January 19, 2025

Managing my freezers to save money

Why I have two freezers

Having two freezers has made my life so much easier, and managing them has saved me money.   One is the bottom half of a fridge freezer that has 3 drawers.  The other is a small chest freezer.  There are only two of us live in my house and so people question why I need two freezers.  The answer is that I use my freezers to save money on food, even when you take into account the energy used to run the extra freezer.  Having both freezers means that I have the space to take advantage of buying meat and other items when discounted, or cost less due to being in season. I can also freeze a lot of what I harvest from my garden.  It is good practice to harvest almost daily as plants produce more that way, and so I start a bag for each vegetable and fruit, and add to them as I pick each morning.  This means that we can eat things like raspberries at Christmas, and we always have access to vegetables and fruit whether I have money or not.

Another thing that I use my extra freezer for is to store foraged fruit, especially blackberries. I make bramble compote at least 4 times a month, as well as pies and crumbles during the winter.  This free food improves my nutrition, and is a source of joy during the cold, bad weather.  We only use our oven a couple of times a month and fill it to the brim in order to save energy. I can then fill the freezer with bread, cakes, and pastries to last us until the next time I bake.  If we don’t use them all it doesn’t matter as it gives us more choice and we are not eating the same thing all month.  Making stock is easier as I can freeze vegetable peelings until I have enough to make a pan full.  I can also freeze left overs to make meals another time, or make meals to freeze for when I know that I will be too busy to cook.  When ever we go to the community fridge, we are given things that are going out of date, like bread, vegetables, or fruit.  Having room to freeze them prevents waste and helps stretch my low food budget.Blackberry crumble 3

How I organise the freezers so that I know what I have

It would be difficult to live without my freezers, though I have been exploring canning, fermenting and dehydrating more over the last couple of years.  In the chest freezer I store things in the large bags for life from Aldi.  Different ingredients have different coloured bags.  Red is meat and fish, green is vegetables, yellow is baked good, blue is fruit, and a turquoise one has left overs and meals in.  The bags are easy to lift out and keep every thing together so that things do not get lost at the bottom of the freezer.  Now that I am getting older, it also helps my back as I can put the bag on a table and go through it. In the other freezer I also keep meat in one drawer, vegetables in another, and fruit in another.  The things in the drawers are used up first, and then replenished from the chest freezer so that every thing is rotated.

I have a freezer inventory, but I would be lying if I said that it was always up to date, as, especially with left overs, I will just pop them in when I am washing up and forget to add them to my written folder.  It does help me have a general idea of what I have, though, especially as regards meat and fish.  Having an inventory also means that I do not overspend and buy things that I already have lots of.  I do tend to run out of things sometimes, eg we went 2 months without any chicken, but I try to only buy meat when they are either a good price, or I can afford them from a good butcher or farm shop.  I rarely buy yellow sticker meat any more.  It has to be used as soon as it defrosts, and I am staying away from the supermarkets as much as possible.

Why my freezers do not empty when I do a long pantry challenge

People tell me that doing a pantry challenge is a waste of time as it will mean that I will end up with empty cupboards and freezers.  It is true that I do run down some of my stock.  It is a good way to use up things that have been hanging around at the back of the cupboard, or the bottom of the freezer.  Everything is rotated then and does not go out of date.  However, my freezer and cupboards never empty.  You might ask, “How?”.  The main thing that I do is that every time that I use any ingredients, I make something to put back in return.  That way there is always something to eat, and we never go hungry, or feel deprived, or anxious about food.

It is about forward planning.  I don’t just feed us that day.  I plan what else that I can make for another  day also with the ingredients. Some examples this month are that I took a tin of tuna from my cupboard, some potatoes from my box, and some herbs from my garden.  I made fish cakes, we ate 2, and put 4 in the freezer (2 meals for 2 of us).  Another example is that I took  6oz of pulled turkey out of the freezer. I used some fridge gravel and vegetables that had seen better days, and made a slow cooker turkey stew. We ate it for 2 meals that week, and froze a portion to use for 2 more meals in the future (I would make the 1 portion in to pasties and mix with a bit of potato).  Some of the turkey stew that we made that week was made into a pie.  I made some pastry using some of my staple foods.  From this I made the pie, a quiche, some lime curd tarts, and some mince pies.  More than half of these baked good went into the freezer. There was also some pastry left which went into the freezer to be used another time when using the slow cooker to bake.

The freezer stayed full and I added meals to use another time. I also added meals to my fridge like the quiche, and baked items to my tins to last us all week. Very little was used from my cupboards, and I only used vegetables that were past it, besides the potatoes.  Those were the last that I had grown last year and had finished growing in my greenhouse in tubs.  The turkey was what I had picked clean from the carcass at Christmas.  I tend to use fresh produce until it starts running out in February or March, and then we live on mainly the frozen produce.  It probably has more nutrients in it as most of my home grown vegetables are frozen within minutes of harvesting them.

The reason why I like to run my freezers down at certain times of the year

The reason that I like to run the freezer down a bit sometimes is so that I can replenish it with foraged food, or food grown in the garden.  I also like to run it down a bit before November as meat is cheaper that month as it is discounted for Christmas (often half price). In all the supermarkets in the UK, joints are sold at half price. I buy 4 or 5 and we make mince and sausages from them that will last us at least 6 months for a cost of about £60.  I also make room to fill the freezer with home made treats for Christmas so that I can empty it in time to fit in any discounted items on sale once Christmas has finished.  These often include cream, turkey, nuts and cheese.

