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7 Ways To Reduce Food Waste and Save Money

7 Ways To Reduce Food Waste and Save Money
Carly Jacobs
I

come from a family where wasting food is a huge sin. To the point where we all over eat because throwing away half a potato would make my mother cry. This means I’ve grown up to be the type of person who abhors wasting food.

reduce food waste

Not only do I hate wasting food, I also hate wasting money so I’ve come up with a few methods to make sure I don’t end up throwing away piles of valuable food every week. Here are a few tips to help you reduce food waste and save money.

1. Shop more often

This is a difficult one for families who need to condense grocery shopping trips to once a week but if you have the time it can be a huge money and food saver to shop every few days and only buy the things you need. We’ve all bought a bag of lettuce on a Monday, promising ourselves we are going to have salads every day only to be invited out for dinner every night, leaving the bag of lettuce to liquify in the fridge over the course of a week. My partner and I shop at least twice a week, sometimes every day and only buy fresh stuff that we’re going to use in the next few days.

2. Meal plan

If you spend a few hours in the kitchen making healthy stews and bakes to be kept in the fridge it’s the perfect way to make sure your fresh produce doesn’t expire before you have a chance to eat it. Cooked vegetables last a lot longer than fresh ones so you can make a vegetable bake, put portions in the freezer and it will keep for up to 3 months.

3. Stock up on good quality storage containers

I have a mixture of Tupperware (actual Tupperware because it’s the best) and Pyrex glass containers. Poor quality containers are no friend of your food so make sure you use air tight, good quality containers to keep your left overs fresher for longer. Most leftovers have a fridge life of a few days so be quick with eating your leftovers too.

4. Keep your fridge and freezer neat and tidy

If your freezer and fridge are full to brimming with barely used bottles of sauce, leftovers containers and god knows what else, it’s basically just a cave where food goes to die. If you can’t find your container of leftovers, you’re obviously not going to be able to eat them. Make sure you clean out your fridge regularly and this will stop a lot of out-of-sight food wastage.

5. Start composting

If you really want to get serious about food wastage, you could start composting your vegetable scraps. An easy way to do this is to use a Bokashi bucket. It creates a nutrient rich liquid you can use to fertilise your plants and they can be used on balconies or in larger gardens.

6. Learn how to store food properly

Most foods keep better if they’re stored in the fridge or freezer but here’s a guide that will help.

7. Be smart about using up food before it goes bad

Some people can be a bit alarmist when it comes to eating food that isn’t 100% fresh but eating an apple with a tiny bruise on it, isn’t going to kill anyone. Old fruit can be cut up to use in smoothies, slightly wilted spinach can be used in stews and black bananas are perfect for baking. Make sure you absolutely can’t use the food at all before you go throwing it away.

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What’s the food wastage situation at your place? Do you eat every morsel? Or do you occasionally have to ditch some past it apples at the end of the week?

 

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20 Comments

  1. I grew up in a ‘don’t waste food’ environment too and am passing that on to my kids. I think we do ok with most of this, our biggest problem is getting the toddler to understand it too. Small steps.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      Oh of course! The little ones do make it difficult. My niece is a bit like that.

  2. Christine 9 years ago

    Oh Carly, a girl after my own heart. I hate food wastage. I don’t remember my parents ever using the “there are people in the world starving” comment to make me eat my dinner, but I am so guilt ridden if I throw away food that went bad before I got around to using it. I was lucky enough to be born into a first world affluent country – I really try not to take it for granted. Xx

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      My parents definitely used the ‘there are people starving’ thing. We’re a family of big eaters so it was never a huge issue to get food into us! I know I feel the same way – whenever I’m having a shit day because a client pissed me off I just think about how lucky I am to have the opportunity to do something I love for a living and even my worst day would be the best day in the world for someone else.

  3. Liz @ I Spy Plum Pie 9 years ago

    Love it Carly! Food wastage is something that really upsets me, not only are we all throwing away money but the food we throw away has a huge environmental impact as well (it doesn’t just decompose into compost, it rots in landfill).
    I’m a big meal planner & cook in bulk all the time, it’s way less stressful for me. I also have a bokashi on my balcony for things I can’t eat, and I’m getting pretty good at making weird and wonderful meals from the odds & ends in my fridge if need be (if in doubt, make a soup!)

