Let me explain: While perusing the Buc-ee’s aisles, my dad spotted another shopper stuffing their cart with a few bags of frozen chicken stuffed with dirty rice. My dad was intrigued by this, and added a bag to his own cart. That night he tried it and fell in love with it — so much so, that he bought a chest freezer just to store these bags of chicken. He now goes out of his way to visit Buc-ee’s, with a big cooler bag in tow, and buys as many bags of the chicken as possible.
Half a decade later, the deep freezer has become a valuable member of our family — and it’s saved my parents a lot of money in the process.
How My Family Ending Up Saving Hundreds on Groceries Every Year
Since that Florida road trip, our chest freezer has evolved from an impulse buy into a foundational household (and budgeting) staple. It now houses far more than just specialty poultry from Buc-ee’s; it allows my parents to buy meat in bulk.
When my dad was ready to branch out from the Buc-ee’s chicken, he purchased a vacuum-sealed subprimal cut of rib-eye at Costco for $150 and discovered he could carve roughly 16 individual steaks himself. At a standard retail price of $20 to $25 per pound, those same cuts would typically cost him upwards of $300. By butchering and freezing them at home, he effectively cuts his meat bill in half. He now does that about once a quarter (he has steak night weekly), which alone saves him $600 a year.
Beyond that, he uses the freezer to stock other meats, frozen vegetables, and even whole spices (like lemongrass, galangal, lime leaves, and turmeric) from specialty grocery stores. When I asked him just how much he and my mom have saved since making the purchase, he didn’t know the exact numbers, but said it’s “well over a thousand a year.” It also “changed [their] lives.”
Do you have a chest freezer? Tell us in the comments below!
