Freezer hoarding

annefrance I am sorry I haven't replied to your PM but I am having problems sending PMs at the moment and I am trying to resolve the problem.

Surely one of the basics of a successful marriage is compromise and that is exactly what stansgran is doing. She has explained why she and her DH have such different attitudes to storing things and how they have compromised.

We have no problem over the freezer, but there are other areas of opposing views. I am exceedingly tidy and find it difficult to function in a cluttered environment. As for DH....... Even his DM used to say 'born in a barn if I didn't know better'

Monica, I was just about to post the same! and unless I bought Bio (questionable) stuff in the supermarket I wouldn't know what was put on it or how old it was or how far it had travelled. At least 90% of our stuff is organic, but we don't call it that or make a fuss about it, just do it the old fashioned way. Living the Dream!!

nellgwin There is a great difference between keeping food until it is green and mouldy then eating it, and storing safely in the freezer enough food to take you through a few weeks, or preserving fruit when it is cheap and plentiful for when it is expensive! The old bugger you lived with was a mean and unsavoury git, but the women who can feed unexpected visitors at the drop of a hat are good planners with foresight.

We live in the country. If someone or a family visits unexpectedly I expect to be able to make a meal from the stock I have. Also if grand children come I have to increase my stock as one eats fish, one is a vegetarian etc. Nobody in the recent generation seems to sit down to one meal same for all. I have two fridges and one drawer freezer.

During the war we had a victory garden with hens and rabbits and pigs. We salted beans in large crock, used icing isinglass to preserve eggs etc.

Stansgran you are not a hoarder but a prudent, efficient housekeeper.

End of the week soup
What a good idea!

I have the opposite problem- a hoarding husband! We have a chest freezer, full to the brim with home grown veg and fruit, home - made bread and scones, but his weakness is the bargain meat offers. Every time he sees the 3 for €10 he gets tempted even though there are only 2 of us. The problem is that he would rather buy fresh food to cook than take something from freezer!
It’s me who has to rummage in freezer to use up some of the items to make room for more.

The money I save by being able to eat home grown fruit and veg from my freezer rather than buying them, plus the savings from never buying readimeals because there are plenty of home made ones in the freezer far exceeds the freezer running costs of £35 - £42

I have a large freezer in the kitchen, half of an American fridge. In it I keep food that will be used that week. Bread, milk etc. Meat and fish for the week.I also make 'End of the week soup' and I freeze any extra. I also have a chest freezer in the utility room. Used for freezing produce from the garden mostly, but now beginning to fill with Christmas stuff.

Have three freezer compartments which are crammed with a weeks worth of food both meat and vegetarian, which by the end of the week is empty apart from the ice cubes, for the sangria ? so no lived with a hoarder who would insist on eating green and moulding food, hoped it would poison the old bugger but it never did. So can't abide hoarding in any form.

I had two freezers up to a few weeks ago when one broke. Oh I do miss it. It's not hoarding. Freezers are so useful. I used to cook double casseroles etc and freeze the extra. Then I had meals in the freezer that simply needed defrosting and reheating. Saved electricity and time. Now I can't do that because there isn't enough room in the main freezer. Also I have to go to the shop when I need bread rather than having bread in the freezer. It's not that I mind going to the shops but I am a very weak woman and rarely manage to come out with just bread so I spend extra money on stuff I really shouldn't be eating.

A tall upright freezer uses 250-300 KWH a year of energy, Energy costs vary, so you will have to do your own sums on the usage of your freezer and your tariff.

But if the price of your electricity is about 14p per kilowatt hour, the cost of running a FULL freezer is somewhere around £35 to £42 a year - more if it is not full, because the empty air takes more freezing that the already frozen food. Also the more you open the freezer, the more coldness it loses each time and has to get back.

Do freezers cost that much to run? I was always told they need to be nearly full to run efficiently and you should store bread in it if you can't find anything else. I can't see the point of having one standing empty all the time and would've put it on regardless - if you'd stocked it up he couldn't turn it off I've got an American f/f in the utility room which has 3 very large drawers at the bottom as well as another smaller fridge which admittedly doesn't have much in at the moment (recently had the kitchen refitted and didn't want to take up space with it). I also bought a larder freezer for the garage last year to replace the chest one I could never find anything in. I don't think I'm a hoarder but we have vowed to live out of the freezer for the next couple of weeks in order to make room and stock up for Christmas as family are coming for 6 weeks. My son is/was a chef so I've got to make sure we have plenty of food in. My husband has been going shopping with me for the last 10 years so is always buying stuff he likes the look of but he doesn't do any cooking and I forget what we've bought so I'm sure we've got duplicates and triplicates of a lot of things!

