This summer, I saw a used freezer listed for sale. It was priced too high, and when I went to take a look at it saw that it wasn’t cosmetically the best. A shelf was missing from the main freezer, a shelf support was missing on the door, and someone had tried to repaint over the very bottom. And the owner was only willing to go down a hundred shekels on the price.
When I buy used, I like to buy things that are in excellent condition – it doesn’t have to look brand new but I want it to look really good. And I like to buy things that are a good deal. Nothing about this freezer was a match for me.
Except for one important feature… and I bought this beat up old freezer! Why in the world did I do that?
With my oldest daughters married and my older teenagers all not available, I was feeling maxxed out and realized I needed some kind of help. The younger boys were a big help but I didn’t want to ask too much of them, and I couldn’t keep doing everything else myself – the shopping, the cooking, the laundry, the cleaning, the million and one other things that go with being a parent and keeping a house running. And homeschool. And spend relaxed time with my children. And give parenting classes. And see clients privately.
Too much.
Either I was going to have to pay someone to cook or clean for me (which in 26 years I had never done), or I was going to have to find some other kind of help.
This was my solution. This 14 year old massive American freezer that wouldn’t win any contests for looks.
The winning feature? Its size.
They don’t make freezers this big here; this was brought over on a lift when someone moved here. I knew the additional space would allow me to cut down on how often I shopped and maximize good deals when I found them. I’d be able to cook in advance and save time on busy evenings. That would mean fewer things taking up my time and energy.
I paid 600 shekels and while it wasn’t technically worth more than 500 max, it was worth every shekel to me!
I’ve already saved tons of money by stocking up on chicken when the prices are low. And I’ve saved travel time and shopping time and gas costs in being able to shop less often. But more than the money savings – and that’s a significant reason to have a freezer – this has made my life so much easier!
It’s kind of like having a personal assistant. Kind of. Because while I still have to do the work, I can maximize my efforts by preparing two times the recipe, serving one and freezing one for a different night.
I can’t tell you how much I love this!
Here’s the picture tour. 🙂
Top shelf: frozen meals (each labeled on top – the labels on the side tend to fall off).
Second shelf down: on the left, frozen chicken breasts and whole chicken. Bought on sale, of course. About 25 kg at this moment.
On the right side are lunches for my husband to take to work – he takes one out every evening before going to bed and it’s defrosted when he leaves early in the morning.
Here’s my solution to the missing shelf. I didn’t want to waste all that space and it was way too high a space to stack things.
I got these stackable plastic crates for free from two different supermarkets – crates of vegetables are packed in these and then thrown away. It would be nice if they fit perfectly and used every bit of space but it’s pretty darn good! This is all chicken wings; I bought 30 kg when they were on sale for 4.90 a couple of weeks ago.
On the shelf under the chicken wings are frozen vegetables and fish.
The bottom is a pull out drawer and it filled with bags of cooked and shredded or sliced chicken gizzards to the left, and bags of frozen mashed bananas on the right.
(And on the very bottom you see the scuffy paint job. At some point when it’s empty, I’m going to clean it all out, scrape out the old paint and silicone it. I think that would look much better. But even though it’s ugly it’s still very usable so there’s no urgency to do this any time soon.)
In the door I have bags of cooked beans and other odds and ends. I have a couple of ideas of how to build a substitute door support for the top door shelf, but I haven’t needed the space yet so again, not pressing.
And now that I’ve reworked the space in our new kitchen area, we have room for a fridge and the freezer side by side, so it’s super convenient and easy to access.
I’m telling you, the simple things in life can make such a huge difference!
Avivah
What are the frozen lunches you make for your husband? I need some healthy inspiration!
He doesn’t eat grains or starches, so it’s always a protein with a cooked vegetable. Roasted chicken, sauteed chicken breast with green beans, butternut squash pancakes (squash, eggs, coconut flour), salmon patties, steamed carrots, sauteed cabbage, roasted eggplant, avocado/techina sauce on top. Nothing too fancy but it’s filling and yummy and he said he feels the love (and the savings!).
One of the best investments I’ve ever made, was buying a huge second hand freezer.
I made Aliyah during a Shmittah year, and I swore, never again would I get caught without vegetables and fruits! The year before, I’m going to start blanching, cooking, and freezing portions for the coming year, or buying bags of frozen veggies to stock up.
In the meantime, I can find great bargains and store them when I need them. Last month the bakery across the street from me was cleaning out their freezers, and they were giving away cases of challah for FREE!
Yes to a super investment!
That’s very smart to think ahead for shmita.
About the challah – sounds like an amazing score! How did you hear about it? And so you eat bread? (I thought in a comment you once said you eat low carbish, lean protein and lots of vegetables so I assumed not!)
Avivah, will you be my wife!
LOL, getting the freezer was the way I cloned myself – for myself!!