As you know, I am out of town at a funeral. Marcy from Stretching a Buck was kind enough to provide this Guest Post. Please make sure to check out her site!
One of the greatest resources a bargain shopper can have is an extra freezer. A little over a year ago, my husband and I purchased a small chest freezer because we had purchased beef in bulk and needed a place to store it. Since then I have been pleasantly surprised with how much we use it...and how grateful I am that we have it. With turkey prices as low as $.29/lb right now, having the extra space is awesome!
Here are a few of my favorite things to freeze when I find them on sale:
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* Meat (Chicken, Beef, Bacon, etc)
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* Cheese (Shredded, Slices, Snack Cheese)
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* Bread
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* Sticks of Butter
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* Tubs of Margarine/Spread
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* Chcolate Chips
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* Lemon Juice (squeezed from fresh lemons)
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* Nuts
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* Homemade Spaghetti Sauce (recipe here)
And here are some recent additions to my freezer IQ:
* You can freeze flour. It is actually recommeneded that you freeze Whole Wheat flour as its shelf life is only about 3-6 months if you don't (vs. up to a year in the freezer). Freezing flour also kills any bugs that might be in your flour when you purchase it. It would obviously keep new bugs out as well.
* You can freeze lemon zest. I read about it (and other great lemon tips) on Jennifer's blog here
* You can freeze tomatoes whole. I read about that and how to freeze other vegetables here.
* According to this great resource about freezing, you can freeze brown sugar, marshmallows, cream cheese, egg yolks & egg white (to name a few). Have you ever tried freezing any of these foods?
I feel that while having an extra freezer has caused our electric bill to go up slightly, that it has been an important enabler in my quest to cut down our grocery bill
What about you? Do you have any "unique" items that you freeze in order to stretch your hard-earned dollars?
[note from Mindi - what a wonderful post and I can tell you that the extra freezer has enabled me to maximize my savings....you CAN get those 25 free bags of Valley Fresh Steamers when you don't have to worry about taking up valuable space in the freezer in your kitchen! Thanks for a great post Marcy!]
Bryan White
I love our chest freezer, it saves us lots of money from having frozen meals (leftovers) available, buying meat and other frozen items in bulk or on special, and it's easier to grab something to take for lunch.
Apologies for not being a Mom and commenting on your blog (I was overcome with my freezer love).
Nina
I buy packaged sliced bacon, when on sale, slice in 1/2, split up into pre-planned servings, vacuum seal sets in a row in one or more strips and freeze. Then open the bag and break out only what I need; lasts a lonnnggggg time!. By the way, the frozen bacon does not need to be thawed before frying. I clunk the chunk in the pan, put a screen over it and it thaws over medium heat. I flip the chunk over from time to time to release the bottom thawed slice and so forth.
I also make custom turkey patties for my fat sensitive pooch. She had a bought with pancreatitis and since cannot eat fatty dry or canned dog food. So I buy ground turkey, oatmeal, egg beater generic add some water and mix together a big batch. Then I refrigerate the large bowl of mix, lay out a bunch of wax paper sheets (cut in half) and scoop out rounds onto the sheets, fold, flatten, bag up 4 per sandwich ziplock and freeze. If you want the math, lemme know. My recipe/list makes enough for a 28 day supply of burgers for a 40 lb dog, supplementing with fit and trip cereal. She loves those burgers when I fry it up for her. No health problems since!
Jennifer
My extra freezer allows me to bulk cooking, like burritos or soups for my dh's lunches. I also puree all of our pumpkins after Halloween and freeze it in 1 cup portions. At the beginning of November I have almost 30 cups of pumpkin in my extra freezer. Right now we are looking into getting a quarter cow and I think I need to clean it out first. LOL that is a lot of beef I am finding.