(and you get to define just what that is) family or people you cook for. It's especially nice if you're a hunter and need to freeze the meat from deer, elk, or other. Or if you acquire an entire hog or cow that's been butchered.

When I was a child, one of six children, we had one of those big chest freezer and it was wonderful. Back then refrigerators didn't have the completely separate freezer sections with its own door, so very little frozen foods could be kept. There was also a local farmer from whom we got half a butchered hog every year.

To me one question to ask yourself is: Just how long is it usually from when something gets put in the freezer to when it gets eaten? I think there's a real time frame for a lot of foods, generally just a few months, before it deteriorates nutritionally. If stuff is staying there for a couple of years, maybe it's more than you need.

I happen to have a second refrigerator (with separate freezer compartment in my garage) and it's come in handy on occasion, although I'd manage quite well without it. But then, I live alone so my food storage needs aren't that great.

though I prefer an upright. I buy in bulk a lot. I also have a small extra fridge. I buy 5 dozen eggs at a time. My son eats a lot of Greek yogurt so I buy that in bulk. If butter goes on sale I'll buy xtra and put it in there. It's also nice for bbq's and holidays.

I have a side by side so neither the freezer isn't big anyway. My small fridge (xtra) also has a small freezer.

Only 2 of us in my house, so we've got what I consider a small chest freezer (in addition to the even smaller freezer attached to the fridge) maybe 2.5x2.5x3 or so. We use it for stocking up on cheap protein (chicken, cow, cheese) when it goes on sale, and for freezing the things we pick in the summer (strawberries, raspberries, etc) until winter when we do our canning, since it heats up the house quite a bit. Oh, and to store girl scout cookies year round It seems really useful to me, but then I haven't put a meter on it to cost out how much it's costing me in electricity each year to see if it's really saving us anything in terms of stocking up on sale proteins. We almost never end up simply throwing anything away, since we're good at rotating the stock so newer stuff is at the bottom.

or if one feels one needs "emergency food" in case a impromptu guest/cook out occurs.

Which is why I'm frequently eating canned goods with 'best by' dates 2-3 years in the past. I'm just careful they're not bulging, discoloured, or smell or taste funny, but otherwise they're fair game.

to take the overflow from Costco. I once had a small freezer in a basement and things did tend to get lost in the bottom of it. The small kitchen freezer gets stuff rotated out of it on a timely bases--fish frozen for a year is not nice--and little has gotten lost in it.

I think having a freezer in a garage just outside the kitchen would probably work. There's just something about having a barrier like a flight of stairs that discourages frequent trips to forage for that night's dinner in time to thaw it.

I do find the freezer gets more usage in summer when it's fish in the toaster oven or grilled on top of the stove plus a veg or two. During the winter, I cook more soups and stews and eat them for a week.

The really big chest freezer is better for a family that either raises its own meat or hunts for it and has a lot of people to feed. Otherwise, things do get lost in it.

About the size of a minifridge. Works really well for overflow. Seems like the regular freezer that comes with the fridge is never big enough, but we did have one of those large freezers at one time and it was waaaay too much space.

Two ice storm-caused power outages later, I'm glad I never made the investment. I shudder to think of how much money I would have lost in wasted food if it all melted. I'm finding that canning equipment and a good food dehydrator are better investment.

I think the energy efficiency label will tell you the average monthly cost. As posters upthread have commented, you have to get that much in savings out of it.

The small chest freezer would be about 5 bucks a month.

So much of this question depends on your personal behavior patterns. I thought the comments about rotating and the psychological barrier of trooping to the basement to be good points.


Cher

My husband and son used to hunt deer so we needed the space for venison. They both quit several years ago and the old freezer keeps going. I'm not sure I could do without it. I freeze sweet peppers and roasted tomatoes from our planting garden and stock up on farmer's market finds and meat and bread specials so it's always full. We live off the beaten path and it has saved me from making extra trips to the grocery store.

We bought a pig and had it butchered. It works very well for that sort of thing. I also have a gallon of frozen chicken stock in pint jars, some hamburger, beef roasts, frozen vegetables and so on.

Nothing gets lost, easier to inventory, no back breaking shifting of things to reach the desired objects. Bonus: I can keep a top shelf fairly free so that I can "flash" freeze things to bag.

coming into storms and power outages season so I try not to over fill it right now. I love it for storing meats, ice cream and those big bags of frozen vegetables from Costco. My indoor freezer is very small. But I hate the fear in me of how long the power will be off before everything is ruined.

Either basic store bought water or re-use plastic bottles, rinse well and fill. The frozen water will buy time if your power goes out.

which is really smaller than we need (I have 4 kids), but it's not full at the moment because I haven't been able to afford to buy meat in bulk like I normally do. I also freeze bread, which takes up a lot of room in my very small freezer. We use a lot of frozen fruit too for smoothies and desserts.

I do love them though, but I'm not sure how helpful they are if you don't have a huge family. My parents have a huge one - even though it's just the 2 of them - and they fill it to the brim. My mom makes huge batches of soup, freezes them in small containers and brings them to work for lunch. They buy meat in bulk and then split it up into small servings and freeze it. But even though my mom is super frugal with food and likes to use everything, and keeps her freezer very neat and tidy, things do get shoved to the bottom only to be forgotten for many many months at a time. So yeah, they can be wasteful. I like to go to the basement and rifle through the freezer once a week and go through what I have and bring it upstairs for the week's menu. I find that helps you to remember what is there.

Still, things get forgotten. I just made a huge batch of shredded taco meat on Saturday because I found a frozen roast that looked like it might have seen better days, LOL. I know it was still under a year old because I've only lived here just over a year, but still, it was sad looking. It ended up tasting just fine though.

I do label, but that just serves to remind me that this whole wheat flour is now three years old and I still haven't done anything with it. After contemplating this thread I think I'm going to work on using up or throwing out the freezer's contents and see how living without it for awhile is.