You’ve been using your fridge freezer all wrong – how I saved £3,000 by organising my food

A MUM has revealed how she saved hundreds of pounds a year on her food bills just by organising her freezer.

Heidi Philips, 47, started being savvier about how she stores her food three years ago, and she's never looked back.

The mum-of-one keeps a list of everything she has in her freezer and updates it every week before she visits the supermarket.

She also cleverly stores her food together in groups and even labels her leftovers so she can clearly see what she's got.

The average household chucks out £60 worth of food every month - and with soaring inflation, it's important to cut back on waste.

Heidi, who owns a cleaning company, told The Sun she has saved around £3,000 since she first started organising her freezer three years ago.

She said: "I started limiting my trips to the supermarket to once a week during the first Covid lockdown because I was worried about the virus.

"Before that, my weekly shop was around £100, plus I would pop to the shops throughout the week if we ran out of things like milk and bread.

"So to limit my trips, I knew I'd need to be a little smarter about how I made my shopping lists and stored my food."

How Heidi saved thousands by organising her freezer

Heidi, who lives in South Wales, said her storage system means she doesn't have to dig through freezer draws looking for particular products before she goes to the shop.

And it has also stopped her from wasting cash by accidentally doubling up on essentials like bags of frozen vegetables.

A weekly shop for her and her 16-year-old daughter, Marla, used to cost upwards of £100, plus trips to the local corner.

Now, Heidi spends just £80 a week in total without having to top up her shop mid-week.

This means that, over the last three years, she's managed to save around £3,120.

Heidi said keeping an organised freezer has also helped her to plan meals more effectively and to do batch cooking - saving her even more cash.

This could help you to save as much as £720 a year, according to experts.

Heidi said: "Batch cooking multiple meals and freezing them may seem like a chore, but it can save you lots of money in the long run.

"I also make sure to label and date everything anything that is homemade because you might not remember exactly what it is, or if it's out of date or not.

"Doing this will help you to prevent food waste and save more cash."

Heidi's top tips for organising your freezer

As well as saving on her food shop, keeping a full freezer can also help you save on your energy bills.

Heidi and her family use polystyrene boxes to fill gaps in her freezer when she doesn't have enough food.

Keeping your freezer full helps keep your bills down because it stops the appliance from having to draw more energy to keep the compartment cold.

Most of the energy your freezer uses goes towards cooling down the air that comes in when you open the freezer door.

So, when your freezer is full, there is less room for warmer air to come in.

Some experts recommend using plastic bags filled with water, ice blocks or even just bags of ice to help prevent warmer air from entering.

Defrosting your fridge and freezer regularly can also improve its efficiency, according to The Energy Saving Trust - and it's something Heidi does monthly.

Regularly defrosting your freezer keeps ice under control and keeps everything working efficiently.

How much does it cost to run a fridge freezer?

The exact cost of your fridge freezer will depend on the model of the fridge, the size, any special eco settings, how you use it and how much you pay for energy.

But according to price comparison site Uswitch, the average fridge uses 166 kWh of energy per year, working out at a cost of £56 a year.

That's 0.6p per hour.

However, your costs might be higher or lower depending on if you're on a fixed tariff and when you agreed to it.

You can see how much you're paying by checking your bill.

We've also listed 12 tips to cut grocery bills and it could save you £3,800 a year

We've also revealed when to visit the stores to grab yellow sticker bargains.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk