Deep freezer newbie..

**mama2James** · 01-08-2012, 01:13 PM

A family friend is giving us a "smallish" deep freezer. It's about the size of a dishwasher. I'm looking for any wisdom you can offer about the use of a freezer...how to organize it, what kinds of things you most often freeze etc.. Thanks in advance!

**Libby** · 01-08-2012, 01:50 PM

Store things in freezer bags and flat - soups, stews, sauces, ground meat. They're easier to store (stack). And be sure to label whats in the bag as well as the date you put it into the freezer. This will help rotate the stock so nothing gets too old and freezer burned.

**sabrelvssammy** · 01-08-2012, 02:13 PM

I have a bunch of snack cakes, crackers, cookies - things that come in boxes and there is a little side basket on mine (which is about the size of yours) - I take everything out of the boxes and stack them in the basket. It is amazing how much more you can get in it when all the 'packaging' is gone.

My mom uses short plastic baskets in hers (like from the dollar store) and keeps like things together and then stacks the baskets.

**ilovechocolate** · 01-08-2012, 02:28 PM

A full freezer runs more efficiently than a partially full one. So if you have space left over after putting your food items in, you can put in water-filled milk jugs (leave some head space in each jug) to take up the extra space.

**frugalfranny** · 01-08-2012, 04:46 PM

You didn't say if this was chest or upright........each has a diff. way of being organized........

Lots of good ideas already offered.........maybe keep a running inventory is all I could add........depending if needed due to size of appliance.

OH...........DON'T CROWD IT.........give it good airflow!!.......especially where the motor is, if a chest.........usually on one side/end or the other.

Trial and error will tell you the rest.............buy things on sale that you use a lot of...........and that freeze well.

**Contrary Housewife** · 01-08-2012, 05:17 PM

Label everything and put the date on it. You think you will remember, but you won't.

Use *freezer* bags, not ordinary zip bags. There is a difference.

Meat in foam trays can be double wrapped with plastic wrap and go straight in if it does not need to be broken into smaller portions.

**mndtrp** · 01-08-2012, 06:13 PM

I typically froze food in ziplock bags, laying them flat on top of each other until frozen. One they were frozen, I stood them on their ends upright.

**Uniwolf** · 01-08-2012, 06:38 PM

we use our freezer for stocking up, espcially (sp) when zaycon foods comes around

but I also use it to store batch cooking, in individual servings. That way, it makes dinner during the weeks so much easier.

**mama2James** · 01-08-2012, 09:42 PM

Thank you so much everyone! I found chicken drumsticks and whole leg quarters on sale for $1/lb today, so I bought 3 big packages. I'm excited to get to the bread store soon too. This is a smallish chest freezer, and i have a feeling that we will end up purchasing a bigger one in time, once i get in the habit of using it.

**MakeADollarHollar** · 01-09-2012, 12:11 PM

I'm pretty short and can't reach the bottom of our freezer so I use those reusable grocery bags to store things in. Mine are square and fit in my freezer perfectly. I have one for chicken, pork and beef and when I need to refill the main freezer I just grab whatever bag I need, carry it to the other freezer then return to deep freeze when I'm done.

Back before we had a generator we used to "eat down" the deep freeze every summer because of hurricanes and related power outages. Now that we have the generator I can keep the thing full at all times but that might be something to keep in mind if you're in an area that suffers from weather related power issues.

**Uniwolf** · 01-09-2012, 12:21 PM

lol I sooo hate standing on my head in the deepfreezer. When we had to buy a new freezer this past year, I threw a fit to get an upright, yes it cost a little more, but I am getting old and I now no longer have to do handstands in the freezer to get to what I need

**Birdie** · 01-09-2012, 12:55 PM

I freeze a lot of homemade soups in my freezer. Instead of using a lot of freezer bags for the soup, I freeze in pint sized canning jars. Reusable and a one time purchase. I do have an upright freezer and store them in the door.

When I cook rice, I cook double or triple and freeze the extras. I have a lot of small plastic containers that I freeze that in, but ziplocks work well too. If I use a regular ziplock for rice, I roll it up instead of laying flat and put a number of them into a gallon freezer bag.

I freeze cleaned chopped herbs in baggies too.
In the summer when I have too many tomatoes from my garden, I freeze them chopped in quart ziplocks or whole in gallons.

Probably buying chicken breasts and repackaging 2 or 3 into a quart ziplock is the thing that saves me the most money using my freezer. Buying on sale and freezing saves money as long as you use the food.

Another poster mentioned keeping an inventory and organizing the different meats into different bins works well.

**frugalfranny** · 01-09-2012, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by mama2James

I'm excited to get to the bread store soon too. This is a smallish chest freezer,

Just a thought.........and you will learn as you go with using it......whatever works for YOUR family and the way you eat. And even this can change with the seasons or if you garden.

BUT........

Bread takes up a lot of room............so unless you can get a SUPER SALE on it (and it is expensive in your area).........AND.......your family uses a lot of bread you might want to rethink this.........I learned. Now I only buy the bread amount that will fit in my 'inside' refer and save the room in the other big freezer for meat, leftovers, etc. (our bread remains "reasonable" $) PLUS........bread will freezer burn fairly easy............even in a freezer that is not self defrosting.
I use much more bread in the summer........so sometimes will put a loaf in the big freezer then.

The other thing that I have just recently "retought" is buying lots of the frozen veggies..............they are usually on some sort of sale so unless I can get something that is really cheap and will go out of season soon (asparagus) I have cut back on the buying so much.

You will come to love your freezer and the potential it has for saving you money!!!

**mndtrp** · 01-09-2012, 08:22 PM

Yeah, bread is one thing I wouldn't bother freezing. Prices rarely seem to fluctuate enough to warrant taking up room in the freezer. Meats, on the other hand, can vary up to $3 a pound.

**mama2James** · 01-09-2012, 09:05 PM

For me, it will be useful to stock up on bread because the bread store is one of those extra trips that always seems so inconvenient, so I don't end up going, and I pay full price at the store. I can save $1-2 per loaf by going there. Thanks for the tips about freezer burned bread though, maybe I will buy only about a month's worth for now...