Simply put, wasting food is a waste of money. I know I am in no position to toss fistfuls
of cash into the garbage can so I do my best to use up what we have and not let
things go to waste.
Right now I am on a mission to keep my grocery spending
tightly controlled. I operate off an extremely low budget of $150 a month with
a few challenges thrown in every now and again to work with an even lower
budget. In January I had $100 and I did
great with money left over. This month
I'm trying to do the same thing. Part of
that success is to not overbuy things that will spoil.
I feed three people.
Two that live here and one that lives away at college. I contribute to her food at college and feed
her whenever she comes home to visit. I
agreed to do that her first year out and we will re-evaluate that before next
fall to see how that has worked and plan accordingly, but in the meantime I
feed three people.
We eat a very clean diet for the most part which includes a
lot of produce. I buy my produce in
season to save money. Produce is my
toughest food item to manage. I don't want
it to go to waste but we often will have more at one time then we will
eat. Fortunately we have chickens that
help us out so the produce supplements their diet and we don't have as much waste. Not overbuying in the first place helps a lot
too.
Rotating pantry and freezer items is important as well. Losing something in the freezer and finding
it later on all freezer burnt is something I really try to avoid so I'm always
rummaging through looking at what I have in there and then tailoring our meals
accordingly. If I find I have too much
in my pantry or items I really don't like as much as I thought I would then I
will bag them up and donate them to a food bank. I got a really good deal on cereal once and
then my girls decided they were tired of cold cereal and for some reason I had
three containers of mustard and a new one in the refrigerator. Weird combination to donate but the food bank
was very happy to receive it. At the end
of the day it doesn't matter who ends up eating it as long as it doesn't end up
in the landfill.
This post is timely for sure! We should all be careful of this but right now it is especially important to be diligent. Those finds in our fridge and freezers are worth their weight in gold!
ReplyDeleteHope you are riding this out ok. I am now working from home. It is going well but I have had to establish boundaries with my girls that just because I am home doesn't mean I am not working. My work day is still the same, just no daily commute.
As per usual our pantry is full and freezer is well stocked so we are good. All of us are healthy. I go to work every day and my girls are home doing online school. I expect it won't be long and we'll be turning the corner.
DeleteNo food wasted here either. I wouldn't throw money in the bin which is the same as wasting food.
ReplyDeleteExactly! I wont' toss $$ in the trash so I try not to toss food in there either. It's one in the same.
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