Buying a chest freezer and really really need to get serous about meal planing really

[Graceie]

Any tip tricks or suggestions ?

[macheetah]

I've had a chest freezer for about 10 years and can't imagine not having it.  I buy meat on sale and stock it (Two for one sales, or great prices like chicken under a dollar a lb at the grocery stores; I watch the flyers.)  When I'm fortunate enough to have the money, I buy grassfed beef quarters or whole lamb - a total of about 60 to 90 lbs of meat -  and store it in the deep freezer.  I use the deep freezer to store my cooked meals too - I'll devote a weekend to cooking and make scratch chicken soup, enchiladas, stews, curries and other freezable meals and store it it in meal portions in the freezer.       

[rachael07]

We split a grassfed/organic cow between two families. At $3-4 per pound, it's a steal for grassfed beef, and it lasts us nearly an entire year in the freezer.

I also stock up on whole chickens when my farmer's market has them on sale.

We belong to a CSA during the summer, and sometimes they run specials on bulk veggies. So I get a few boxes of peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, green beans, corn, etc, and I blanch them all and freeze them. Good for chili later on.

I buy berries in season and freeze them, too... SO MUCH CHEAPER!

I highly recommend getting a vacuum sealer. It does wonder for keeping food fresh in the freezer!