Whether it’s in your garage or your basement, and whether you use it for your Cattleman’s Meat Bundle purchases or bulk prepared meals, one of your best financial moves this fall, is to consider buying an upright or chest freezer.
And we’ll give you some money saving tips to tell you why.
Depending on the size and style of a supplemental upright, garage ready freezer, you can expect to pay as little as $60 to $90 per square foot with a typical 11 sq. ft. freezer costing as little as $750. And chest or “locker style” freezers can be even less expensive.
Upright freezers however, make it much easier to organize your frozen purchases vertically, which makes it much more convenient to store, locate and retrieve all your frozen assets.
If you’re purchasing one of Cattleman’s popular Meat Bundles for instance, you can organize your meats by meat type, (beef, pork, chicken etc.) or, by use, for example ground meats or patties, versus larger roasts.
Buying larger quantities of meats can be an enormous savings, especially when purchasing them on special sales, which otherwise you might not have the freezer space to take advantage of.
Another, often overlooked advantage of second freezer is the additional space to store your favorite pre portioned bulk prepared food dishes.
Making large batches of lasagna, and other casserole dishes, then portioning them into “right sized” daily family meals are not only a way to stretch that dollar, but to reduce the amount of day-to-day food prep time that can really wear you down.
Many soups, sauces, gravies and your favorite chili can easily and successfully be frozen for many months!
Here’s where those inexpensive food storage containers and zip lock freezer bags really pay off!
Portion some of your favorite dishes into average meal portions (typically 8 ounces). Place each portion in its own zip lock storage bag, then place these portions into one of the “shoe box” size plastic storage boxes you can buy at most department stores. Date each bag, then, be sure to put a label at the end of each box before you place it into your freezer. These boxes stack nicely and your inventory of frozen meals will be neatly organized.
Other great frozen meal ideas include:
- Pre-cooked & portioned Salisbury Steaks (we have a great recipe on our website)
- Crab Cakes
- Pulled BBQ Pork
- Homemade Burritos
- Cooked and Ready to Reheat Taco Beef
- Braised Short Ribs
- Sloppy Joes
These are just a few of the many recipes (which just happen to be on our website), that are great candidate for your freezer.
And last but not least, if you happen to shop our Centerline Store, you certainly can’t miss an entire part of the store solely dedicated to bulk frozen foods, including: all sorts of chicken wings, breaded chicken nuggets, batter dipped fish, fries, jumbo onion rings, meatballs, your favorite seafoods, not to mention frozen entrees of ever kind.
Having an additional freezer opens up an enormous opportunity for both money and time savings and could be an excellent pre-holiday gift to both you, and your family.
Read more about Cattleman’s FROZEN ASSETS, HERE.