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      Totally! If I have to take my rubbish more than once in a week I feel like such a failure as human. I love that bulk place down the road on Smith street and I want to start taking jars in to buy stuff but I’m not sure it’s that well priced… some of their cereals are out of control! I do have re-usable mesh bags that I use for shopping for produce which are great.

  4. Laura 9 years ago

    Frozen leftovers are king at my place. I’ve typically got two or three different kinds of leftovers at once. I take them to work (admittedly it’s easy when you work in an office with a microwave) for lunch and they sub in for dinner on those ‘can’t be bothered’ nights when I’d normally eat something not particularly nutritious like a tinned spaghetti jaffle or porridge. saves me tonnes of money not buying lunch from cafes too.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      Definitely! I work from home most days but I have an office with a microwave so I’ll take in some leftovers for lunch on those days – makes SUCH a difference. I’m also a lot fuller on days when I take leftovers. Cafe salads are lame.

  5. Erika 9 years ago

    A lot of these had me going “snap”. There’s very little waste going on around here – helped enormously by dogs that love their food (raw pumpkin, carrots and apples being the Most Loved) and chooks who will finish things off (like the pumpkins seeds). Pretty much everything else goes into the compost (dead chooks go into the front garden to avoid unfortunate re-emergence via one of the pups) or gets chipped – the only exception is rose prunings – I’m paranoid about black spot, so those go straight to the garden recycling centre.

    Odds and sods in the fridge can make spectacular frittatas.

    Downsizing my freezer and limiting my pantry hoarding habits means that food is used up on a regular basis. Does mean I’m not as well prepared for the zombie apocalypse as I used to be….

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      I’m hugely into a good old frittata! I love eggs so it’s the perfect way to use up any leftovers. I’m still okay for the zombie apocalypse…. lots of canned goods!

  6. These are some darn tooting good tips! Seeing as it’s only the 2 of us (well 3 including Amalfi), I tend to do 2-3 little shops per week. This has hugely reduced the amount of food thrown away at the end of each week and ensures we’re eating a variety of fresh and healthy meals. I’m really crap at freezing food, so I love your advice about cooking stuff up and freezing them in portions. x

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      We’re the same! We actually end up shopping almost everyday because we only live a short walk from our local. I tend to not freeze that often but we always have fridge full of stuff around!

  7. My husband is one of those annoying people who eat like a baby elephant yet remain trim so we don’t often have much in the way of leftovers. Not a lot goes to waste and we have a kitchen tidy that goes to green waste rather than landfill.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      That’s the same with my man! Drives me batty!

  8. Although we shop online for the bulk of our groceries, I like to buy the fresh stuff as we need it. In the unlikely event of having any leftover veg, I’ll whizz up some sort of soup and any forgotten fruit will be reinvented in a cake and/or a smoothie! I also meal plan and cook in bulk, I love food too much to waste it! I totes need to get myself to a Tupperware party!

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      I used to shop online but I really like picking my own veggies and fruit. We have a lovely grocer near us where we do most of our shopping now and Woolworths just up the road!

  9. merilyn 9 years ago

    a super worthwhile post in my eyes thankyou smagsI very good ideas hun! … you are the educator!
    i can’t abide waste either! … grew up in that era!;
    I try to use everything and cook up veg into soups and put into meal portions in the freezer!
    I’m always telling mr m not to over buy! … I’m a tyrant about it!
    he has really improved! we have a green bin and we compost too!
    we all need to be more mindful and responsible about these things!
    in one episode of the grumpy old women they talked about that and how they liked to salvage everything in the fridge! even if green and fury! … hilarious!
    enjoy your weekend! love m:)X

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 9 years ago

      Thank you love. I do think it’s something that we need to pass down through the generations. We live in an are of abundance so it can be difficult to remember that some people don’t have it as easy as we do.

  10. My top Meal Planning Tips are:
    – Create a weekly habit
    – Look at your pantry/fridge and incorporate those foods into your recipes for next week
    – Double quantities and freeze half for another day
    – Include a mix of old faves and new recipes each week to keep building your list of family “faves”

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