What if I asked you to go to your wallet, take out a $20 bill, and throw it away? That’s crazy, no one would do that, right?
I just did. Not literally, but I threw $20 away.
Today is our garbage day, so as usual, I cleaned out the refrigerator. Had to throw out some old lunchmeat, an unopened container of organic baby salad greens that was wilted, a few wrinkled lemons, few limes, wrinkled jalapenos, brown head of iceberg lettuce purchased for BLTs that we never made……did a rough tally in my head and realized that I threw out over $18 worth of groceries. I’ve been thinking about starting a compost pile, but even so, it’s still a bunch of groceries that I purchased and we never ate–regardless of whether or not I can use it as soil next year.
On hotcouponworld, we’re doing a Garbage Day Challenge. Trying to waste as little as possible each week, thus resulting in lower grocery bills.
So I’m encouraging all of my readers to do the same. Each Garbage-Day-Eve, clean out your fridge and tally up what you’re throwing out. Write it down, makes it more real. Look at it over the course of 3-5 weeks, and you’ll probably be amazed at the value. I had gotten really good at buying less and not wasting, but have definitely gotten off track!
Use the information to change your shopping habits. If you’re throwing out a few slices of lunchmeat each week, start to purchase only 1/2 or 3/4 of a lb, instead of a whole lb. If a quart of milk is going bad each week, buy a gallon and a half, instead of 2 full gallons. Throwing out 2 brown bananas? Buy 2 fewer bananas next time. Better yet, make banana bread too and then don’t purchase a sweet-treat at the store–homemade is better anyway. I’d rather use up all my lunchmeat and take PB&J on the last day of the week, instead of throwing out $5 worth of lunchmeat.
The moms on hotcouponworld are also coming up with some really creative meal ideas for leftovers, I’ll do a post on them this week too.
I've been trying! Last week, I bought a turkey breast & had it for dinner one night. Next I made turkey salad. Then, turkey soup! Thanks for keeping me motivated :)
Oh, I struggle with this. I've been working on not throwing away food, but still I find myself with things like two slices of lunchmeat or a half serving of leftovers that was going to be lunch but somehow never was. Thanks for the motivation.
I throw tons of stuff in my freezer, if I don't think I'm going to get to the deli meat, or any left over meat product, I toss it in. If bananas went bad, in the freezer to make banana muffins later. If lemons are on there way out, I squeeze them and freeze the juice in ice cube trays, lime juice, too. Chop the jalapenos for cooking recipes, or any pepper for that matter. I don't have a solution for iceberg lettuce, but darker lettuce I would think you could freeze for soups or stocks. I have REALLY cut down on what I throw away, and I have started a compost pile, but that is still waste…I will eat whatever, so when my kids don't finish there dinner, I eat it for lunch the next day! (is that gross?) Shannon