How much food do you waste each week?

[Anonymous]

So I'm noticing that we waste quite a bit. I'll go grocery shopping and get fruits/veggies and occasionally things like hummus, maybe a bread or bakery type product, etc. And the week goes by and we don't finish it up and it's bad by the time I get to finishing it. Pretty much every grocery trip. It's me, DH, and 2 small children I'm shopping for, so the kids also don't finish everything they're served at dinner, and if it's gross/all mixed together/etc. I'll sometimes have to throw it out instead of saving it for later. And last, sometimes we get leftovers packed up after eating out but we never get around to to eating it, so I'll check the fridge and discover a container of several days' old pizza or something. Would've been great to reheat the next day but by 4-5 days later it's gross.

I want to try to cut down on this wastefulness, but I'm just curious as to how normal this is?

[Anonymous]

I just saw something about this. The average family wastes ~ $2.4k? of food every year??

[Anonymous]

We waste way too much. Similar to OP.

[Anonymous]

We check the fridge before dinner every night or foods that are close to going bad and put them out as appetizers (or sometimes whole meal) so we don't have the problem of things going bad, but my small kids definitely don't always eat their whole meal, and we trash what they don't finish.

[Anonymous]

19:15 again. Oops, not 2.4k.

40% of U.S. food wasted, report says

Forty percent of food in the United States is never eaten, amounting to $165 billion a year in waste, taking a toll on the country's water resources and significantly increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council released this week.

The group says more than 20 pounds of food is wasted each month for each of 311 million Americans, amounting to $1,350 to $2,275 annually in waste for a family of four. Think of it as dumping 80 quarter-pound hamburger patties in the garbage each month, or chucking two dozen boxes of breakfast cereal into the trash bin rather than putting them in your pantry.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/22/40-of-u-s-food-wasted-report-says/

[Anonymous]

We waste a lot less now that we order from Peapod. It's much easier to not buy things we don't need and to not overbuy when I can check and see what's actually in the fridge while buying groceries.

[Anonymous]

I have accepted that I will never eat leftovers. So when a restaurant offers them, I take the bag, but then leave it on top of a public garbage receptacle for a homeless person.

Also, on Sundays after we've gone grocery shopping I make sure the things that expire first get pulled forward to the front of the fridge and the later expiration dated food goes behind that. In addition, I write a list of all the foods that are snacky that expire and put it on the fridge so if the kids get hungry instead of reaching for pretzels they'll see the list and think "Ooh, strawberries!" and grab those. It's cut down on our carb intake a lot and helped us not to waste food that goes bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We waste a lot less now that we order from Peapod. It's much easier to not buy things we don't need and to not overbuy when I can check and see what's actually in the fridge while buying groceries.

You don't check the fridge/pantry when you make your list? I do.

We'll waste maybe some old leftovers, possibly some lettuce or cheese...but not like some people I know. We literally let the cupboards go bare before we shop again, so it's not like i'm buying piles of food that we never get to, again and again. I buy based on the meals I've planned, and we try really hard to stick to the pre-purchased options.

I have also started buying less meat, since it tends to go bad before we can use it. At most I'll buy 1-2 uncooked meat products when I shop. I find that it wastes a LOT less this way.

[Anonymous]

Almost never.

I have 4 sons that eat everything.

[Anonymous]

It's why I buy a lot of individual prepackaged servings, which are more expensive unfortunately. We can then eat things before they expire or go bad.

[Anonymous]

Almost none. DH has always been a frugal, eat-the-leftovers-and-check-the-fridge sort of person. Now during a difficult unemployment phase, this habit is serving us well! We try to serve small portions to our 2 young children to avoid leaving too much, and serve again as needed.

[Anonymous]

So much. I'm trying to get better. A lot of the waste comes from buying at Costco. It's still worth it to buy the big box of mixed greens for $4.99 and throw some out than buy 1/4 of the amount for $3.99 at giant. DH is pickier than my 2 year old and won't eat leftovers unless its one of his favorite special meals. So I've started to freeze leftovers to reheat when he's out of town or has a work dinner or something.

[Anonymous]

We're pretty good about not wasting food. I throw away the occasional leftover portion of mac and cheese or stew or chili, and often a hamburger bun or two that is the odd man out. And we waste a shit ton of bananas and expired yogurt. But that's about it.

[Anonymous]

We have "leftover night" about every 4 nights. I also grocery shop more often and buy smaller quantities of food--just for the upcoming meals (planned out). Downsides are that sometimes it feels that we have no food to snack on, and that I feel like I go shopping all the time. (It's actually every 2-3 days.)

Bananas we rarely waste, because banana muffins are my go-to baked good. (I know some people collect aging bananas in the freezer to use for baking, but I'm not that extreme.)

[Anonymous]

Like PP, we have a "leftover buffet" when there is enough to make a meal. I just put everything out on the table and everyone can pick and choose. We cheer empty containers..