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’.

The Wonders of Cable TV

The Wonders of Cable TV

So, this is going to be more than a little contrarian, but that’s the whole point of this blog.  Cable TV shouldn’t be something high on your list to cut, when you’re trying to economize. 

Now, when I say cable, I’m including satellite services and anybody else that provides content to your TV.  The reason is quite simple, cable TV can provide a quite luxurious level of entertainment at a very low cost.  That is, provided that you follow 2 basic rules:

Continually review your channel line-up and get rid of anything you don’t watch on a regular basis;

No  pay-per-view – ever.

The pay-per-view thing is pretty obvious.  By all means get a movie channel or two and then just wait a few weeks until the new movies arrive.

That luxurious level of entertainment I was talking about – let’s dig into that one a bit further.  Say your cable bill is pretty high -$150 per month.  That means that for $3 per day, your entire family can enjoy an at home an entertainment experience that could cost $50.00 if you were to go out.

And it’s the going out that gets us in the end.  Visit friends and have friends visit you (and your first rate cable package), but as soon as you step into the multiplex or the sports bar the costs come in multiples of that $3 per day.

So, enjoy the flat screen and your cable package, just like you did before.  Except now you can be a little smug about how incredibly thrifty you are.

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.