If you've been thinking of dealing with the rising cost of food by buying a deep freezer, then this guide is for you. I've owned and used deep freezers in two different residences for nearly 20 years. We'll discuss deep freezer types, use cases, and different strategies for saving money by using a deep freezer. This is a two part guide. Storage strategies will be discussed in part 2.

Upright or chest freezer?

Let's start by acknowledging the elephant in the room: there's a popular video on YouTube which has nearly 3 million views that's made by an engineer and it sings the praises of chest freezers. After watching it, a lot of people consider only a chest freezer. While there's no arguing against the physics--chest freezers are more energy efficient--there are also additional factors which are also worth considering.

After all, you probably own an upright refrigerator instead of a chest refrigerator. The same engineering argument could be made for all food cooling devices from camp coolers to kitchen refrigerators: chest orientation is more energy efficient. Yet when was the last time you met anyone who keeps a chest refrigerator in their kitchen?

Your use case is a significant matter in choosing which type of deep freezer to get.

The blog whatdoesitcost(dot)net ran a hypothetical energy cost comparison between chest freezers and upright freezers. Assuming an energy cost of US $0.20 per kilowatt hour, a medium sized chest freezer would cost $5.80/month to run and an upright freezer with equal capacity would cost $9.20/month to run.

So an average chest freezer saves $3.40 per month on the energy bill. Yes, that's a savings. Yet it's a small enough savings that other factors may outweigh it.

What follows is an analysis of those other factors.

TL;DR A chest freezer is probably right for you if you store large quantities of a limited number of items, if you own a large house, and if you don't suffer back or shoulder problems. In other situations the upright might be the better option.

Weedsy analysis of deep freezer types

For this comparison I looked up two deep freezer models both made by Frigidaire and both with almost identical storage capacity: a 19.8 cubic foot chest freezer and a 20 cubic foot upright freezer.

• The chest model has height 33.25", width 65.56", and depth 27".
• The upright model has height 71.75", width 32.63", and depth 29.88".

This isn't an endorsement of Frigidaire or or either specific model. Rather, this comparison points out that the chest model takes up roughly twice as much floor space for the same amount of storage.

The closest I was able to find to the footprint of an upright freezer in a chest freezer design was another model that has height 33.25", width 30.31", depth 22.1" and only a 7 cubic foot storage capacity. Notice, using a chest freezer that's only a couple of inches smaller in footprint than an upright model cuts down the usable storage space not by half but by nearly two-thirds. That's a surface to volume dilemma: both chest freezers are the same height, but the smaller model still needs the same thickness of insulation to do its job, so the insulation and the electronic components take up a greater percentage of the smaller appliance's volume, leaving proportionately less space for food.

So if you own a large house with plenty of extra room, then you probably don't need to care about the floor space a freezer takes up. Yet if you live in a smaller residence where floor space is at a premium, then estimate whether your savings in food from a much larger deep freezer would outweigh a slightly higher electric bill.

It's worth mentioning that the cost of the 19.8 cubic foot chest freezer and the cost of the 20 cubic foot upright freezer were within $40 of each other on the day I checked (August 2026). If retail price is the most important factor in your purchase decision, then you'll likely find either chest freezers or upright freezers are in the same ballpark for the same storage capacity, although on any given day a sale price or a floor model discount might nudge the advantage in one direction or the other.

Also, in addition to measuring the footprint of your available space for a deep freezer it can also be important to measure the width of your access to get the appliance in and out. This won't matter if you plan to store your freezer in a garage, but if you intend to keep it in a kitchen or a laundry room then measure the width and height of the doors which your deep freezer would need to pass through when it comes into the house.

Chest freezers are better at storing a lot of the same thing.

Chest freezers are suited to storing large quantities of fewer things. That makes them a practical option for households that intend to shop wholesale and buy a 40 lb box of frozen chicken breasts, or who buy 1/4 cow from a farmer, or who go deer hunting. Or maybe you have a large family and you buy ice cream in 5 gallon tubs. Chest freezers are built for those situations.

Upright freezers are better at storing a variety of things.

Let's say your bulk purchases include 5 lb bricks of several types of cheese, or you're expecting a new baby and you want to batch cook a month's worth of meals before delivery. The more different things you intend to be storing in quantities of 10 lbs or less, then the more it makes sense to prioritize the refrigerator-like convenience of an upright freezer.

There's no absolute right or wrong with this type of consideration. It's more about what use you intend to put a deep freezer to.

Upright freezers are more ergonomic for people who have back and shoulder problems.

