Your Apartment Requires a Chest Freezer
Stocking up on staples is a great way to stretch your budget and minimize waste, so a good chest freezer is a boon for the budget-conscious home cook. Unfortunately, common misconceptions about their energy consumption and the size of the occupied space discourage the people who will benefit most from the freezer – residents of apartments with dilapidated, almost inoperative appliances – from buying them.
Welcome to Cheap Chow Week ! Food is now more expensive than it ever was, and it might seem like the only cost-effective options for you are fast food or instant ramen. But it doesn’t have to be that way. This week, we’ll show you how to buy, prepare, and eat food in a cost-effective way without sacrificing pleasure or taste.
Even if you are short on money and live in a shoebox, you can almost certainly fit a chest freezer into your life. First, their reputation as expensive energy eaters is completely undeserved. The upfront costs are pretty minimal: the list price of a new five cubic foot freezer is around $ 200, which is less than a stand mixer or food processor , and with a little work you can find a really great deal. New chest freezers go on sale in the spring and summer, and used ones often appear on Craigslist for less than fifty dollars. Also low maintenance; this mid-sized model uses 216 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. In Hawaii, the state with the most expensive electricity , it costs about $ 70. If your electricity costs closer to the national average of thirteen cents per kilowatt-hour, you’re looking at maybe thirty dollars in annual electricity costs. ( Here’s a great breakdown of how to estimate energy costs by wattage if you want to calculate for yourself.) Just remember that a full freezer works more efficiently than an empty one: if you can’t fill yours Use freezer containers immediately afterwards filled with water – or blocks of ice – as temporary fillers.
Kitchens in apartments do not differ in thoughtful and spacious layouts, therefore physical size is an equally important factor. While it is true that they are not exactly small, I think the chest freezers more than justify their place, especially if the refrigerator that was in your apartment is small and old. Most models are about 33 “tall and 22” deep; width depends on the container. The 3 1/2 cubic foot freezer is the smallest you can get from most consumer product retailers – about the same size as a 30-gallon trash can, but it does give a bit of usable cooking space. If you have space for an IKEA kitchen trolley, you have space for a chest freezer.
All of this, of course, is true for homeowners as well, but I wanted to directly encourage tenants to rethink their notions of chest freezers. Whether you’re feeding a family on a tight budget, or simply want the freedom that a spacious, functional freezer provides, buying one will dramatically improve your quality of life. Of course, calculate the numbers first and do your research, but chances are you won’t regret it.