. I find it helps my costco shopping and fits a ton of stuff
Yes, a deep freezer makes sense for us. My husband is a deer hunter and last year he was fortunate enough to get 2 deer. This gives us most of our meat during the year. Also, we have a garden and this week alone we have made about 10 quarts of spaghetti sauce and also 12 quarts of creamed corn.
I love my *upright* extra freezer. (I’d hate the lay-down type I think). I have lots of meat from sales, specials, hunting and gifts. Saves me from ever paying full price for meat. What I also love is the time (and often cost) savings of cooking in bulk. If cans of chili are on sale for example, I’ll buy a bunch, toss in cheap bulk meat from the freezer and other ingredients to make a nice dinner for that night. Then I store a half dozen leftover dinners to be eaten over the next several months. Having quality pre-made home cooking is a fantastic and cheap bonus.
I have an upright freezer which over the years has allowed me to take advantage of sales, freeze our garden produce, and survive the 5′-8′ snows that have us penned in for days. I love mine. I like the fact, that if need be, I can be in control and independent because I have built a choice into my life. I can plan ahead for Holidays and when things are tight I can make do.
When a natural or man-made disaster strikes you would be happy to have a good supply of both frozen and canned foods on hand. If you do have a large quantity of frozen items, be sure to have a back-up power source.
Everyone’s needs are different and I understand the problem with replacing perishables frequently. A lot of people are not maximizing use of their chest freezers because more than meat, vegetables, and ice cream can be frozen. For example, almost anything that is dried can be stored in the deep freeze and that is useful where insects or rodents are a problem. Where we live, it is less expensive to have a deep chest freezer as driving costs are too high. It definitely reduces waste when you can freeze extra portions or when you need just a small quantity of something and can reseal and refreeze the remainder (crackers, dehydrated mushrooms would be examples in my family). Where I live, most stores do close at night and sometimes the weather is horrible so you prefer not to be out of the house. We can feed any number of people anytime. We have three chest freezers and in the past 40 years have not had problems with food loss due to power outages (keeping the freezers full and the doors closed during outages helps), but we did lose one chest freezer when the motor failed. Yes, it was a big smelly wet mess (mostly vegetables from the garden so not a big money investment lost).
My chest freezer is useful because we do most shopping once per month. The number of frozen meats, vegetables, bread, and home made portioned meals exceed normal refrigerator freezer capacities. About two thirds of the space is not used. Some of the extra space stores frozen water jugs to keep things cold if the power goes out. I have also noticed that food items stored in a chest freezer are better preserved from freezer burn. Most refrigerator freezers self defrost, which works by short thaw cycles, so food quality degrades for items stored a month or more. Larger items like whole turkey occupy too much space in a refrigerator freezer. But, hey, if you have limited space for a freezer, things just have to be done differently.