Bought a new freezer

[disneysteve]

We went out shopping Thursday night and got to 3 stores to price and compare freezers. Then I went out yesterday afternoon to 3 more stores. Ended up back at the very first place - P.C. Richards. Their regular price was the same as Home Depot but they had the item on sale for $45 less.

So our new freezer will be delivered on Friday. I'm planning to have the delivery guys move the old one to our garage and then I'll list it on craigslist. I browsed the listings and there are lots of freezers listed for way more than I would ever consider paying for a used appliance. I was planning to list ours for $50 but seeing the listings, I think I'll post it at $75 and be willing to go down to $50 if that's what I'm offered. That would cover the delivery charge which would be fine with me.

[marvholly]

Curious DS. What did you buy (brand & size)?

[khosta]

That's awesome!!!! Good job doing your homework!!!!

[Frugal]

Never heard of that first store you mentioned. Maybe they don't have it out West? I bought our appliances at Sears, and we had a whole lot of trouble. Paid nearly full price, just a very slight discount. Service not good.

[DebbieL]

Frugal - I'm surprised by your bad Sears experience. We've bought appliances through them (including our deep freeze) and have never had any issues. I've never heard anyone complain about Sears. Maybe it is bad in your area, but ours here is great.

[disneysteve]

Curious DS. What did you buy (brand & size)?

We bought a 13.7 cu. ft. Frigidaire upright freezer to replace the 13.3 cu. ft. Frigidaire upright freezer we've had for the past 18 years. Sale price was $406.

I cleared a space in the garage tonight to put the old one, right up front by the door, so that I can list it on craigslist and it will be easy to show and remove for whoever buys it. I'll be very happy to get at least $50 for it.

[cschin4]

A freezer is great and also very frugal, if you use it. For us though, we found that we "lose" stuff in the freezer or that stuff gets freezer burned or that we aren't all that fond of dinners that were frozen, etc. But, for us, we have a second refrigerator in the basement. Gives a bit extra freezer space, but very helpful as we have 3 kids and buy a lot of milk, etc. And, great for lots of other stuff like bottled water, etc. So, i always recommend considering a 2nd frig as an alternative to a freezer for some people who might find that useful.

[disneysteve]

A freezer is great and also very frugal, if you use it. For us though, we found that we "lose" stuff in the freezer or that stuff gets freezer burned or that we aren't all that fond of dinners that were frozen, etc.

Good point. Part of our problem was that the current freezer is manual defrost. Because I'm not very good about doing that regularly, ice builds up a lot and stuff doesn't hold up well in there. The frost-free model will be much better.

We use the spare freezer for two things: buying in bulk to take advantage of good sales and storing homemade items prepared in bulk. My wife makes our spaghetti sauce and then we freeze it in single serve containers. Both of us like to make soup and freeze that. There are some frozen food items that we like to stock up on when they are on sale. I'll also stock up on cartons of orange juice when there is a sale. And, of course, the homemade lemoncello bottles take up a lot of space and the only place to store your vodka is in the freezer.

[DebbieL]

I can't even imagine not having my freezer. There are so many foods that taste just as good from the freezer, and it allows us to stock up on chicken breasts, etc, when they go on sale. As for avoiding freezer burn, I'll often bag up my purchases into smaller portions (if I buy a box of chicken breasts I'll bag them into 2-3 breast sized meal portions). I bag them in a small/medium freezer bag, then I'll place the smaller freezer bags inside a larger freezer bag (fits 2-3 smaller freezer bags in it). That way my food is easy to separate into meal sizes instead of freezing together which is a nuisance, and it is double freezer bagged.

[canada94]

Well done ,its alwys good to shop around

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Debbie I do that too but my DH swears he can still taste ice crystals in the meat. It has to be eaten asap. But he's very sensitive, he says ice cream more than two weeks has too many crystals. Sigh.

I like freezing my chicken noodle soup.

[shanecurran]

It is amazing what people will pay for old appliances, furniture on craigs list. I would start high and then reduce the price as needed