Many of you have extra freezers or refrigerators in a utility room or the garage.  We used ours to hold bulk purchased food from the warehouse store or food we find on sale at the supermarket.  A great way to save money, right?  Not so fast!  My wife and I had inherited an old chest-type freezer from her grandmother.  It wasn’t very big and most of the food we stored in there was forgotten about and rarely eaten.  Still, no big deal, right?  I thought so too until I used a power meter to see how much electricity the old, inefficient freezer was using — around $5-$7 per month for a very small freezer.  Larger freezers could save even more.

So, we made room in our main refrigerator/freezer and unplugged the old freezer.  We save a lot of electricity each month and while the freezer is a bit more crowded, we haven’t missed it at all.  After a couple of months, we donated it to charity.

Cost:  $0

Monthly Savings:  $5-$10 per month.

Payback:  Immediate.

Photo credit:  bijijoo