One way to offset rising food prices

**earthymom** · 06-27-2008, 08:48 AM

My grandmother always said, "Waste not, want not." It's very true.

From a New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/we...in&oref=slogin

'A . . . recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that Americans generate roughly 30 million tons of food waste each yearwhich is about 12 percent of the total waste stream."

"The Department of Agriculture estimated that recovering just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people."

Any good tips on reducing food waste?

**nuisance26** · 06-27-2008, 09:16 AM

~My biggest food wastes are the kids eating half of what we give them(solution, smaller portions!)and the mystery, unmarked containers in the freezer that get freezer burned and tossed(solution, clearly label, date and inventory!).~

**The Muse** · 06-27-2008, 09:22 AM

I'm appalled by how much food my sister's kids waste. DH and I waste very little food.

We don't eat meat, so I don't have to worry about spoiling and waste there. I buy only as much fresh veggies as I have in my menu plan. And we finish all of our leftovers. It really isn't much of a challenge for us.

**missyali** · 06-27-2008, 09:29 AM

We do buffet lunch or dinner night with all the leftovers. The kids can pick and we are less stringent about the "at least one form each food group" rule. My kids are little, so this is still fun for them. During the school year waste is less b/c we just take the leftovers for lunch. During the summer the kids want something quick & cool so that they can move on to their next activity.

**della92** · 06-27-2008, 09:39 AM

Food is wasted in our house is when we get busy with activities away from the house. I will put leftovers in the frig and then by the end of the week we go somewhere and forget to eat them. Keeping the refrigerator better organized helps alot, also meal planning and freezing some things rather than putting them in the fridge.

The other area is when buy a certain food (i.e. fruit and lunch meat) and it gets eaten really quickly, so the next week I will buy more, but then no one wants to eat it!

As food prices go up, we are really working on no waste.

**redhead68** · 06-27-2008, 10:32 AM

I agree with the suggestion for smaller portions, but there always seems to be food leftover in our house, especially vegetables. One thing we have planned to do in our new house is start a compost bin. At least the wasted produce will go to good use growing next year's vegetable bounty in the backyard garden.

**freyadog** · 06-27-2008, 10:39 AM

I smaller portion myself. I hve found that it so much easier to take a small amount for myself and then add if I want more than have to throw out what I leave on my plate.

dh Is always complaining that I dont eat enough.

**MessyKat** · 06-27-2008, 01:53 PM

I don't have kids so with just me, if I cook something large like a roast I tend to get tired of it quickly. I've started freezing what I've cooked and labeling it and then making my own frozen meals out of it.

There are those in my family who get up from the table and throw away an entire chicken that has not been eaten because "we don't eat leftovers", then they wonder why they live paycheck to paycheck and can't save money.

**ewokgirl** · 06-27-2008, 02:14 PM

I portion things out into individual containers, label them, then freeze them. They either make for easy meals on nights I don't feel well, or my husband can grab them in the morning to take to work for his lunch.

I try not to waste food, but sometimes it's hard with just 2 of us. I might buy stuff with the intention of cooking all week, but then stuff happens that keeps us out of the house at dinner time. Or I go nuts with the fruit and buy too much.

**earthymom** · 06-27-2008, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by ewokgirl

I portion things out into individual containers, label them, then freeze them. They either make for easy meals on nights I don't feel well, or my husband can grab them in the morning to take to work for his lunch.

I try not to waste food, but sometimes it's hard with just 2 of us. I might buy stuff with the intention of cooking all week, but then stuff happens that keeps us out of the house at dinner time. Or I go nuts with the fruit and buy too much.

That happens to me too -- or I get more from the garden than I have time to can/freeze. I've started taking such "extras" to work and leaving them in the break room. At least some one else will eat the fruit or veggies so I don't quite feel that I'm "wasting."

**DonnainME** · 06-27-2008, 08:35 PM

I plan on doing that - bring extra veggies to others if I can't freeze or use that many from our garden.

I am going to learn to can this fall to help me save what I can.

We try to not waste but sometimes it is hard with ALL the kids being here (this month) but we will not really waste anything next month with only DH and I!

**knotme** · 06-28-2008, 08:32 AM

I have found that some families spend more $ on things, food etc than what we did, also let their kids waste more than we let our kids waste. We taught our kids to eat what they had on their plates, take less if they weren't hungry enough to eat it all or get seconds if they wanted more. We never had a lot of money available when our kids were small and therefore ate better. (and we taught them to eat most things) I have neices and nephews that eat such a little variety of food, that their families end up wasting so much more. (like they would only eat the turkey breast of a whole turkey and then throw the rest of the turkey away cause they didn't like it. A sil tried doing that at my house-- throwing the rest of the turkey away-- because that is what they do) Then it is the same Sil who says..... I bought the TWG (by Amy Desiszon) and do all the things she says to do and I just don't save any money at all~~~~~ Really makes you wonder doesn't it?

**zazenist** · 06-28-2008, 08:48 AM

This is one of the few things I think DH and I do really well! We always make it a real point to eat up the leftovers - in fact, we intentionally cook way more than we can eat in one sitting so we have things for quick lunches and dinners throughout the week when we're working, etc. The only thing that sometimes happens is that we will buy some kind of fresh produce for making a specific meal, and then something comes up that we don't end up cooking and that bundle of cilantro goes off, or whatever. Sometimes it's salvageable when this happens - we bought a BUNCH of spinach to make pesto, didn't get around to it, and a few days later when it was looking kind of sad, we made hot wilted spinach. It was great! ('Course there's not much you can do with a liquefied pepper!)

**Mamaof2rugrats** · 06-28-2008, 09:28 AM

We save all leftovers and have leftovers for lunch a few days a week. I tend to cook alot more than what we'll eat for 1 meal so I usually freeze everything leftover and have more meals from that. We don't waste very much.

**AspiringToBeFrugal** · 06-28-2008, 10:32 AM

I notice that I tend to waste more food when I don't use my menu planner (not a formal form, just a menu for the week on a piece of scrap paper). If I use the menu planner, I buy only what we'll use.

We also can't seem to eat fresh fruit quick enough here so I need to buy less.

I also need to make smaller portions. Although it's not been hard to eat less...I'm pregnant and althought I haven't been sick at all, I just can't eat nearly as much as I used to. Example: (well, this is true even if I wasn't pregnant) I can only eat a half serving of oatmeal. A full serving is just WAAAAAAAAYYYYYY too much.

I do freeze leftovers if I know it's not something we'll want to eat again soon.