I am so envious of you all having so much freezer space.
I only have a measly three drawers in my fridge.
One of those drawers is taken up with bread and rolls.
The other two is usually filled with frozen chips, and reduced bargains, frozen veg etc.
How do you all manage, I wonder.
Definitely a case of hoarding and over compensating for something or other.

If my DH were to make remarks on contents of my freezer I would remind him of the various tools he insists on having but many have never been used. As it is he has not made any comment so neither do I. We both agree to hoard food/tools or whatever makes us feel secure and happy.

Sorry stansgran you may see it as a compromise but you're accepting that he allows this and tells you what you or may not do.
You must see that many of us find this level of control as unacceptable.
Why are you prepared to do as you're told?
Peace and quiet? An easier life?
He's undermining you but since you've put up with this for so long it's probably too late for either of you to change.

Surely it is not up to your DH what you want to stock in your freezer. Who does the cooking? If you do then it is up to you. I am a bit of a frozen food hoarder, but I would hate to run out of anything and I do rotate the food so use one buy one. I have American fridge freezer in kitchen for chips, ice cream and frozen veg. I have small chest freezer in conservatory which I freeze a lot of garden produce and some home made prepared meals such as lasagne, bolognese, curry, soup, shepherd's pie and a few frozen deserts etc that I can pull out if anyone comes. In the garage I have another chest freezer that I just use for minced beef, joints of meat and chickens. Tell your husband that is probably hoarding. In my opinion you do not hoard just plan sensibly.

I agree with ‘I love cheese ‘....i do ALL the shopping ALL the cooking,...and my hubby knows better than to criticise either of those activities.The freezers are mine and the fridges.I have a small kitchen freezer ( two drawers) and a four shelf fridge above...and a three drawer freezer in garage with a three shelf fridge beside it. I say what’s goes and what doesn’t!! “ Won’t let me”.... I’d just laugh and tell him to “do one”

I do cook and freeze half often, and also bake and freeze. I have a fridge/freezer in the kitchen, and also one in the garage. Both are full, and that is partly because I live round the corner from an M & S food store and often get great bargains. On Wed, for example, we got one of those fancy birthday cakes covered in sweets and chocolate shards - £15.00 for £1.50. We had the grandchildren coming somitvwss a special treat( I was thinking of the grandparents spoiling the kids thread, but none of them ate a lot of their portion! We did!) we also got two chocolate cakes down from £4.00 to 40p, pack of hot cross buns £1.70 for 20p, packs of two haddock fillets £4.00 for £1.00 and chicken Jafrezi £3.75 for 90p plus sausages for 20p. Most will go into the freezer, though I'm going to need space very soon for Christmas and New Year food!

I have a below fridge freezer which is full after I have been shopping. I only shop when I absolutely have to, ie when I am running short of bread, milk etc. If you don't have a freezer you will be shopping every other day. Life's too short. your husband sounds too controlling. Stick to your guns, you seem to be managing very well.

So no compromise there, then...

Oh dear Stansgran you DH would have a heart attack if he came to our house because not only the freezers are full so are the fridges and cupboards. The overflow now goes into the spare bedroom on the ground floor. Today Lidl had Hellmans mayonnaise at a very reduced price so DH puts 7 jars into the trolley together with the 5 loin of pork joints destined for the freezer. I am sorry but no man would ever tell me whether I could have a freezer or anything else switched on or off. In my opinion freezers, cupboards and wardrobes are there to be filled.

annifrance thank you for that paean to freezers and their contents. It made my heart sing.

Ok so we've reached a compromise. I can have it turned on for Xmas stuff and then it has to be off. DH is a lovely man but he does get frightened by my desire to have full cupboards and not run out of things but I think a lot of it is todo with me growing up in a house where money was very tight and there was an awful lot of contrivance whereas he grew up where there was plenty and he never sees the need to stockpile as it could always be bought. I freely admit I am a hoarder of materials and sewing stuff and I feel safer with a full cupboard but you've all made me feel envious of your full freezers. I still don't think I'm unreasonable but I'm willing to compromise as long as he goes shopping at the drop of a hat and while he can he must.

I really must tidy up my freezers!
Gooseberries anyone?