Save Time and Money: My Freezer Essentials for Busy Families

Want to save time and money on meals? I’m sharing my favorite freezer essentials that make meal prep easier and keep us on budget!

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite ways to save both time and money and that’s by keeping a well-stocked and organized freezer. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed at dinnertime or found yourself making one too many last-minute grocery trips, this post is for you.

A Real-Life Freezer Cleanout

Before coming up with this blog post I did an actual clean-up of both my freezers – the main fridge freezer as well as the fridge freezer in our garage. If you want a look at my freezers both before and after I organized them you can check out the video here.

Once everything was cleaned and sorted I could finally see what I had and what I was running low on. Now it’s much easier to plan meals and avoid wasting food.

Cleaning out my freezer was also a helpful reminder for me of all the things I typically like to keep in my freezer. I thought I’d share a list of all of those things here in case you need ideas for filling your freezer with things that will save you time and money!

What I Keep in My Freezer to Save Time and Money

Let’s talk about the types of foods I love to keep stocked in my freezer. These are the things that help me get meals on the table fast without relying on takeout or last minute runs to the grocery store.

1. Freezer Meals

These can be either homemade or store-bought. I love the lasagna from Costco (especially the sausage version). But more often than not I try to freeze my own meals for later. Sometimes I’ll specifically whip up a few freezer meals. Other times I like to just double recipes when I cook so that we have one to eat and one to freeze.

Some of my favorite homemade freezer meals include:

• Enchiladas
• Baked Ziti
• Poppyseed Chicken
• Million Dollar Spaghetti
• Stuffed Shells
• Meatloaf
• Taco Soup and other simple soups

I often split a 9×13 pan into two 8×8 pans if the recipe and our appetites allow it. It’s such an easy way to build a freezer stash without much extra effort.

2. Prepped Meats

Even if you don’t want to prep full meals, just having ingredients in the freezer and ready to go can be a game changer.

Here are some of the things I like to keep on hand:

• Cooked shredded chicken and grilled chicken (perfect for soups, casseroles, or fajitas)
• Cooked ground beef (great for all sorts of quick meals)
• Pre-chopped ham (I use this for a ham bun recipe I love or to go with breakfast egg recipes)
• Marinated chicken (like fajita or stir fry-style in ready-to-go freezer bags)

Having protein prepped and ready to thaw means dinner comes together in half the time.

3. Beans and Rice

I regularly cook large batches of black beans and brown rice and portion them into freezer bags. They freeze beautifully and are great to have on hand for burritos, soups, or side dishes.

4. Chopped Onions and Peppers

I like to prep and freeze chopped onions and bell peppers. Just chop them up, portion them into sandwich baggies, and store all the bags in a larger gallon-sized freezer bag. This saves money and time, especially when cooking meals like fajitas or stir fry.

5. Breakfast Staples

Some of my favorite breakfast-friendly freezer items include:

• Homemade muffins
• Breakfast burritos
• Precooked sausage
• Frozen fruit for smoothies or muffins

All of these can be pulled out quickly in the morning and help avoid the temptation to hit the morning drive-thru.

6. Bread and Baked Goods

Bread freezes really well, and so do things like homemade muffins, rolls, and buns. If I have a little extra baking time, I’ll freeze half of what I make for future use (although it never lasts long in the freezer before we pull it out and eat it!)

7. Cookie Dough

This one might be my favorite. I’ll make a batch of cookies, bake half, and freeze the rest in dough balls. That way I can pop them in the oven whenever we need a little treat – no mess, no prep, and freshly baked cookies in minutes.

A Few Freezer Organization Tips

Now that everything is neat and tidy in my freezers (for the time being) here are some tips I’m keeping in mind going forward:

• Label everything with what it is and when you froze it. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of freezer space, like a large deep freeze for instance.
• Rotate items so the oldest ones get used up first—this helps prevent waste and freezer burn.
• Freeze things flat in bags when possible. You can stack them or store them vertically to save a ton of space.
• Use bins or baskets to corral smaller items like shredded cheese, frozen meatballs, frozen fruit, or other random frozen foods.

Now I’d love to hear, what do you like to keep in your freezer to save time and money? Let me know in the comments!