We went with just an inexpensive 5′ manual defrost chest number maybe four years ago. I bought freezer wrap from a restaurant supply place online and buy freezer tape from the store. Seems like stuff lasts forever in that thing. Just defrosted it for the first time this year. I keep it closed as much as possible, “shopping” from it just once/week, at which time I transfer items to the refrigerator freezer section.

Estimated cost to run for one year = $24.00, so i’d not recommend buying one used. They’ve come a long way in design improvements to reduce costs/power requirements.

I have a nearly new one, and it sits in my basement, unplugged.
It was plugged, but it filled up with a bunch of food I did not need that went surplus that I was paying for to keep cold..

So,,, I ate the food out of it, then unplugged it, and I now have the freezer in my frig, and I am thinking about un plugging that.
Strangely enough, I found a cheese in there transferred from my last freezer dated 1986. The way I figure it, why pay to put into storage, what I can mostly buy fresh at the grocery store… ? Unless you need to put up a deer, or half a beef or somthing.

I do not miss my freezer one bit.

And, I save nerly 20 bucks a month in electric bills.

Thanks for the tip on manual defrosting. I’d wondered why my top-of-fridge freezer seems to burn everything, no matter how I wrap it!

I’m also a big fan of lactofermentation. After my first bite of raw sauerkraut, my whole body danced with joy and shouted, “Yes! More of THAT!” After a couple months of eating something fermented (kraut, miso, pickled carrots) every day, I discovered that I am having a much, much easier time with dairy. Whole-milk yogurt is now back into my diet, much to my delight.

As for processing, you won’t do it if you don’t have any place to put it. I gave away several pumpkins last year, but processed enough to fill a quarter of my freezer. Same for the basil/pesto (my significant other and I were a little overzealous with our basil planting.) Anyway, my answer to processing it to wait until there’s lots to be done. Then, I open a bottle of wine and go to town. By the end of the night, the entire kitchen is covered in splatters and splashes and I’m just tipsy enough to not care about cleaning it all up. I only had a couple of nights like that last year, but I’m going to be a little more ambitious this year – with something besides basil.

Concerning the trips to the grocery store… well, I still have them. Haven’t gained enough speed to really get this living-out-of-the-freezer thing down, but that’s my goal. When I get there, I’m sure I can think of reasons to go to the store, but then it will be by design, not because I have to so often.

Haven’t bought the quarter of bison that we said we would when we bought it… We like buying meat at the farmer’s market, too, so maybe we’ll wait until fall to get that.

Hope this helps. Seriously, I don’t regret it for a second! (go with the energy star as suggested above. And be sure to check craigslist or something just in case…)

I say–go for it if you can afford it. Local veggies at this time of year would be so, so awesome!