Guest Post Author Bio:  The Single Saver is written by Denise, a single woman herself who grew up in a small family. A reformed spend-a-holic, she now enjoys the challenge of finding new ways to live a frugal yet very comfortable lifestyle. When not saving money, she is usually spending it on food for her two greyhounds and two cats.

Many figures show that Americans waste nearly one third of their food each year (the statistics are similar for the U.K. and Canada).  Besides being wasteful of our resources and needlessly filling up landfills, it is also expensive to be wasting so much food!

Preserving food is an easy way to cut back on food waste and reduce your grocery budget at the same time.  There are many ways of preserving food, including canning and drying, but freezing is one of the easiest and most practical.  It is especially practical for singles and smaller families because it can be done with any sized portion of food.  Plus, it allows you to take advantage of bulk food specials without worrying about the food going bad before you can use it!

Freezing food is easy to do.  It will yield you good quality food for use in the future if care is taken to do it right.  Below are some tips to getting the best results.

Pack food as tightly as possible.  Air is a main component in freezer burn.  If you freeze food in freezer-safe bags, press as much air as possible out of the bag before freezing it.  If freezing food in a hard-sided container, fill up the container as full as possible and then fill the gap between the surface of the food and the lid with crumbled up wax paper.

Wrap or seal your food as tightly as possible.  Letting air get into your package, even after it is frozen, is a sure way to reduce the quality of the food.

Package your food in smaller portions. Doing so serves two purposes.  First, it allows the food to freeze quicker which helps protect the overall quality.  Secondly, it allows you to take out and defrost only the amount you need when it comes time to use it.

Try to freeze only a small amount of food at a time.  Adding too much unfrozen food at once will drop the freezer’s temperature, which jeopardizes the quality of all of the freezer’s contents.

Spread unfrozen food out throughout the freezer and allow each container or package to have plenty of room around it. If food is not frozen quickly enough, or is not frozen completely through, it runs the risk of developing harmful bacteria.  Allowing for proper air circulation will ensure that the food freezes quickly and completely.

Freezing food is an easy way to cut back on food waste and reduce your grocery budget at the same time.  You can read more tips for saving money at The Single Saver.