PLANNING. We make a meal plan every week. We inventory the fridge beforehand, to see what needs to be used up, and incorporate that into the plan. We buy what we need for the meals on the plan. Leftovers for lunch is part of the plan. Very satisfying to get to the end of the week and have the fridge nearly bare.

My mom goes to the grocery store almost every day, buys whatever looks good/ strikes her fancy, and then throws half of it away a month and a lot of mold later. She's incapable of making a food plan, and wastes SO much. Drives me batty.

Meal planning makes the difference for me, especially looking at the calendar and thinking about afternoon/evening schedules and what kind of cooking I have the bandwidth for.

I shop weekly at Costco for the most part, and like to use a lot of fresh produce. I try to buy a combo of things that need to be used fairly quickly (say, raspberries or mushrooms) versus things that last longer (apples or cabbage).

I have started to immediately freeze leftover in a container for a "raining day", lol.

Don't want to eat leftover the next day but having something homemade in the freezer is something to look forward to say in a week.
I especially love warming it up after returning from a trip or vacation!

I shop all the time. DH and I take leftovers for lunch or I make less of whatever meal I don't like leftovers of.

Anonymous wrote:I don't buy a lot of food at one time. We live in a very walkable neighborhood, so it's easy and routine for me to pick up dinner ingredients daily.

This is key for me; we live across the street from the supermarket. but DH likes to keep shopping for food at Costco and the military base. I ask him to please stop and let's eat what we already have in fridge, but nope, he just keeps shopping and then complains that I let food go bad because I haven't made meals from all the food he keeps purchasing. Sigh...

I don't buy a lot of food at one time. We live in a very walkable neighborhood, so it's easy and routine for me to pick up dinner ingredients daily.

I don’t buy too far ahead. I’m at the grocery store almost every day. Dinner leftovers are eaten for lunch the next day.

We created a use soon section of the top shelf of the fridge. Leftovers and food that will go bad in the next two days or so goes there. It’s the first thing you see when you open the fridge. We make an effort to use that food whenever possible, especially for lunches.

Every week or so we have a "fridge clean out meal" -- basically eat all of the tiny bits of leftovers and use up a bunch of veggies that are about to go in a frittata.

Save in glass containers. Leftovers for lunches.

Monitor your fruit, and when it's about to turn, wash it and put it in the freezer for smoothies.

Cheese freezes very well.

Produce that needs to be used up:
Bell peppers / onions - I roast and put in freezer
Tomatoes - make a bruschetta
Bananas - banana bread or freezer
Meat - freezer

(OP you'll need to start a thread on using up freezer food next! You have to be very organized and plan ahead...)

The biggest thing is mostly using glass food storage containers, plus regularly spending on new tupperware. Way cheaper than wasting food.

I like leftovers, and I am happy to pack up whatever the kids leave on their plates and eat it the next day for lunch. We don't make the kids finish if they're not hungry; we just try to learn and always adjust portion sizes.

We also sometimes have "weird" dinners to use up ingredients. Fish tacos with asparagus and blackberries is better than risking that the fruits and veggies go bad.

Portion control. Repourpose ingredients.

Don't bring people casseroles they didn't request.

Only take what you’re sure you’ll eat. You can always take more if hungry.

Kind of a silly question, because it feels like it should be obvious, but anyway - Do you have any suggestions or tips/rules that you have found helpful?