Frugal Tips

Turning Your Freezer into a Time and Money Saving Friend

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 Hello Everyone! I would like to take a few minutes to introduce myself. My name is Allison and I blog over at Living Frugal (http://www.frugalityexplored.blogspot.com). I started my journey there in the beginning of the summer shortly after my youngest was born in April. My goal in the beginning was to help other mothers and families save money on their groceries. I love writing, so this was a great idea.

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Many people have and use freezers, but do not know how to use their freezers to their full capacity. I’m sure you have heard of once a month cooking, but how many of us can really devote one day a month to cooking, because when I say one day, it truly is a whole day! With 4 children under 3, I can’t afford to take a whole day for cooking, so I like to do what I call once in a while cooking. Once in a while cooking has actually saved me lots of time time and it seems to work as well as once a month cooking.

How once in a while cooking works is simple. When you make a meal make 3-4 times (sometimes more) the amount and then freeze the rest. If I’m low on freezer room then what I will do is actually just freeze the part of the meal that takes the most time. If I’m making a rice sauce then I’ll just freeze the sauce rather than the rice and sauce. The rice does take time, but not much effort. I can put the rice and sauce on the stove and leave and it will cook nicely without any effort on my part.

I’m hoping that over the next several months I’ll be able to share with you some of the different food items I have learn to store in my freezer which help greatly save me time and money in the kitchen. These are called freezer assets.

Until next time here is a bit of information that you will find helpful:

One of the biggest misconceptions in owning a freezer is that it is bad to keep your freezer full because if the power goes out then everything will go bad and you will waste a ton of money. This is actually not true. When your freezer is full everything is actually more likely to stay frozen in the event of a power outage. Think of it this way, it takes a lot less time for an ice cube to melt than it does for a whole gallon of ice to do so.

So what do you do if your power goes out? Keep the freezer closed and don’t open it unless you absolutely have to. If your freezer is full, everything in it should be fine as long as the power isn’t out for too long.

Another big advantage to keeping your freezer full is that it cost less money to run. It’s the same idea as when the power goes out, the more that is in the freezer, the cooler it will stay and the less energy it will take to run.

So if your freezer is empty start stocking it up, but stay within your budget. When you stock up make sure to keep your older stuff toward the front/top of the freezer.