Freezer hoarding

The phrase "Dh won't let me turn it on" left me

my OH has recently decided to come shopping with me and is horrified at the amount of food we buy....and use.Or rather HE uses.I tend to live on a very basic diet.He just never realised how much food cost before and since watching a programme called EAT WELL FOR LESS he's a wee bit obsessive.he'll have to get over it though as we have all 4 GC this weekend for 4 days ..so 3 meals each every day add snacks and drinks and I reckon the bill will be twice what it normally is .I daresay he wont cut back what he eats though...he tells everyone he eats better at home then he could in any local restaurant

It's quite exciting finding something home-made where the label has fallen off!

What's for dinner? Not sure but it smells like curry

We have decided to try to eat up what we have in the freezers or make jams, jellies, give some fruit away.
One side of an American style fridge/freezer and two large upright freezers, one of which is stuffed full of home-grown fruit and vegetables.

My DH has mentioned the cost of electricity from time to time then gives up

Hoarding is not quantity it is not using the contents of the hoard.

I have a large chest freezer in my garage. It is always full, like harrigran's. A lot of what is in there is garden produce as I have a large and productive vegetable garden. In fact at this time of year I turn my small 'spare' freezer on to hold the surplus.

I generally know what is in it because it is packed into freezer baskets by product, with each basket going in a specific place, so everything gets used roughly in rotation. I defrost it about twice a year, when occasionally odd things come up. I then leave them at the top of the freezer tor remind me to use them up

A controlling husband is a bigger problem than freezer space!
I agree with charleygirl - couldn't bear to have him tell me what to do ( unless he is seriously ready to take over shopping/storage/cooking and you agree to let him!)

Who says things are "out of date"? Just defrost them and decide for yourself whether they are OK to eat.

I have the most enormous freezer, and it is always full. GC love the fact that Grandma can magic just abour anything they fancy. I worry that we may starve during the Christmas break

I recently went through my indoor freezer to check and itemise everything in it. Some things got thrown away as being out of date or unrecognisable but we ate from the freezer for at least a week. Trouble is, I’m sliding back into the old ways . The outside freezer was also sorted and I was horrified at the dates on some of the things in there and threw a lot out, whilst being ashamed at the waste. It now has half a lamb in there, which we must start eating soon.

I have a fridge freezer in the kitchen and a full size freezer in the garage. next week I have a whole lamb and 14 kilos of dog food coming, it is going to be a squeeze. I keep loads of veg, potato type products, home made burgers, bread, bol.sauce, soups, shepherd's pie as well as chicken, sausages, beef joints (make my own mince). Think we could live for over a month without going to the shops except for milk and eggs. Habit started when we moved here and then the nearest supermarket was 25 miles away and no home deliveries, and lots of snow.

Before I downsized I had a 20 cu ft freezer in the garage which I miss. I now only have 4 drawers beneath the fridge which are always full to bursting although there is only me. It is full of sausages, pork and turkey steaks, salmon and smoked cod fillets, chicken, mince raw and cooked and summer fruits. I sometimes have to throw out the other bits and pieces which get squeezed in, like breadcrumbs from surplus bread, individual portions of caramelized onions and home made stuffings.
My kitchen cupboards are also full of dry goods and cans. I could probably feed myself for a month without shopping for anything but vegetables, so why don't I use up some of the stuff? Perhaps that should tell me that I am a hoarder and so are you Stansgran! Seems perfectly sensible to me.

I would be in the ‘when he plans , shops and cooks he can store or not store what he likes’ camp.

My freezer is full of bits and bobs which wouldn't go together to make a meal. I must get myself together and start using it to store useful stuff!

Your husband would definitely say I am a hoarder. I have a large chest freezer in the cellar. It has mostly meat, which I tend to buy when on offer. There's joints of meat, chicken pieces, chops, fish, pies, ice cream, bread, chips, peas.
I am planning to downsize so have bought a small freezer to keep in the more accessible conservatory so I can find things in the big one and gradually run it down.

DH is wrong to me. You could ask him to be chef and care to the freezer himself.

