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Feeding Frenzy

What’s in your freezer?

10:51 am April 16, 2009, by Jeanne Besser

 

This week’s power outages have been a disaster for many people’s cold storage. My street was without power for almost three days…which meant dumping most of the contents of our refrigerators and freezers.

Luckily, I have been conserving money by purchasing only what I need these days, even if it means passing up bulk deals. So my freezer was relatively spared, mostly filled with bread and veggies that made it through.

What about you? Did you have to do a major toss? Do you normally keep a stash of perishables and extra meat in your freezer to have on hand?

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9 comments Add your comment

Stan

April 16th, 2009
2:40 pm

I’ve got about 8 lbs of ground beef, and a few carton of smokes bought before the tax increase, in my chest freezer. Then some bread, veggies, and ice cream in the other. Of course I live far enough out that my power didn’t even go out for more than a blink so no biggie on my part.

Justmy2cents

April 17th, 2009
4:58 pm

We were lucky with the power outage. One of the schools I work at was out about 7 hours, but my house was spared. The freezer usually has about 5 lbs of chicken, 5 lbs ground beef, 5 lbs steak, some random frozen veggies, and a few Lean Cuisines here and there. If we HAD to throw it all out, luckily it would not cost too much to replace. I keep thinking I should go buy another small freezer….but then I would really spend more money at the store and probably on stuff we wouldn’t use before it went bad.

Sp Ed Teacher

April 17th, 2009
10:33 pm

I have not had any power outrage that lasted more than 30 min for the last 10 years. My freezer is full and that is more cost efficient than one half full. Fill it–even if you freeze water in gallon milk jugs.

Chandra Eicher

April 18th, 2009
7:12 pm

Putting gallon jugs of water in your freezer is a most excellent idea. If your power DOES go off they will keep your frozen foods colder much longer and may save you BIG bucks! I even keep a couple of water-filled gin bottles in my ‘frige freezer for that very reason. Also, put a single ice cube in a freezer bag. You can tell by looking (if it has melted and refrozen flat)if your foods have been exposed to too much warmth and have thawed and refrozen without your awareness.

Hungry in Decatur

April 18th, 2009
10:56 pm

My husband and I normally buy only a few items because we tend to eat out a lot. However, the weekend before the power outage, we decided to go grocery shopping for the week so that we could have leftovers for work. We went to Costco and bought several frozen items in bulk. We then went to Whole Foods to buy fresh fish and chicken. The first day that the power went out, we just knew that the power would be back on within a couple of hours. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case…stupidly, we didn’t think to take our perishables to my in-laws house, so we ended up throwing out a couple hundred dollars worth of food. Needless to say, a hard lesson learned and I don’t know when we will go grocery shopping again.

dahmer

April 20th, 2009
4:37 pm

Keep a dead body in your freezer. That will help keep it cold if the power goes out.

John Galt Jr.

April 20th, 2009
9:35 pm

Get a generator. I have 2. I have run the essentials of my home on a 5kw generator for 10 days during ice storm years back, and many times since then. Be prepared and responsible for yourself.

Stan

May 8th, 2009
12:36 pm

I also like to store blogs in the freezer that never get updated…

Stan

May 15th, 2009
8:49 am

So…tomorrow makes a full MONTH with no new blog here…shame

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