You and Your Freezer Should Spend Some More Time Together

You and Your Freezer Should Spend Some More Time Together

In an earlier post I talked about the importance of having a chest freezer around and how you should cook things in advance and save them in meal sized containers.  Well as it turns out there are people out there on the Web who’ve written quite extensively about how this should best be accomplished.  So, I thought I’d provide a few helpful links to people who might be interested in getting the most out of their freezer.

•   Freezer Meal Recipes Master List - This is absolutely incredible!  The recipes are broken down by category (chicken, pork, fish etc).  There is information on techniques, and as a bonus, there is even a section on which foods don’t freeze well.
•   Freezer Tips from the Hillbilly Housewife – Some nice ideas for a whole range of frugal make-ahead meals.
•   The Frugal Freezer Mom – Yep, an entire blog devoted to make-ahead meals and using your freezer to improve your lifestyle.
•   Frugal Families has a very nice collection of tips and recipes for make-ahead deep freeze meals.
•   Low Cost Living – is a site from the UK with some great recipes that go a bit beyond the usual lasagna and chili dishes.  Here you’ll find recipes for onion bhajis and butternut squash soup.  It’s great to see a little culinary adventure out there!

So, it’s not just me.  The deep freeze is a fabulous tool for saving your household time and money.

In Praise of the Lowly Chest Freezer

In Praise of the Lowly Chest Freezer

It’s hard to imagine an appliance that has the same economic benefits of a chest freezer.  I like chest freezers because they can come in some very small sizes – sometimes under 2 cubic feet.  At that size they can fit on the counter of your kitchen.  That means that you don’t have to own a traditional house with a basement or laundry room to enjoy the savings that this unassuming white box can provide you.

And we’re not going to fill it up with frozen pizzas or any kind of microwaveable meals, no sir.  We’re going to fill it with meat, bread, bagels and frozen vegetables that we purchased on sale.  We’re going to buy several yards of sausage at sale prices, take them home, cook them all, then put 3 or 4 each in baggies to freeze.  And we’ll do the same with those chicken thighs that we found on sale.  We’re going to make a football field sized lasagne then cut it into individual servings and put them in generic plastic food storage containers.  Then we’ll make a rain barrel full of chilli and do the same thing.  So, there’s no need to call for delivery or pick-up drive-through, you already have a chest full of fast-food.

If you live alone, a chest freezer can help you save money and eat healthier.  When I lived alone I found that eating vegetables was difficult because they were always going bad in my fridge.  Access to a good sized deep freeze means that you‘ll never have to worry about your vegetables going bad ever again.

You can get a medium sized chest freezer for around $150.   At that price you’ll probably find that it’ll pay for itself in grocery savings in 3-6 months.   You’ll also enjoy the benefits of lower grocery bills and fewer grocery excursions. 

So, while you might not be cool, at least you can always be chillin’.

Your Own Personal Economic Infrastructure

Your Own Personal Economic Infrastructure

Instead of the mountain of books out there that attempt to assist people in improving their net worth and getting out of debt, I think we should concentrate on books that have a slightly different focus.  Improving your personal finances is a complex process that deserves a whole lot more thought than simplistic maxims like Pay yourself first.

One book that captures the challenges faced by people living with greatly reduced incomes is Pat Capponi’s Dispatches From the Poverty Line.  Capponi gives us some insight into a life that has been robbed of any infrastructure that can help lift a person out of poverty.  It’s full of rented rooms with no access to refrigeration, so meals have to be purchased ready to eat.  There’s no TV or cable, so entertainment becomes something you go out for.

It’s that infrastructure that’s so very important when someone is trying to economize:

The vegetable garden where the sun and some water can provide you with the                                                                means to supplement your groceries with healthy produce

The workshop where you can repair broken appliances, furniture and fixtures

The chest freezer that allows you to buy large quantities of items on sale and have them available whenever you need them

The car that takes you to the big box store to take advantage of bulk discount

The ensuite washer and dryer that saves you countless time consuming trips to the laundromat

The big screen TV that provides a wealth of inexpensive entertainment at home

And sadly, these are things that so many people take for granted, but when they’re gone we notice the impact on our pocketbook immediately.  Many of the items in the above list are associated with home ownership, and yet we don’t often hear about them as concrete economic benefits. 

I know that people generally associate frugality with fewer possessions, and I tend to agree with that – except when those possessions allow you to save money.  Then they become part of your own personal economic infrastructure.