the freeze(r) stands alone

Ever since we moved over here to the condo on Fenton PL, I've been buzzing like a fridge about the need for an additional freezer. I've wanted one for years but my desire has intensified since we now have a smaller (yet lovely) fridge with a baby freezer on the bottom. Back on Westbury, we had a side-by-side and now the freezer is what lies beneath. And that's pretty scary to me. Scratch that. It doesn't really scare me at all. But it annoys the heck out of me and THAT probably scares my husband. 

Speaking of the devil, it's my husband's fault that we have never purchased that standalone objet du désir. When he reads this he will likely say that he never realized how important it was to me or he would've told me years ago to just go ahead and get the thing. True statement, because he pretty much gives me what I want. But my version just makes for a better blog post and sometimes it's all about the ratings, you know? And besides, not only is he generous, he also rarely holds a grudge. Therefore, I'm willing to take the risk here and make him the fall guy for the sake of a laugh or two.

Back to the story at hand. In reality, we BOTH have been annoyed with our situation but it was the fries that sent me "over the precipice and into the abyss," to quote my college economics professor. We're not talkin' just any old run-of-the-mill frozen fry. These are sent-straight-down-from-heaven SPECIAL. We (loosely) follow the Paleo way of eating, so we don't often eat those Idaho spuds. It's the Alexia sweet potato fries that have recently grabbed our attention and captured the affection of our primal taste buds. And when my grocery store recently offered them for $1.60 off the normal price of $4.59, I heard the heavenly hosts singing on the soundtrack of my life. Then came the scraping sound of the record player needle (a la Ally McBeal). jerking me back to my reality. SNAP! I only had room for three bags at a time in my dinky freezer. Three measly bags = a mere $4.80 of potential savings for me. And I wanted more.

I researched and I took the plunge. I would've been happy with the smallest el cheapo chest type but the husband convinced me that an upright was the way to go here. There was a big difference in the price but when we look at long term purchases, we also take other things into consideration. The higher price for the Maytag model we bought also gave us about 10 cu.ft. more space, Energy Star rating and no manual defrosting (YAY). It's much easier to organize than the deep dark hole of the chest style so (hopefully) we won't be throwing old freezer-burned food away because we can't SEE it. Sound familiar...;-)

I managed to save almost 30% off the full retail price by spending some extra time to sniff out some great online discounts. To begin with, it was on sale at Home Depot for $96 off. I made my purchase through Ebates, which gave me an additional 3% cash back (hey, it ALL counts) and used a discounted Home Depot gift card I bought through Cardpool to save me another 8.2%. Free shipping and delivery saved us the time and hassle of having to haul it home in the truck. And, of course, before I made my final decision I checked product ratings and customer reviews.

Honestly, I'm in this for more than the fries. Eating well DOES require some extra effort, unless you have the kind of budget that allows you to hire a personal chef. I don't. Sometimes cooking is a joy but many nights it's more of a chore and, as my husband says, "It's the clean up that'll kill you." True that. My response is to cook in big batches. Any time I can, I double the recipe because nothing makes me happier than to open that freezer and be greeted by the sight of what I made two weeks ago or a month ago. I can HAVE it again without having to COOK it again! Or what about all those amazing summer fruits that you can buy in season when it's fresh and cheap? How fun is it to pull them out of the freezer in November? Or February?

Are you beginning to see things my way? I thought so.

Time to load it up! According to my calculations, we should break even on the 225th bag of sale-priced sweet potato fries. Hmmm....I DID mention we were looking at this for the LONG term value, right?? I see lots of fries in my future.