One of the biggest challenges to couponing can be storage.  We need to buy enough of a sale item to last the next 6 weeks, but that seems daunting when you have a small cabinet or a little fridge/freezer.   For the next few weeks we are going to talk about the value of freezer space.  Does it save you money to have an extra freezer?

Ways it can save money:

You can buy more of the sale items to last you until the next sale.  A big example is frozen vegetables in our house.  We tend to grab a bag of vegetables with almost every meal, so 6 weeks of bagged veggies is a lot.  There is no way I could fit that in our inside freezer.  When the vegetables are on sale with a coupon that might be 25-40¢ each.  I really want to be able to get close to what we need at that price rather than paying $1.50 each when we run out and have to buy them off sale.

You can stock up on fresh produce and meat when it’s in season.  We love to hit the farmers market in the summer.  I always try to buy the largest box they have of squash, corn, peas, zucchini, broccoli etc. and then spend the next few days blanching and storing it all.  Buying in season and storing fresh vegetables we can save up to 50% versus paying out of season prices.

You may not know this, but your food is will actually last longer in a deep freezer (not your freezer attached to your refrigerator).  Most stand-alone freezers get colder and keep a more regulated temperature than kitchen freezers.  For some items it lengthens the freezer life by 3-4 months!

Ways it can save time:

Use your extra space to store prepped and ready to go recipe items.  Cut up vegetables (onions, peppers etc.) ready for recipes, or mix up some homemade cookie dough starter and store it to always have a base cookie ready for a ton of combinations.

Not only prepping food, but also storing ready to freeze meals is another huge time saver!  I have many friends who cook only once a week and store all their meals for the week in the freezer.  There are other folks that do this once a month!  Not only are you saving time that night for dinner,  but you also save time by only getting the kitchen dirty once a week.  We are going to talk about freezer cooking in detail in a week or so.

Finally with all the storage capability we need to point out the obvious time saver… you have the ability to go to the store less often.  Make one trip to the store a week a freeze those extra gallons of milk needed to get you through the week.  You will quickly find that you don’t have those panic moments nearly  as often that you are out of chicken and need it 5 minutes from now.

Tune in next week for freezer guidelines: what can be frozen, best techniques, and how long things are good for.

Want to see more on this freezer series?

Freezer Storage 101: Best Freezing Techniques

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