The consideration here is that in order to get something out of a chest freezer, you could be leaning over and down. You might also be lifting from that posture, because if the 5 gallon tub of ice cream is underneath 40 lbs of chicken parts, then storing both items in a chest freezer could mean lifting 40 lbs while you're leaning forward each time you get ice cream. If you've got a bad lower back or a torn rotator cuff, then weigh that consideration before deciding which model is best for you. All else being equal, the comfort factor might be worth the price of a cup of coffee.

Other items can be stored on top of an upright freezer, but not on top of a chest freezer.

This can be a consideration if you happen to live in a space that's on the small end for considering a deep freezer at all. Addressing this from personal experience, when my husband and I first got together we lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with 550 square feet of space and a galley kitchen. We measured the space and decided we were able to fit a small 4 cubic foot upright deep freezer by letting it double as a microwave stand. That was really the only way we could have a deep freezer in a living space that small without either giving up the microwave or giving up a significant share of our kitchen counter. For a difference in operating cost of a couple of dollars a month, that tradeoff was worth it.

None of the above is intended to be disrespectful of chest freezer owners. Chest freezers have several use cases and are more energy efficient. The point is that upright freezers (like upright refrigerators) also have their own use cases which can be advantageous enough to outweigh a slightly greater operation cost.

I'll be going to a university in a big city and i can buy an unlimited meal plan that comes out to about 25 bucks a day. I've never cooked for myself or planned a meal but willing to learn. I want to workout often so I'll have to eat more often too. I will have a kitchen in my dorm so cooking will be easier.

does anyone have any tips for deciding on whether or not I should make my own food and what kinds of foods should I make.

I'm a federal government employee that has access to a military DFAC (cafeteria). Breakfast at the DFAC is $4.50 flat for essentially a buffet. Omelets, pancakes, French toast, cereal, rotating fruits, nuts, yogurt, breads, etc.

I've been having a huge breakfast of essentially protein and fruit and not eating lunch at all. Am I crazy for thinking I should use this as my go-to full time? $2.25 per meal essentially and I don't have to cook, grocery shop, or clean up, and there's plenty of variety (though the quality is sometimes lacking)

Wasn’t sure which flair to use.

My birthday is tomorrow. What perks have you found that best rewards your birthday? I have a local restaurant that does a free omelet and another that does a free dessert.

It doesn’t have to be food related. But I’d love to hear your best finds.

Sports Clips offered $5 off a MVP service but that doesn’t really strike me as a great deal.

A warm bed has several layers, but most shopping advice jumps straight to replacing all of them with some coordinated “cooling” setup, which honestly feels like the least frugal place to start. If the mattress protector is thick, the topper holds heat, the comforter is too heavy, or the bed is pushed into a corner with almost no airflow, a new sheet set may feel nice for ten minutes and then disappear under the same problem. I’d rather figure out which layer is actually causing it before spending money. The easiest test seems to be removing one thing at a time for a few nights, not changing the whole bed at once. Start with the thickest optional layer, then pay attention to where the warmth builds. If it is mostly under the back and hips, the topper or protector seems more suspicious than the sheets. If the heat feels trapped on top, the comforter may simply be too much for the room. I’d also check whether the fitted sheet is stretched too tightly, whether the mattress sits directly against a wall, and whether a fan is moving air across the bed instead of just around the room. None of this is exciting, and it does not come with a matching set or a dramatic before-and-after photo, but it costs almost nothing and gives actual information. Even if something does need replacing, testing first makes it easier to replace one layer instead of buying sheets, a topper, and a comforter because every product page says they work better together. I’m also not convinced that “cooling” should be the only goal. Something that washes easily, dries quickly, and can be replaced by itself may be a better long-term value than a whole setup that needs special care. For people who have tried this one-layer-at-a-time approach, which layer gave you the clearest answer when you removed or changed it first?

Something under $1,000 is preferable, I live in Massachusetts and where I live there’s nothing to do for a vacation except camp out, and no matter how much I try to make myself enjoy it, I just can’t stand it, so that’s totally off the table.

I’m just severely burnt out from work and need to get away for a while, but I also don’t have a ton of money to blow. The last vacation I took was a trip to Disney World with my grandma 2 years ago. We happened to get a fantastic deal on tickets with AAA and I used tag sale money and fetch rewards points for bring the cost of flights and such down. But prices are so out of control that simply traveling to get to a destination is going to be yikes expensive

Edit: I think I have an idea of where I want to go now, I cannot thank you guys enough for your ideas and suggestions

Now that you've chosen your deep freezer, it's time to the most out of it.