My rules would be

I cook therefore I decide what we buy and how we store it.

You cook and you decide what to buy and how to store it.

I have one chest freezer in the garage which is always at least 3/4 full. Some of it is quick turnover such as 3 x 2 litre milk, 4 various loaves, sausages and fish fingers, ice cream and lollies for dgc.

Off the top of my head, at present also about 8 various beef/pork roasts, mince steak, 4 pizzas, lots of chicken breasts and thighs (we live near the chicken factory shop). Cooked left over portions of bolognese, cottage pie. Fish fillets, several fresh trout, salmon steaks, 4 Cakes, 5 cheesecakes, cartons of double cream, garlic breads.

Frozen mixed veg, corn on the cob, oven chips.

(I also have old kitchen cupboards in the garage that store the tins, jars, and dry goods like pasta.)

I know I could go quite a while without shopping and sometimes do so to 'use up' and make space.

We have an American fridge freezer in the kitchen , and the freezer part has basics , frozen veggies, chicken, white fish etc. Outside in the garage I have a tall freezer full of my bargains that I rotate into the indoor freezer, things like fruit and veggies when in season or multipack buys.

And I have a tall fridge which I use at Christmas for chilled food overflow and drinks, and in the summer drinks, and snacks for when we have decamped to the garden !!

Your set up sounds perfectly reasonable to me Stansgran !

Three drawer freezer under the fridge in our kitchen; top drawer always has chicken breasts, chicken legs, pork chops, belly pork and mixed beef/pork mince that the butchery in our local supermarket makes for me using the meat that I choose. Centre drawer has a variety of frozen veg, basic Margarita pizzas that I can jazz up before baking and the odd plastic box containing home made lasaña or spag bol sauce. Bottom is frozen white fish fillets, sometimes a box of fish fingers for when I feel the need for an indulgent FF sandwich, a ready to bake apple strudel from Aldi in case of unexpected visitors and in the summer a box of choc ices or the small cornets.

It's not hoarding unless you never actually eat the stuff. It's sensible home economy.

My thirty-five year old chest freezer is always at least two thirds full. I was told it would run more efficiently that way. Right now I have loads of garden produce, fruit and veg, either blanched or prepared, like cooked apple, tarts, ratatouille, chargrilled veg, soups etc.

I always have sliced bread, some meat and fish and a range of vegetarian and vegan things like sausages and burgers.

I have never really adjusted my quantities since the children left. I always have leftovers in portion sizes. Although I love cooking it is nice to have a night off now and then and eat up something I made earlier.

It's chockablock right now so for the next few weeks we'll have to eat more of the contents to make room for the Xmas stuff.

I also would tell him to take over the cooking and see how he would manage. He is too controlling.

I live on my own and I have a f/f and I have recently bought an under the counter freezer so that when I get a date for my knee replacement I can do batch cooking and freeze it.

Does he realise that frozen vegetables such as sweetcorn take up quite a bit of space?

You can save money by being able to buy food with maybe today's use by date and freeze it. Tell him that.

There are many times I am happy to be on my own and this is one of them!

I have to admit, now I have got over my indignation of Stansgran's DH's attitude, that I do expect Armageddon anytime soon so am always fully prepared.

I do try not to over stock but after 5 children it's difficult not to have things in there 'just in case'. And, I often make something that is already in the freezer to stop myself from taking it out of stock! No logic really!!!!!

We hoard everything, everywhere including the freezer . Must never run out of icecream. Always have sausages and low fat mince and microwave chips.
You have reminded me that I must do an audit and use the stuff up.

I have freezer envy kitty, my dream is space for another -small - one. I have three drawers beneath the fridge. .

To answer your question, stansgran, in my view you are not hoarding, far from it.

I only have a small fridge freezer so am always short of freezer space even for one. I don't eat meat but always have salmon and tuna streaks in, quorn products mixed veg frozen berries and anything I've made 3 of as it never seems worth just making one. Sometimes it's a really right squeeze, especially in the summer when I buy a pack of mini choc lollies from Aldi - for the grandchildren of course. (I might have the odd one!)