Cut, Bag and Freeze Your Way to Making Ends Meet

If you could cut your cost of living in half, without giving up a thing in your lifestyle, would you do it? In understanding budgets and money, we can maximize our dollar by taking some simple steps. Recently, we’ve come upon a new era, where we must tighten our belts to become another ‘frugal’ generation, making every dollar stretch.

Currently we are dealing with inflation. One of the hardest things for all of us is rising prices. It’s costing more to go to work, more to eat, and more to heat our homes. Since 2008 our food and fuel, the prices of day to day living have doubled. Our wages have not doubled, and many of us, especially those who’ve lost jobs or own a small business, have actually had our wages go down. Although these things such as food and energy sound like we cannot change the bottom line, we can.

When the gas prices were rising, we all figured out really quick to fill our tanks all the way up to save money. When the prices were lowering, we bought our gas in smaller quantities, knowing it will be cheaper tomorrow. So where else can we apply this principle?

Well, we can do it to food. Our food costs are easily cut and for those of us with children to feed we have the perfect opportunity to significantly lower our annual budget by wisely using our tax returns. A freezer is necessary to do it. So what kind of freezer? Well, a frost free freezer like the freezer on our refrigerators ruins frozen food in a few months, so we must buy an old fashioned deep freezer then meat can last up to 18 months. An upright freezer cost a lot more to operate than a chest freezer, so a large chest freezer is the best bang for our buck.

Now all we have to do is buy our meats bulk, preferably by the case and spend a couple hours cutting, bag it into freezer bags, and date the meats to nail down meat prices for the year. In about two years we’ve broke even on our meat cost and if prices went up during that year, our freezer can pay for itself in as little as one year. Now all we have to do is find a discount store or shop for one used to stop buying meat on our weekly budget. For a family of 4 we’re looking at a 15 cubic foot freezer, and for a family of 5 or more a 20 cubic foot freezer is better.

It’s time to save money, nail down the price of our food into the future, and make ends meet today. Loosen those budgets. It’s easy, simple, and all we have to do is apply the principles discussed here to buy bulk, buy now.

*Tip: One of my favorite things to do is throw a big chunk of frozen pork in the roaster for an all day cook at 250 degrees. By the time I get home, dinner is ready. Since I cook in double portions to save energy, I have leftovers to make pulled pork, carnitas, or some other tasty, quick meal.