I tend to do a couple of months of pantry challenge between January and March so that I have room for any Easter discounted products.  I am quite strict with money on this pantry challenge so that I can save the money to buy these items. I give myself £3 a week. I also do a pantry challenge for a couple of months in July and August as we have a lot in the garden.  I will still buy staples during this time and so often spend between £5 and £7  a week during these 8 weeks.  This isn’t set in stone and if I can spend less I will.  At the same time, if I see a good offer on something that will save us money in the end, I will buy it.  If I gave myself a set weekly food budget I would spend it.  Having a low annual food budget gives me more flexibility and makes me be more careful as I want to have money left for Christmas bargains at the end of the year.  October is another month that I tend to try to spend nothing, or as little as possible.  We often are preserving at this time, have abundant harvests from foraging and the garden, and need to make sure that we have room in the freezer for November.

Do you do similar with your freezers?  How do you use them to save money?

 

 

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10 Comments

  1. Margie from Toronto January 19, 2025 at 11:20 pm - Reply

    Yes, I do operate in a similar manner and I am currently doing very low spend for Jan., Feb. & March. Last pay was Dec. 20th (about 5 days early) so by the time I get paid at the end of this week it will be 5 weeks. I gave myself $60 for fresh food and put $60 into another envelope for the pantry (in case I saw a good deal that I didn’t want to pass up) and did not allow anything for non food.
    I stopped at a shop on the way home from church this afternoon as they had veg on at a good price. I have gone over my $60 by $5 but only spent $5 from the pantry stash so I think I’ve done well. To give you an example of our prices – decent bread is about $5 per loaf, a litre of milk is nearly $4, I pay $5.49 for a dozen good quality eggs and I bought two medium sized cauliflowers today for $5 – this was a deal – the one I bought just before Christmas was $5 for the tiniest cauliflower I think I’ve ever seen!

    I am allotting $50 for drugstore items next month as I had to use up a couple of things these past couple of weeks and I am allotting $30 for non-food items at the supermarket. $80 will go for fresh food for February and $40 will go to the pantry envelope. In Toronto – it is estimated that a single person such as me would have to spend at least $323 per month for a reasonable amount of food so I am staying well under. I am rotating through things in the pantry and the freezer but, as you say, it never seems to really run down. Last week I made a pot of stew and 3 large servings made it into the freezer. Mid week I made some chilli and again, 3 servings were added to the freezer. I have just made a large pot of chicken curry soup and about half of it will go to the freezer. This allows me to always have a variety of foods throughout the week. I’ve also made up a batch of tuna salad so there will be a few soup and sandwich meals this week – nothing wrong with that. I enjoy cooking but don’t want to do it every night and things like soups and stews means that nothing goes to waste. Food is just too expensive these days!

    • ToniG January 26, 2025 at 1:01 pm - Reply

      It sounds like you are doing really well with your food budget. Thanks for sharing

  2. Trudi January 20, 2025 at 9:16 am - Reply

    I love my freezer! I too have a small one above the fridge and a medium sized chest freezer in the lean-to, it’s one of the best things I ever bought! I have an allotment and like you I grow fruit and veg and freeze the same day. I too go blackberrying and freeze, portion up batch cooking, soup and lentil bol are always in there for a quick and healthy meal. I picked up a stuffed turkey breast joint with bacon for £4 after Crimbo which I’ll save for a family Sunday roast in a few weeks time. Our local bakery sells bargain bags of yesterday’s bread/rolls/cakes/hot x buns for £1.10 and usually contains 2-3 loaves, half a dozen rolls and some pastries if you get lucky lol, they all go in the freezer. Great idea Toni about having coloured bags for different foods, I’m going to do an inventory and give it a bash :-) I’ve lost track a bit over Christmas. I also have veggie/vegan family that visit so they can have their own bag!

    • ToniG January 26, 2025 at 12:59 pm - Reply

      A great idea. Having a bag and an inventory does make life easier, though it is a pain to sort it initially. I did make me realise how much food I acturaally already had, though. Thanks for sharing.

  3. Zenna January 20, 2025 at 10:59 am - Reply

    Great blog Thankyou Toni ! Yes I love my freezer I buy reduced price bread and rolls ! I also prepare meals so when u been out or don’t feel like cooking there’s always something nice to have ! Ibatch cook cakes and scones for lunch boxes ! Make soups etc

    • ToniG January 26, 2025 at 12:57 pm - Reply

      That sounds like a great way to save time and money using your freezer. Thanks for sharing

  4. Susan January 21, 2025 at 5:00 pm - Reply

    I love my freezers we have 3 ! I stash homemade ready meals, desserts , meat and fish I’ve found on offer . We grow veg , so I freeze these . I make a lot of soup for lunches and we freeze fruit and stewed apples from our tree. It’s reassuring to know we’ve always got stuff in for unexpected guests . There’s usually at least 2 loaf type cakes .

    • ToniG January 26, 2025 at 12:57 pm - Reply

      You sound really organised. Yes the freezer is great for unexpected guests but also unexpected illnesses or bad weather. Thanks for sharing

  5. Katie Naden January 25, 2025 at 7:52 pm - Reply

    I have a chest freezer & like you I bag up all the veg , meat, bread cakes ready made meals & dairy produce & flour . I keep a list . If I have extra food I need to store I can always remove the flour as I only store it in the freezer to prevent weavels .

    • ToniG January 26, 2025 at 12:50 pm - Reply

      That is a great idea. I keep meaning to store flour in my freezer but never have room. Thanks for sharing

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