Are you as good at taking food out of the freezer as you are at putting it in?
Do you buy something and later find you have 3 more near the bottom of the freezer?
You know you are nodding your head while reading this or at least saying Yep!
No we’re not having a “Freezer Wars” here but we are taking Inventory of what we have in stock!
When you have leftover food and are looking for ways to keep it until you can eat it up most people turn to the freezer. Making sure you come up with ways to never waste food is important as so many people in this world wish they had a meal on the table. Some of us take food for granted not to mention the money it’s costing our wallets every time we have to shop at the grocery store.
I know we have been looking at ways to make sure everything gets eaten before it turns to lost money in the budget. Many of my Fans were asking me to design a Freezer Inventory sheet so they knew exactly what was in their freezer. I thought it was a brilliant idea since 99% of the time we are moving bits around to see what we have. Most times we are shocked to see we purchased more of one item we did not need.
- You can easily hang or tape these sheets beside your freezer or keep them in a 3-ring binder for easy reference.
Another aspect of freezing products to keep in mind is life expectancy of the product. When stockpiling items especially if you use coupons or get a spankin deal on reduced items you must be aware of the expiry date and how long a product can be frozen for.
You don’t want your butter to turn out like this?
This is what they call mouldy butter which happens from being in the freezer too long!
Don’t worry I’ve got your back, and so does Mrs.January.com who has put together this magnificent list about how long a stockpiled item and frozen items should last. Click here to read this up to date list.
Click this link –What are the best methods for freezing food? - This article explains flash freezing and why it’s important.
The best method is the coldest method, the faster the better. When big companies freeze their food it goes through a process called “Flash Freezing” which is the process of freezing very fast at a very cold temperature. (Crikey if it wasn’t obvious enough BUT I thought I should explain it)
So enjoy your food , keep it fresh and healthy and you will eliminate waste and money in your Budget! There’s no sense stockpiling and using coupons if you are only going to let the product waste.
Tip: If you think you may have too much of a product or that you won’t use it all in the months before it expires you can donate it to your local food bank. As always check to see what they will and will not accept.
Don’t forget to download and print Mr.CBB’s “Freezer Inventory 2012- Canadian Budget Binder
Cheers
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As always you can find me on Facebook HERE or Twitter HERE! Come join the conversation! Mr.CBB










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I’ll have to get my older son to figure out how to download the freezer list as he is administrator on my laptop. Keeps me from screwing it up if I have to get him to do something for me like this. I am not computer literate by any means and I’m the first to admit it. That said I really need to clean out both big freezers!! I’m trying to remember where the hubby put the coolers he used for camping to put things in while I work on each freezer in turn. I love the idea of a list that is easy to use. I had one years ago but found it to be a pain to use… once I found it from where some one tossed it in with the newspapers.
Freezers… you sound like the relatives.. they have 3 lol… yes the coolers will come in handy, smart idea. We keep the list on a clip board but others tape it to the freezer or put it on a cork board. It’s so important to rotate stock and eat it before it goes off otherwise we aren’t saving money at all. Cheers, let me know how it goes. Mr.CBB
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Margarine… only two months?
Yikes…… I better check on mine..
You can see the pic of our butter there.. that’s what can happen so the list is so important otherwise you are wasting money if you are throwing it in the bin. Cheers Mr.CBB
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that is one nasty piece of butter!!
my freezer favorite is the giant bag of frozen chicken.. there are so many meals that you can make out of it.
Yes it’s just because it was kept in the freezer too long. It’s important to be mindful of dates so we don’t waste money. This is why we wanted to do this inventory along with my fans on Facebook who really wanted it. Cheers and thanks for the comment! Mr.CBB
Wow!! This looks great!! Can really see your “Brit” side on some of the items…lol (ice lolly, crumpets)!!
So I go to print it and realize I don’t have Excel (or word or any office), so I downloaded the free 60 day trial. Hopefully i get picked to do the budget testing and make me figure out how Excel works…lol!!
I’m going to go get my messy copy of my freezer inventory now and put it into this very nice version!!
Thanks!
Excel can be tricky to learn, I took it in University when I studied computer engineering….but that was back quite a few years ago. I hope the sheets work out for you, I listened to everything you all had to say and put it on the computer. I printed it and will use it this weekend. Mr.CBB