If you make many freezer meals, it can be difficult to keep track of the inventory in your freezer. And if you don’t make freezer meals, may I suggest you consider starting? Preparing meals to store in the freezer saves time and money.
However, while the freezer it a great way to save money by preparing several meals, you won’t be saving money if you have to throw them away!
This is where our free printable freezer inventory sheet comes in handy. It will help you keep track of all of the meals you have in the freezer. In addition, it’ll show you the quantity of each meal so you can replenish when necessary.
Here’s a bit more about the printable freezer inventory sheet and how I use it.
Table of Contents
Free Freezer Inventory Printable
Use this printable to easily track your freezer meals and bulk foods. When you keep track of what you have stored in the freezer, you’ll be less prone to food waste.
How Freezing Meals and Food Saves You Time and Money
We use meal freezing as a regular part of our meal planning for two reasons. First, freezing meals will save you time.
When you take a day and put several meals in the freezer, you have days’ worth of meals planned that you don’t have to cook. Just come home and pop them in the oven. This is great for those super busy days when you may not have time to cook.
In addition, freezing meals means you’ll be less tempted to make unplanned restaurant trips. You won’t be stuck eating out because “there’s nothing in the house”. In this way, freezer meals can save you a lot of money.
If you’ve never made a freezer meal, you’ll love this trick to build a freezer inventory easily! It’ll help get you started so you’re prepared with meals to use yourself or give to those in need.
Prolonging Freezer Food Storage
There are ways you can help your food last longer in the freezer. One way is to minimize the air space in your freezing container. Fill it up to the top, or use a vacuum sealer to reduce the amount of air in plastic storage bags.
In addition, when your freezer is set at zero degrees or colder, the food in it lasts a lot longer. It’s not uncommon for foods frozen at this temperature to last up to a year in the freezer.
However, I’d check your freezer foods and test them with various usage dates. Try using a meal that’s been frozen for a month. Then two months. After that, try using one that’s been frozen for six months. This will help you get an idea of how long your freezer keeps meals properly.
As an additional resource, this USDA food storage sheet can give you suggestions for food storage time. Note that times are recommended for quality more than safety. You can store food in zero temperature freezers for quite some time. However, the quality of the food may diminish after longer periods of storage.
Also, keeping more meals in your freezer will save you money on the energy your freezer uses.
How to Use The Freezer Inventory Printable
Using this freezer inventory printable is easy. When you prepare a meal for the freezer, add it on one of the lines. Be sure to include the date you stored it. Doing so will help you easily see if you’ve had the item in your freezer for a while and need to use it soon.
I also included a quantity line in case you make several of the same meal. When I use a meal that I have several of in my inventory, I just cross through the quantity and update with the new quantity.
You can also include other bulk items you buy and are keeping in your freezer. We buy some items in bulk at Costco, but don’t have room in our regular freezer for them. With the inventory sheet, I can keep track of what we have stored in our chest freezer.
If you are using a binder, there is room to 3-hole punch the sheet.
You can also just print the sheet and post to your bulletin board or hang on the freezer as a reminder.
Home Management Binder
I use a home management binder to store my home management forms. It’s a great way to keep all the important information you need all in one organized place.
For instance, you can use this free Budget Binder printable to organize your finances. Or, you can use my weekly meal planning printable to help you save time and money on groceries.
My free printables are attractive, but often created in black and white because I want you to save money too! The ones I’ve created in color can be printed in black and white if you adjust the print settings on your computer.
Click here to download the freezer inventory printable.
Do you use freezer meals to make your life easier? If not, what do you think of the idea? Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment on our Facebook page.