The Little Chest Freezer
The 5 cubic foot chest freezer I bought this spring seems a good buy so far. Besides all the fruit for baking and jam making, I've been able to take advantage of loss leaders that I haven't bothered with since all the kids were out of the house. Working full time and it being the two of us, we ate simple meals at home, shopped for the week, and ate out frequently. Now with my retirement budget and wanting funds to stretch, my son's limited income and saving towards his own house (plus his high metabolism), and grocery inflation, maximizing on loss leaders should help over time to have a consistently more affordable grocery budget.
I'm buying very little convenience foods, but when a frozen pizza saves sucombing to ordering pizza, stocking the freezer is a win. Recent buys were 5/$10 Roma, not great but easy to cut in quarters and bake in the air fryer, and two large Lotsa Mozza at $5.99 each which are in my opinion, a better pizza than Dominoes or pretty much any chain pizza place.
My daughter's town grocery store had boneless pork chops for $1.60 a pound. My store had thick slices of boneless ham ends, like the Cooks brand Ham steaks for $1.48 a pound. I sort of wish I grabbed more than I did of both. I stocked up on 99¢ bags of frozen vegetables. There's still a plenty of room in the freezer.
I'm looking at a better dry storage system too. I just have limited storage without a full size basement so looking to get creative like under bed bins, or a shelf in the garage nearest the house so less subject to the extreme heat or cold, but in tight closed bins. Recently I stocked up, but still had to limit due to storage, canned diced tomatoes, shell macaroni, and baked beans at a rock bottom price. If I can keep doing this, maybe by winter, I truly will only be buying fresh food and loss leaders and occasional special purchases. I can help my girls out to as they can "shop" through mom. This is much like I shopped when I had a family at home. Everything old is new again to some of us.
I agree maximizing on loss leaders will definitely help to have a consistently more affordable grocery budget over time. We had a little chest freezer like that at one point in time and I liked it because it wasn't so big that you could lose stuff in the bottom of it and be overwhelmed with it. That was a great price on the Roma pizzas.
ReplyDeleteKay here, I have had a small chest freezer for years and it saves so much money! Right now I have 35 pounds of butter in mine that I got for 1.99 a pound, the other 37 pounds are in Sissy's freezer! Christmas baking here we come!
ReplyDeleteI feel like my biggest money saver in the kitchen is shopping my freezer when doing each week's menu planning. If everything in my freezer was purchased as a loss leader, than I'm consistently meal planning based on sales pricing, and it is amazing to me to see the positive impact that has on my Grocery budget. The only thing I really need to do is make a note on when it's time to start perusing sales for restocking. Which I generally do when I'm down to one pound of any item - chicken breast, pork chops, shrimp, salmon, etc.
ReplyDeleteA separate freeze is a god-send! I am going to miss my mom's when I move out, lol. I will be looking to maximize storage space and see if I can have a small grocery budget, all new to me!
ReplyDeleteI need a better way to organize mine too, I have no clue what’s at the bottoms, oops. But it’s so great to pick up cheap turkeys after thanksgiving and keep stuff on hand to avoid extra trips out. JoAnn
ReplyDeleteLove it. I actually like Roma pizza. That was a good deal.
ReplyDeleteWow! You certainly know how to stock up for the future! I think this kind of high volume food pantry and freezer storage is less common in the UK. Our houses are smaller, and basements are rarel
ReplyDeleteA freezer is wonderful to have. I only buy those loss leaders or clearance and keep the freezer happy. There are just so many different options for dry storage. You may need to get a little creative, but it will pay off.
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