Finding ways to prevent food waste is not only good for the environment but it’s great for your wallet, too! Every time you throw away rotten or spoiled food, you are throwing away money.
Use these tips to help prevent food waste in your home once and for all.
For the next week or two, it’s a good idea to start taking notice of everything you are throwing away. Make a mental note of why you are throwing the food away: did you buy too much? Did you forget about it in the back of the fridge? Did your plans to cook it derail?
Once you can figure out why the food was wasted, you can then find ways to remedy that in the future.
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Real Ways to Prevent Food Waste
Plan your Meals
The easiest way to prevent food waste, for me, is to plan my meals every week. This is a realistic approach to meal planning. I’m not prepping everything in one day, I am simply making a mental note of what we will be eating for the week so that I can make my shopping list to fit our needs.
I head to the fridge and see what we can use up and what will need to be bought. This way I am not buying too much of one thing and I know exactly when we will be eating it.
Keep nights open for when you will be having take out or a pizza night. You can even plan a night to have leftovers for the week.
Meal planning doesn’t mean you have to cook every single night. Be realistic when it comes to planning for the week.
Stick to Your List
Making your grocery list and sticking to it is key in saving you money. This prevents you from buying too much and making impulse purchases.
You may want to check out these grocery shopping secrets to help you save even more time and money.
When you unload all of your groceries, make sure you move the older items to the front of the fridge or pantry to be used up first.
It’s smart to even have an “Eat Me First” section in the fridge. This way if someone needs a snack, they know what needs to be eaten first.
So much food waste happens simply because we forget to use up what we have.
Reduce Food Waste at Home
Frozen Foods are your Friends
Since fresh produce happens to create the majority of food waste, switch to the frozen varieties. Not only are frozen veggies just as healthy, if not more so, than fresh vegetables but they will allow you more time to use them up.
Frozen produce is usually flash frozen when the nutrients are at their peak so they may be even more healthy than fresh produce.
Storage is Key
If you are planning on using fresh produce, you may want to invest in the proper storage items to make them last as long as possible.
I am a big fan of the food huggers and Rubbermaid Freshworks storage items.
You may also like some of these eco-friendly products that will save you money.
Another way to prevent food waste is knowing what needs to be refrigerated and what doesn’t. Certain types of produce may spoil faster if refrigerated. A few items to keep out of the fridge are:
- potatoes
- onions
- bananas
- whole melons
- garlic
- honey
- apricots
- peaches
- mangos
- tomatoes
- uncut avocados
- carrots
- cucumbers
- pears
- etc.
By simply planning ahead and doing a little research on how to properly store your food, you can drastically prevent food waste in your home.
Your wallet and the environment will thank you!
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