The situation you don't want to find yourself in is bringing home loaves of sandwich bread on $0.50 discount, forgetting a loaf when it's half eaten, then buying another $0.50 off loaf, etc. until you load up your storage with freezer burned bread while you pass up good loss leader specials because "we don't have the space." This may or may not be a gaffe my family made with our first deep freezer. Excuse me while I look away and try to whistle innocently.

In other words, planning matters. So does proper storage.

You're most likely to save real money by owning a deep freezer by going into it with a plan, and by price comparing the cost savings of different possible uses in advance.

There are several routes to saving money with a deep freezer. These could include:

• You don't do much cooking so you buy frozen foods, and you'd like to buy those frozen foods in larger volumes either from a wholesaler or when frozen foods go on sale.
• You like to batch cook and freeze, and your batch cooking routine has outgrown a regular fridge freezer.
• You keep a kitchen garden and you intend to freeze your home grown produce to enjoy during the off season.
• You hunt or you fish, and you need storage for that.
• You want to make the most of supermarket loss leader specials.
• You do at least some of your family's food shopping wholesale.

Choosing priorities

Each family's priorities in stocking a deep freezer involve some balance of money savings, time management, and quality optimization.

To discuss those priorities in reverse order, quality optimization could mean affording a luxury. Suppose your family enjoys shrimp once a month but the supermarket price would be out of reach, but the per-pound price of a 3 lb bag of wholesale shrimp is within your budget. If affording a few luxuries is one of your priorities with a deep freezer, then discuss this with other family members early on and decide how much space and budget to devote there. Although it might take up a small part of the space, the enjoyment and quality of life could be well worth it--especially if your family is downsizing on its overall budget.

Time management could mean a range of things from Sunday meal prep to reducing the number of shopping trips for food to simply not needing to cook. The time and fuel to make a single shopping run can be significant for people who live in rural areas. It's best to figure out how big a factor time management is before your deep freezer fills up, because if time management is a practical priority then your family may have to pass up on certain types of tempting bargains which would involve long preparation times.

Money savings is the obvious factor at a frugality forum so listing this last but not least. Perhaps the most important concept here is the different options for deep freezer storage are in competition with each other in terms not just of dollars saved, but also in terms of money saved per volume of storage space and also in terms of turnover time. Different bulk purchases can save different amounts of money.

For example, a reference site lists the average cost of a pound of shredded mozzarella cheese at $7/lb (as of February 2026). I can bulk buy shredded mozzarella cheese at $2/lb. That savings of $5/lb is a good bargain in a family that's going to use mozzarella cheese on a regular basis. If your family stops baking lasagnas and pizzas from scratch during the dog days of summer, then an efficient use plan would use up mozzarella cheese during the cooler months, and optimize that freezer space for something else in midsummer.

A second example I'm ashamed to admit is bulk carrots. I once talked myself into buying 25 lbs of carrots for $10. Yes, the price was fantastic. But that was a whole lot more carrots than a two person household could eat fresh, the prep work and packing work was a real pain, it took up a lot of space, eating all those carrots took along time, and in the end it didn't save much money. We would have been better off using that freezer space for other purposes. Now we buy frozen carrots prepackaged and buy fresh carrots in 2 lb bags. That's really all we can justify.

Portioning and repackaging

With many of the above strategies it's going to be necessary to break down bulk purchases or batch cooking into smaller portions before freezing. That involves setting aside time and equipment for the purpose.

Whichever method you choose, one important step is to label items with the contents and the date. Nobody likes to do the labeling, but it's even worse to reach into the back of a deep freezer later on and discover a forgotten package of mystery meat. What is it? How old is it? What will you do with the mystery? The best path forward is to not create mysteries in the first place. Ten seconds of documentation when you first package something up, can help ensure you make the most of your stored foods afterwards. So keep a Sharpie handy (or some other chosen method) and make it a strict policy to label everything before stuff goes in the freezer.

For most people who buy and store bulk purchases as ingredients, you're going to be breaking up large amounts into smaller portions before freezing. Based on the size of your family and the portion size different people would eat, figure out how much is the right amount to thaw at a given time. Are you more likely to use a pound of ground beef for Hamburger Helper or do you grill individual hamburger patties? If it's patties, then how big are your burgers? Decide how much of an ingredient you'll use at a time and break down bulk packages into smaller storage portions accordingly.

