A 2004 study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that the average American family throws away 14 percent of their food – that’s almost $600 a year!
I’ll be honest, this has been me from time to time. In the not too distant past, I’ve had to throw away cookie dough, sweet potatoes and asparagus because they spoiled or passed their expiration date before I got to them.
So, here are a few quick tips to save money by keeping food from going to waste:
- Take stock of the produce, breads, cheese and deli meats you have in your home so you don’t double up on these foods.
- Create meal plans around perishable foods to use them up before they spoil.
- Separate the club packs of meat and freeze them the day you go shopping to keep the meat from passing its “sell by” date.
- Use leftovers in next-day breakfasts and lunches. There are also a variety of cookbooks worth checking out that are dedicated to cooking with leftovers to make your food dollar go farther, including “Love Your Leftovers,” “Use it Up Cookbook: Creative Recipes for the Frugal Cook” and “Second Time Around.”
What do you do to keep from wasting money by throwing away food? Do you have any good second-day recipes? I can’t wait to hear your suggestions!
marcie 
I am a master menu planner, ha! Or so I like to call myself! I buy groceries two weeks at a time and have a two week menu that we buy for. I got so tired of throwing away food every week that we moved to this system where we shop per ad sales, our own “inventory” at home and we try to make it healthy! I’d love to write a post for you sometime on my step-by-step if you think anyone would be interested in the “how” of it all? It’s pretty easy but I find that sometimes people just need to see the process before they can really do it…
Love your blog!