With all of this recession talk, I feel like I really need to better stockpile. We have a pantry in the kitchen for non-perishables, as well as a cabinet in the garage for my "mini-stockpil", Our fridge has a pretty small freezer and I really want to increase my frozen goods. Do you think it is cost-effective to get an additional freezer for the garage? It would be a tight squeeze but it may be worth it. Also, where is the best place for a cheap one? Thanks

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I am officially a mommy! Nathaniel Kenneth, 05/01/07 & wife to Hubby Kenny


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I love my freezer(s). I have a 7cu ft in the laundry room and an upright fridge sized one in the garage. I have another 30 cu ft that is used for other stuff right now.

The "shelf life" of foods is MUCH longer in a "deep" freezer (or non-frost-free). The freezer over your fridge is probably a frost free - that's hard on food.

Keep an eye on classified ads or craigslist - they often come up on there. If you want new, the small chest freezers are usually around $200. They last pretty well - the 30 cu ft chest freezer I have is at least 20 or more years old, and still works perfectly. The stand up fridge sized one looks like something out of the 70's, and it too works just fine.

I think just being able to stock meats, bread and milk make them pay for themselves pretty fast. They aren't energy hogs either, as long as you don't stand there for hours debating what you want to take out.

I think everyone should have a deep freezer, but I'm weird like that!

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I wouldn't want to live without one!! It makes my life easier and cheaper because I can buy sale items and stock up. Once I bought 20 Sara Lee Pumpkin and Mrs Smith's Pumpkin pies before Thanksgiving with coupons for 30 cents each and I bought 20 pizzas for like 50 cents each and 40 healthy choice meals for $1 each. IF I didn't have a BIg 20 ft cubit chest freezer I couldn't do that. I save money that way. I also batch cook. When I make casseroles, chilis, meatloafs, etc I make extras and then eat one and freeze extra ones that way If I have a busy night I just pull one out of the freezer. I used to have 2 hug ones when I had a garden but I sold that one since I only use one now.

I am one of theose weird people who do not like to deal with freezers. I tend to never use the casseroles, etc that I put in there, and find them months later, covered in frost and I just throw them out. BUT, I live in the mountains with power outages a normal thing, and have lost food in the past, so I am wary of putting hundreds of dollars worth of food away in a freezer. I tend to just use my freezer for a weeks worth of meat, and some vegetables, maybe a loaf of bread, and some ice cream ( ) I wish I could be more like some of you who are super freezer organizers...

ITA with peacelovemom!


LOL I Loved my Freezer Until we lost Power and I started to Second Guess My Stock up ways!!



We only lost a Couple things - but I Couldn't imagine if power was out For A Day or More and- We Lost Months Worth of stuff!

Now I Stick To water in Milk jugs ( To Fill up Space to Maximize freezer) And About 2 weeks worth of Meat , bread and Frozen pizzas and Such.

It depend on what type of things you are planning on freezing if it is worth the energy bill. It's less expensive to run if it's full. I would start by using your freezer on the fridge and freeze everything in ziplocs making them as flat as possible so you can stack them. If you are freezing large hams, turkeys, loaves of bread and gallons of milk definately get another freezer. I would recommend an upright you can see everything so it doesn't get lost and you can keep it organized better. I got mine in the local paper for $50 and I love it. I have saved alot of money buying when things are the cheapest.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

I love my freezer! It just depends on what you are freezing. If it can be put in a zip lock bag and squished until all the air is out, then laid flat until it freezes, and then stacked you probably don't need another freezer. If you are using things you can't do that to and you WILL use what you are buying it would be a good idea.

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It is only dh and me, but i love my freezers!

For one thing, it is easy to see at a glance what I have and what i need to buy.

We have a side by side ref/freezer in the house that i keep all of our frozen vegetables and fruits in and ice cream.

Out in the utility room we have a older fridge with a freezer at the top that I keep all of my ww and Healty choice meals in along with the deer meat.

Then we have a chest type freezer that i keep all of my meat in.

It just seems with everything orgainze that we don't have food that goes to waste as much!

Recession or not, I highly recommend a freezer for anyone. It means you can take advantage when a good sale on things like chicken breasts (or whatever you like) comes on. I don't know how I ever got by without one. The bread I like (which is healthy and has tons of fibre - but really tastes great) costs close to $5 at regular price, so with the freezer I can buy it up when it goes on sale (which isn't often unfortunately).

By the way, I don't know what the heck is happening with the price of bread where I live. Unless you want to eat the cheap white stuff that turns to goo in your mouth it seems to have SKYROCKETED in price. The same bread that I like that is $4.69 now was regularly priced about $2.99 up until a year or so ago. What gives? The CPI keeps telling me that inflation here was only 1.8% last year - yeah right. The bread is just one example of many.

I love having a deep freeze. I would go with a stand up rather than a chest freezer for the ease of finding things. I like to have mine so when I find a good deal on meat like the pork chops I found for 99cents a pound the other day I can stock up.



But I would like to say with the big ice storm we had earlier this winter we lost power for a week and so we lost everything because we didn't have a generator so that is definitely something to consider. I would look into investing in a generator to have on hand for that reason.

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