Many food items can be frozen and kept for weeks beyond their sell-by date. This allows savvy shoppers like you to purchase more of these grocery items when you find a great deal on them, and save them for later use! I recommend stocking up on great deals only on grocery items that you know your household will use. Here are items that I fill my freezer with when I find a great deal: Fruits and vegetables. I stock up on fruits and vegetables when they are in season. In-season produce tastes better and is less expensive. Keep in mind that certain fruits and vegetables freeze better than others. I have found success with freezing berries, apples (I usually freeze in the form of Apple sauce and apple pie filling), diced carrots, bell pepper, bananas (frozen bananas are great for thawing and using in baked goods), and more!Meat. I often find reduced meat near the sell-by date that needs to be used or frozen right away. Freezing meat extends the shelf life. I will often purchase meat as I find it on sale, and stock up on it on sale to use later.Cheese. Hard cheeses freeze particularly well, especially packages of shredded cheese. I have also had success with freezing containers of cottage cheese to use in homemade lasagna. Cheese goes on sale seasonally in my area, so I stock up during the sale times to use later when it is more expensive.Bread. Sliced bread and buns freeze great. Simply pull out of the freezer the day before you plan to use it, and it will thaw perfectly on its own. I often buy reduced loaves of bread near the sell-by date, then freeze them to extend their shelf-life.Cooked beans. I cook a large slow cooker of dried beans, then freeze in individual jars. Dried beans save a ton of money, and are super easy to cook!Cooked rice. I cook a large slow cooker of brown rice with seasonings, then freeze in individual freezer bags or jars.I do not recommend freezing cooked pasta or potatoes. These do not freeze and thaw as well as the other items mentioned. Do you freeze any groceries to save money? If so, what ones?
In the olden days, we usually have meat and sometimes even fish in the freezer. But when once we had a pork dish that didn't taste like pork, my husband decreed that we wouldn't store meat and fish in the freezer anymore. So our freezer is only for ice and ice cream. However, it is all right to store preserved meat like native sausage. It is all right to go to the market everyday just to be assured that what we cook are real fresh. For that, we had trained our housemaid in going to the market.
Often, the meat I buy is cheaper because it's close to the sell-by date. Since a lot of customers will pass it by in the meat counter, the store marks it down and sticks it in the Manager's Special section. I love shopping that bin, and often pick up some great deals. Once the meat's in the freezer, the sell-by date is somewhat irrelevant, since the life is extended by the freezing process. Kroger has Meat Mania a few times a year, and I try to get there and pick up extra meat that I can stick in the freezer for later use. I've noticed with bread that sometimes the less expensive bread doesn't do as well in the freezer. I suspect it has something to do with cheaper additives, but sometimes it will come out of the freezer feeling somewhat mushy. I don't freeze as much bread as I used to, but if I can find a mid-range to more expensive loaf or loaves, I will buy and freeze them. Also, pita bread, english muffins, bagels, and also tortillas, all seem to freeze well.
I'm always buying things that are close to their sell by date and then freezing them like @Diane Lane has said. I freeze meat and vegetables/fruit this way and find that it's a great way to make both money and food go further! I also like to keep frozen meals in the freezer for emergency type situations where I can't get to the store. I badly hurt my back a few years ago and had to struggle to cook anything because I didn't have anything pre-prepared there. Now I like to make sure I have some sort of meals frozen. I usually have soups or left over chili in there now. It beats throwing them out any day!
I love buying meat on sale and then freezing it. I feel like I'm saving so much money by doing this. I will often shop at Costco and buy bread and of course they sell them in packages of 2 or 3 loaves so I have to freeze a loaf or two. I do the same with muffins, bagels, tortillas and english muffins. I also make my own chicken stock which I freeze in smaller containers so I can use it later for soups. I will often buy berries on sale and eat as many as we can and just before they are going to go off I will freeze them for smoothies. Old over ripe bananas also free well and I take them out and use them in smoothies or baking.
I bought a small chest freezer a few years back just for this purpose. I can take advantage of good prices and buy extra food while it's on sale. Separate it, pop it in the freezer, and I'm all set. I mostly do it with meat, which is generally the most expensive part of a meal any way. I do freeze some veggies and stuff sometimes. Also, if I make a big pot of soup or something, I usually freeze a bunch of it for another day. I love my freezer. It pays for itself over and over again.
I like the tips, many of them I use myself. I freeze bread, I make big pots of soup and divide it up into several servings and freeze them for later. I freeze as much as I can to save for later use or take advantage of sales of larger size items that I would not usually purchase.
I love freezing foods to save money! Our home is only of 2 people, so food can be plentiful when on sale and freezing them can be a big money saver for our home. When we buy bread at the thrift shop we get a good price and then freeze them so we can just toast it to have it even for hot sandwiches.
I don't make it to SuperTarget or HEB (both grocery stores) all that often, so when I do, I stock up on Einstein Bros bagels (SuperTarget) and store bakery muffins (HEB). I keep them inside the brown bags from the store, then put that bag inside of a zipper freezer bag, and they stay fresh. I do a lot of bulk cooking, because when my health issues are acting up, I often don't feel like cooking. I have a decent supply of plastic containers that I recently replenished, and when I cook, I divvy it up and put about half in the freezer, and the rest is eaten immediately, or goes in the fridge for the next few days. It's comforting to know that when I feel at my worst, there's nutritious food in the freezer. Back before I started cooking as much as I do now, I would eat mainly ramen noodles and popcorn when I was sick. Homemade food is so much better. I also freeze cake and pie. I usually pop 2 or 3 slices in a container, that way I can have a treat, or if I have a friend or two coming over for a visit, I don't have to rush around making something if I'm feeling under the weather.
I definitely like to keep my freezer stocked to the max at most times, and only let it dwindle down when I am trying to use up stuff that has been in there a while and start over with a new stock of fresher items. I've gotten away from buying meat that are marked down to sell right away due to their expiration dates though - since I've been finding some great deals on fresher meats as of late and stocking up on those instead. Some recent finds that I got were a box of 40 links of breakfast sausage in a large case from a local sausage/meatball maker, for only $7. That will last me well over a month, and is a great deal considering I usually pay close to $5 for only 1/4 of that when I buy it elsewhere. Also, as I mentioned on some other threads, I found a local corner market selling 10 lb bags of fresh chicken breasts for only $1.30 a pound, so I've been stocking up on those as well.
If the ingredients I buy don't lend themselves too well to being frozen I usually would just cook them and then freeze them so in that way I get to freeze even the ingredients that are hard to freeze. For this I usually just do it for soups because that's the easiest to store and heat up and because the ingredients are cooked I don't worry as much about them going bad or the texture getting ruined, especially since it is already in soup form and the texture doesn't matter as much anymore.
I like to puree vegetables and freeze them in ice cube trays. Then I transfer them to plastic bags to use in recipes. This keeps my fresh produce from going bad and makes it quick and easy to add veggies to recipes. Here is what I commonly freeze in cubes and what I add it to: greens like spinach- smoothies, meatloaf mushrooms- burgers, meatloaf, stir fry, creamy soups carrots- red sauces, squash soup beets- smoothies I also freeze homemade chicken broth in cubes. Then I can easily add what i need to a recipe. I also often add it to pasta or rice I'm cooking to add flavor and nutrients.
I just bought two pounds of Italian sausage today that was on Manager's special. The sell by date is for 3 weeks away! They had 4 packages and I bought 2. As soon as I got home I put them in the freezer! What a deal!
