I am thinking about getting a deep freezer. My parents have a huge one that they don't use and will sell to us cheap if we want it. I am wondering if it is worth it. Right now I just have my small fridge and freezer. It is me, my husband, and my 5 and 4 year old son's. We also hope to have a baby in the next two years, so that is how big my family is.

Right now I plan my menu's and go through my freezer and empty it out before I go shopping again for the most part. I am thinking that if I had a deep freeze I might be too overwhelmed and not use up stuff as much. Does that sound silly?

Is the cost of energy to run it worth it? Do you think that I could save money by having it? I am interested in having room for bread. We make a lot of trips to the store for bread and end up coming out with more, so if I could buy it on sale and then stock up, that might be nice. What are your thoughts on deep freezes? Thanks

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We have a small chest size deep freezer and I love it. We are actually looking into getting another one-maybe an upright one this time. I can not imagine life without it. I love to be able to stock up when meat or anything else is on sale. It is nice knowing that I always have plenty of meat for my family-me, dh, and three boys; 5, 4, 1. My boys have really good appetites, so we have meat with every meal. Right now I have just in my deep freeze; five pound bags each of chicken strips and tator tots, tilipia, salmon and three pounds each of bacon and breakfast sausage, and 10 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts. I have hamburger broke down into fifteen 1-lb packages and four whole chickens. All that doesnt include the rest of the stuff that is in my freezer in the kitchen. If you are one that likes to hit sales and stock up, than I say go for it. I label everything I get so I know what it is and when I put it in the freezer. As I get more, I put it on the bottom so the older stuff is always on top. I have never had any food go bad because I had it in there too long. Cost wise, I do not think ours cost more than a few bucks (if even that) to have it running all month long. Figure it saves me way more in food than it cost to run it.

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Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
Jon Bon Jovi

We have a small chest freezer and I love it. My husband got it back a few years for working overtime. Things that I have in it at this moment; chicken, blueberries, buffalo, butter, green pepper, milk (hmmm there's more but that is all I can think of right now). Anyway, I buy low and freeze it. I well think it is worth the money that costs to run it. Just keep track of what is in there and clean it out sometimes. I know right now I have one really old turkey that probably just needs to be tossed!

We have one too and I'm sorry to say that I am SO bad about keeping it stocked and when there is something in it I tend to forget what we have! Half the time there's something piled on top of it so it's a pain to get to!

That said... I REALLY want to start using mine more! My plan is to start making extra meals and freezing them ahead of time! Plus I really want to stock up on meats & some frozen veggies, etc!!

I think it can be SO worth it if you use it right! Right now ours is not at all worth it, but hopefully I can change that soon!!!

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Stay at home mom to my 3 boys... ages 5, 3 & 1!

I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

I have an upright and I love it. We stock up on bread too from the thrift store so it is extra cheap. We also get a 1/4 of a beef a few times a year and sometimes a pig. I love it for when meat is on sale. I love having an extra freezer.

we have a small one as well and it has helped out tremendously b/c now I can buy more meats when they are on sale and not have to worry about shoving them into the other freezer. I do love it and do not notice any difference hardly at all from running it.

We have two for food. I love 'em. The quality of food is much better when kept in a deep freeze over a frost free fridge freezer (less freezerburn, yucky ice cream, etc).Buying in bulk is a cost savings - rather than spend $8 for 3 chicken breasts, I can get a 10lb for close to the same amount, and keep it in there, and just pull out what I want for dinner. I also buy bulk meat - whole pork loins on sale etc - cut it up, and repack it (I have a FoodSaver, but freezer ziplocks are fine) so that I can pull out meat in the right size pack. I'm also bad in that very occasionally I like snack foods like mozz sticks or Jalapeno Poppers or something like that - I get them in bulk at Sam's, and then pull out a handful to bake when I want them.

I do keep bread in there too - since I'm a packrat, I put it in a box and keep that from getting crushed.

Oh, and I also like to make soup - HUGE batches of soup, and I put that in baggies, then freeze that. Just pull it out, defrost and heat! Mmmmm!

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We have a small one, an upright, but about the size of a large dorm frig. It's great, my only complaint is it's too small and it's all full. I would love to get a larger one and a newer one (more energy effic).

We have a large garden every year, so right now it's stuffed full of homemade tomato sauce and lots of shredded squash. Also have turkey burgers, extra waffles, veggies glaore and home made meals among numerous of other things.

I say buy the freezer and if you are not gettign the full use out of it in a year, sell it.

WE have a chest freezer (although our next one will be an upright) and I absolutely love it for stockpiling. I buy meat on sale, freeze vegetables from our garden, store meals for those nights I just don't feel like cooking. I was able to get just about everything for ds's birthday party about two months early, so it stayed in the freezer. It's definitely worth a try. Just don't go overboard trying to fill it all at once.

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~Jeweled

I love mine. I have pumped breastmilk and homemade babyfood in mine. Along with other items. I do not know how i lived without it now that i have it.