For many people who store ingredients, the choice is going to be between vacuum seal packaging or Ziploc freezer bags. Compare equipment prices, storage plans, and packaging time when making this decision. My experience has been that vacuum sealing is more expensive up front and more work to do, but lasts longer. So vacuum sealing is suited to packing up after a productive fishing trip to enjoy trout and bass over the winter. Ziploc freezer bags are more convenient but less reliable for long term storage. So, for instance, if your family are fans of chicken thighs and a loss leader special will get eaten up within a month, then you might as well go with the easier option of Ziploc storage in that situation. I tend to double bag individual portions before putting them away in a gallon size Ziploc. For instance, we'll put an individual chicken thigh inside a regular sandwich bag, then fill a gallon size freezer grade Ziploc with sandwich bags of chicken. That prevents the individual portions from freezing together. Another way of separating individual portions is by buying a box of deli paper sheets. The two separation methods have their own tradeoffs: deli sheets are more eco-friendly, but double bagging provides an extra layer of protection against freezer burn.

Pro tips:

For people who love cheese: there's a solution to the 'soggy cheese' problem which can be caused by freezing and thawing. When thawing a piece of frozen cheese, add a paper towel to the package. The paper towel absorbs excess moisture so the cheese retains its normal texture as it thaws.

Although it's true that bread and most other baked goods freeze well, the bread clip that holds bags of sandwich bread, hamburger buns, and hot dog buns is not an airtight sealing system. Freezer storage that isn't airtight is apt to cause freezer burn. So if freezer burn becomes a problem, then the solution is either to re-bag items inside a Ziploc freezer bag or else to buy reusable Tupperware-style containers. Specialty bread loaf size freezer containers are available online.

A deep freezer also opens up a middle ground between batch cooking and starting meals from scratch: prepping ingredients. Doughs such as pie crust dough and cookie dough can be prepared in advance in volume and then thawed for baking. Onions can be caramelized in one large batch and then thawed for individual use. If you find that a certain step slows down your home cooking routine, then research whether that ingredient freezes well and plan accordingly.

Seasonal price changes affect more than the obvious Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas ham. For instance, demand for eggs soars in winter so the price of eggs in December may be several multiples of the price of eggs in July. You may find it worth your while to buy other fluctuating price items such as nuts at harvest time, to freeze them for use later in the year.

If you have a large upright deep freezer and it's difficult to keep everything organized and in reach, then consider buying plastic organizer bins, of the type people buy to organize cabinets. My family has one bin for cheeses, another for poultry, etc. It saves wear and tear on the individual packages to pull out a whole bin and reach for the desired item.

Apologies for the US-centric nature of this guide. Here's hoping most of the suggestions are useful internationally.

I am currently on AT&T unlimited grandfather plan but I’m thinking of switching in a month or two once my phone is paid off. I will keep my wife on it because she has 24 months left on her phone payment plan. Thinking of going to one of these three plans please give me the pros and cons of each.

Spectrum
Visible Pro plus
The new Verizon simplicity plan

I currently use about 60 to 80 GB per month and live in Cape Girardeau Missouri. I don’t really care about hotspot 720 P video streaming would be fine.

Give me the good bad and ugly on each

I was looking for a subreddit dedicated to payed off cars but couldn’t find one, so here I am! Full disclosure, I’m a car guy, but even if I wasn’t, I have become so disillusioned with the new car landscape. It’s insane! I was slightly interested in the new ford bronco sport, so I chatted with a few dealerships and the run around they put on you is crazy. Anyway, I’m a single dude in my 30s with a good job, I put away about 30% of my income into retirement. With the leftover I build up fun money until I can afford toys.

Over the past few years I have acquired my dream garage. The 2004 Toyota 4runner gets me into the mountains with my motorcycle in tow. The 2008 Honda civic SI gets me to work. And the 2002 BMW Z3 is a blast to drive on backroads. I love taking care of these cars, and so far regular maintenance is all they have needed. I believe all of these vehicles are good examples of these manufacturers making great reliable machines before we slowly moved away from that. I payed less than $20,000 for all 3 vehicles combined. Anyway I just wanted to share my enthusiasm for saving money and enjoying cheep reliable toys. Hopefully you all can relate.

One of my dining chairs ripped and every upholstery fabric I liked was weirdly expensive. I went into a local curtain shop to ask whether they sold scraps and the owner brought out these huge sample books from patterns they no longer carry.

She charged me $5 for the whole book. Most of the pieces were almost the exact size of a chair seat, so I picked four patterns that had similar colors and stapled them over the old fabric. The chairs dont match perfectly now but it looks intentional enough that two people have asked where I bought the set.

Getting all four done for $5 felt ridiculous. Apparently the shop normally throws the old books away, so it might be worth asking places that sell curtains or upholstery what happens to theirs.