Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have a freezer but never freeze food?

34 replies

Magnumcarta · 08/04/2026 16:49

Except ice and ice cream.

just don’t ever need to as eat everything fresh.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Original poster
Magnumcarta · 08/04/2026 18:18

Hayley1256 · 08/04/2026 17:53

I never freeze fresh food but do buy the following frozen:

  • green beans
  • broccoli
  • french fries
  • ice cream
  • ice lollies
  • chicken coujons
  • lots of ice

Yep pretty much all I use it for

OP posts:
BMW6 · 08/04/2026 18:15

I live alone and have 2 freezers! Lots of reduced meat and fish, bulk cooked curries and lasagna on portions, veg from my allotment

Saves a fortune

Chemenger · 08/04/2026 18:12

@Bjorkdidit i can’t imagine not liking peas😀. However it had never occurred to me to freeze pesto, I usually either eat it several days in a row or let it go mouldy in a corner of the fridge. I will freeze it from now on.

Nimonion · 08/04/2026 18:08

Pea, ice cream, fish fingers chips and pizza.

Bjorkdidit · 08/04/2026 18:06

Chemenger · 08/04/2026 17:19

I forgot about frozen peas - surely the OP doesn’t just eat fresh peas? Everyone uses frozen peas, don’t they?

We don't use frozen peas because I don't like them.

Ours is full of edamame beans, yellow sticker meat, fish and seafood, frozen prepped garlic and ginger, ice and lemon slices, batch cooked curries, bolognese and chili, croissants, bits of pesto etc, all sorts, wouldn't be without it.

JaneGrint · 08/04/2026 17:57

You can of course use your freezer however you want to, but there doesn’t seem much point in getting a big freezer if you’re not the sort of person to use it.

Lomonald · 08/04/2026 17:54

Seems a waste why did you buy such a big fridge if you don't use the freezer ?

Hayley1256 · 08/04/2026 17:53

I never freeze fresh food but do buy the following frozen:

  • green beans
  • broccoli
  • french fries
  • ice cream
  • ice lollies
  • chicken coujons
  • lots of ice
Monty36 · 08/04/2026 17:52

Not very sensible to have one if you don’t use it.

bridgetreilly · 08/04/2026 17:50

I believe the advice is to put a pillow or something to take up the empty room, to save energy costs of cooling the air.

Firesidechatter · 08/04/2026 17:49

I only use mine for frozen veg, ice cubes ice cream etc, I have a friend who freezes everything, even left over takeaway, which I find quite grim, and I’m not sure why.

steff13 · 08/04/2026 17:47

I buy meat at Costco so I usually parcel it out into meal-sized portions and freeze it. I also freeze bread. I live in Ohio so we have lots of good, fresh, local produce in the summer, but anything "fresh" in the winter has been picked and transported across the country. So I buy fresh produce in season. Whatever isn't in season I buy frozen since it's usually frozen immediately after picking.

I also freeze stuff that I grow or make myself. And ingredients for homemade broth (bones, celery tops, carrot pieces, etc.). I put them all in freezer bags and when I have enough to fill the Crock-Pot I cook it all day. Then I freeze the broth in 1-cup portions.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 08/04/2026 17:44

NotAnotherScarf · 08/04/2026 17:31

What you don't have fish fingers, a spare loaf of bread, frozen peas/sweet corn, hash browns, a couple of pizzas, some sausage rolls? Surely you don't buy everything fresh everyday?

Mind you when I was a claims manager and dealt with a freezer food claim it was never Birdseye products but whole salmon, king prawns and sirloin steak 🤣

Can concur. Also, the freezers always seemed to know when people went off on holiday and always self destructed ready for their return.

I'm sure it was purely coincidental when checking for previous claims that they all had Louis Vuitton luggage and solid gold chains lost in transit on their holidays.

OwlBeThere · 08/04/2026 17:39

You don’t even have the dead body of an ex in it?
waste of freezer space imo.

NamingNoNames · 08/04/2026 17:37

Freezers are energy-hungry.

GeorgeMichaelsCat · 08/04/2026 17:36

I always have bread and milk in mine for emergencies. I buy salmon when it is on offer and freeze it. Plenty of "legitimate" uses.

Nannyfannybanny · 08/04/2026 17:35

Unless you grow and hunt everything yourself,a lot of "fresh" food can be a year old,if it's been shipped in from abroad. I've got fruit veg in one of ours we grew last year. Quick frozen stuff is far fresher.

Theolittle · 08/04/2026 17:35

Depends on if you ever waste any of the fresh food. We’d struggle to get through bread without a freezer. And freeze any leftovers. Always handy to have a frozen pizza or two for emergencies!

I think freezers run more efficiently if they are full

NotAnotherScarf · 08/04/2026 17:31

What you don't have fish fingers, a spare loaf of bread, frozen peas/sweet corn, hash browns, a couple of pizzas, some sausage rolls? Surely you don't buy everything fresh everyday?

Mind you when I was a claims manager and dealt with a freezer food claim it was never Birdseye products but whole salmon, king prawns and sirloin steak 🤣

Pasta4Dinner · 08/04/2026 17:23

I think some things like chilli improve from being in the freezer.
I freeze all sorts of things that would get chucked - coconut milk, cheese. I think it’s one of the greatest resources in the kitchen.

Chemenger · 08/04/2026 17:19

I forgot about frozen peas - surely the OP doesn’t just eat fresh peas? Everyone uses frozen peas, don’t they?

Shedmistress · 08/04/2026 17:18

I still have a full drawer of chillis i grew in 2022. I need to make a batch of chilli jelly soon.

ErrolTheDragon · 08/04/2026 17:18

It’s a bit daft to be running a freezer if you’re not really using it.

Weve just changed to a smaller freezer now it’s just me and DH - we freeze bread as we don’t get through a whole loaf or batch of homemade bread quickly, homemade soup - a pot is 8-9 portions and things like ‘spag Bol’ sauce as again one batch is 8 portions. A bit of frozen veg (peas, edamame or broad beans) and it’s quite full.

But if you’ve got a large family and can get through a whole pot of soup, spag bol, chilli or whatever in one go then sure, there’s no need to freeze. My parents didn’t have a fridge till my brothers left home at which point they got a fridge freezer.

EmbarrassmentLovesCompany · 08/04/2026 17:17

Frozen veg (peas and spinach usually) and frozen fruit sit along side my ice cream and ice packs.

Chemenger · 08/04/2026 17:16

I almost always have chicken stock in the freezer, and I bulk cook onion, carrot and celery as the basis of soup and casseroles and freeze that. And small containers of often unidentifiable portions of curry, chilli, ragu etc