Will a freezer save you money?

By Liz Pulliam Weston

I grew up on a farm with an ever-expanding garden that overflowed with vegetables. Picking and prepping produce for the freezer was a late-summer ritual.

I guess that's why it never occurred to me to question the economics of buying a freezer when I started my own family, even though our garden has never been more than a small plot of kitchen herbs and tomatoes, none of which I freeze.

Instead, our freezer is stuffed with staples I don't want to run out of, such as bread, cheese, butter for baking and boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Veggies and berries (both store-bought, alas) fill a few bins. Frozen treats live there as well, along with a few pizzas and other convenience foods for nights when nobody wants to cook.

But if I had to do it over, would I still buy a stand-alone freezer? Consider:

• They're not cheap. Chest freezers typically cost $250 to $450, while uprights usually cost $475 to $750.

• They suck electricity. Current Energy Star models operate a lot more efficiently than my decade-old model, but a large-capacity upright can still set you back more than $100 a year in electricity costs.

• You have to put them somewhere. Even the small ones eat up a fair amount of floor space, and you may not have a convenient site.

• You already have a freezer. The one that's part of virtually every refrigerator manufactured may well be big enough for all your frozen-food needs. I know people who swear they can stuff a month's worth of made-ahead meals in that relatively small space.

The icy reality

Savings maven Stephanie Nelson, the creator of the CouponMom.com site, once owned a big stand-alone freezer but decided it was inefficient, both in energy usage and as a way to save money.

"I ended up buying too many things," Nelson said, "and they'd be in the freezer too long."

For example, Nelson once bought 12 cartons of ice cream on sale, only to find it "had an icy consistency" by the time her family of four was able to finish it off.

"There's also a shelf life to frozen foods that many people don't realize," Nelson said. "It's much shorter than you'd expect -- as little as a month for some items."

Food stored at zero degrees is technically safe indefinitely, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, but there can be sharp drop-offs in taste and quality as the weeks pass.

How long will frozen food keep?

Item	Months	Item	Months
Bacon and sausage	1 to 2	Meat, uncooked ground	3 to 4
Casseroles	2 to 3	Meat, cooked	2 to 3
Egg whites or egg substitutes	12	Poultry, uncooked whole	12
Frozen dinners and entrees	3 to 4	Poultry, uncooked parts	9
Gravies	2 to 3	Poultry, uncooked giblets	3 to 4
Ham, hot dogs and lunchmeats	1 to 2	Poultry, cooked	4
Meat, uncooked roasts	4 to 12	Soups and stews	2 to 3
Meat, uncooked steaks or chops	4 to 12	Wild game, uncooked	8 to 12

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service

Nelson still stocks up on meat, chicken and frozen vegetables on sale, but now she stores the groceries in her refrigerator's freezer.

"My general rule of thumb is to get two to three weeks' worth of an item, because that's the amount of time until the next sale," Nelson said. "My regular freezer has enough space for that amount of food."

Are you a freezer person?

Coupon expert Amy Bergin, by contrast, swears by her freezer.

"For families, (a freezer) is key to a savings strategy," said Bergin, who created The Couponizer organizing system. "It functions as a warehouse to store inventory bought at a great price. It extends shelf life for perishables like garden veggies, bread bought on sale and herbs. And it provides extra space for food storage when you're hosting a holiday gathering."

Most people who have freezers use them heavily. Indeed, 75% of those who have a freezer access it either daily or every other day, said Marty O'Gorman, the vice president and general manager for the freezer division at Electrolux Major Appliances, which produces the Frigidaire line.

And buying a freezer is certainly a popular purchase lately. In a year when other home-appliance sales have slid 8%, freezer sales are up 7%, according to retail-research firm NDP Group, with 1.1 million sold in the first six months of 2008.

Analysts figure consumers, stung by higher food prices, are relearning the joys of stocking up.

Continued: Do the math

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