Cost of chest freezer against rising food prices? Help pls

[Frufru]

I am thinking about buying a chest freezer - an outlay I could really do without atm however, reading about the drought in usa and floods here affecting food prices - I am wondering if the expenditure now will be worth the money longer term?

Any advice please?

Many thanks

[bulldogeagle]

you can buy a basic chest freezer for about £130 new, less second hand.

[hobo]

FF,

Have you considered dehydrating and bagging up in mylar?
It would be a smaller investment and the food would keep much longer and it doesn't depend on continuous electricity.
More info and supplier here: http://www.theselfsufficiencyshop.co.uk and it's run by a prepper on this forum (not me)!

My food preps are a mix of tins, dehydrated, in-the-ground and a small percent frozen.

Hobo

[jansman]

It is a good question. Initial cost of freezer plus the food to fill it. THEN the cost of running it. And frozen food does not last forever.

[Frufru]

It is a good question. Initial cost of freezer plus the food to fill it. THEN the cost of running it. And frozen food does not last forever.

Those are the problems I am having justifying it - just not sure that the outlay is possible, let alone money saving.

Re Mylar - I have no idea about how to go about prepping food for mylar so am having a look on the net for info on how to do it.

[jansman]

Again,the mylar thing incurs costs that can be avoided if you just buy food and rotate it. As long as a tin of beans is kept on a shelf in a cool place, ot will last to its expiry date. Keep buying extra tins and packets, keep an eye on dates and it costs nothing to keep. I have chest freezers but if the power goes they are useless. Not a reliable source of stored food in that respect.

[Frufru]

Again,the mylar thing incurs costs that can be avoided if you just buy food and rotate it. As long as a tin of beans is kept on a shelf in a cool place, ot will last to its expiry date. Keep buying extra tins and packets, keep an eye on dates and it costs nothing to keep. I have chest freezers but if the power goes they are useless. Not a reliable source of stored food in that respect.

I haven't been storing enough to need to rotate yet and the stuff I buy is not really stuff we would eat day to day (tinned veg eughhh) but I am thinking of storing everything in date labeled plastic toy boxes and each january, taking the relevent box out and surviving purely on that for january (good practice and a lean month for most!) and putting what is left into use with our more normal foods during the year... anybody else do this?

Don't think I can justify the chest freezer unless I can get a second hand cheap one

[itsybitsy]

I haven't been storing enough to need to rotate yet and the stuff I buy is not really stuff we would eat day to day (tinned veg eughhh)

Eat what you store, store what you eat. No good stocking up on 500 tins of stuff that you hate. It will NEVER get eaten...

[Frufru]

I haven't been storing enough to need to rotate yet and the stuff I buy is not really stuff we would eat day to day (tinned veg eughhh)

Eat what you store, store what you eat. No good stocking up on 500 tins of stuff that you hate. It will NEVER get eaten...

It will in a SHTF situation! I just can't bring myself to eat tinned veg unless I absolutely had to.

If worst comes to worst, I can feed it to the chickens - they eat absolutely anything!!!

[Ferricks]

Frufru I agree with Itsy - you MUST store what you eat! If you won't eat tinned veg then what would you eat - tinned soup? that would be a reasonable alternative for a veg portion, or stock up on dehydrated veg, pulses and stock cubes to make your own. You don't want to be utterly miserable eating things you don't like AND skint do you,...... (Tinned sweetcorn is nice....)

re: the pack a month box - I'm developing a 12 week rotation where there's a box for every week and it's a case of "lifting" the box and getting on with it. each box has the stored food + cash for fresh veg etc (since we can at the moment!), but it means that there's a natural rotation and its an easily managed system by another family member if I become unwell. additionally there are non food rations and "back up" stocks to maintain the system.