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Food Wasting Challenge

January 27th, 2016 at 10:20 pm

I made a goal for this year to write down whenever we throw away any food to see how many dollars we are throwing in the garbage. Today is day 27 and I haven't thrown away anything yet!

That means we ate the leftovers of some soup I made that was supposed to be Beer Cheese Soup, but tasted ONLY of onion (YUCK!). I put my turning brown bananas into my daily Shakeology even when they are D E A D. I have also been putting in some skim milk to try to use it up as well as 0% Greek Yogurt, both past the expiration dates.

I have never been one to follow expiration dates much, but I do use common sense to make sure me or my family doesn't get sick.

I think I can use the rest of the Greek Yogurt up in the next week or so in my shakes. The skim milk is probably ready to be dumped so I will have to jot that one down.

The goal of not wanting to have to write anything down has really helped with making sure that things get used up. I know if we weren't doing this there would have been a LOT more waste, so I am super happy with how it is going so far!

*ETA - Today I ate the last of our celery for a snack. Tonight I noticed that a lot of salad supplies were looking pretty close to the end of their days, so I made 4 salads. One for me, one for MO and two I put in tupperwares for tomorrow. This finished off an expired bag of salad, an expired bag of spinach, and a bag of snowpeas. Also put a good dent in our peppers and carrots.

Posted in Saving Money | 12 Comments »

12 Responses to “Food Wasting Challenge”

  1. PatientSaver Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 12:28 am 1453940886
    1453940886

    I can't participate because my town now has a recycling program strictly for "organics," or kitchen/food waste (as well as used paper towels). It really feels good that nothing will go to waste now.

  2. Banker Gurl Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 12:33 am 1453941218
    1453941218

    Patient Saver - what do they do with the food that is past it's expiration date?

  3. mjrube94 Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 01:16 am 1453943786
    1453943786

    Do you have a juicer? When I have carrots, celery, and onions on their last legs, I juice them and freeze the juice to use in soup.

  4. Banker Gurl Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 02:25 am 1453947913
    1453947913

    No I don't, but good suggestion!

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 02:34 am 1453948484
    1453948484

    I need to do better with this. I have a spaghetti squash that I took too long to use ...

  6. LuckyRobin Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 03:24 am 1453951451
    1453951451

    You can also chop up and throw your carrots, celery (including the leafy tops), and onions into the freezer for making soup stock. I do that all the time along with roast chicken carcasses, and then after making the stock the spent veggies go out to the ducks, chickens, and turkeys and they eat them.

  7. Lena Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 04:37 am 1453955850
    1453955850

    Bankergurl, you can freeze your yogurt and milk in ice cube trays and use them in smoothies.

  8. Livingalmostlarge Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 05:38 am 1453959491
    1453959491

    If a lot of things are on last legs is it because you buy too much? Or don't eat what you buy? Instead of using last legs what about buying less and going shopping more often. Since we've moved I do that more and buy every couple days and we waste very little food. Fridge and freezer cycle a lot. It actually saves us money to buy little and use it as we need it. That way we buy on sale and use it asap.

  9. PatientSaver Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 01:06 pm 1453986416
    1453986416

    BankerGurl, homeowners in my town are given a year's supply of special plastic bags that biodegrade, along with 2 plastic hampers (1 small, 1 large) that the bags fit in. When you fill up your bags, you just bring them to the transfer station. It doesn't matter if the food is past its expiration date.

    All the food is composted and in the spring anyone who wants compost for their garden is welcome to take some.

  10. pjmama Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 02:51 pm 1453992705
    1453992705

    What a great challenge! We've been doing a bit better lately with not throwing things away, but it would definitely be motivating if we had to document it all... Sounds like you're doing fantastic!!!

  11. Banker Gurl Says:
    January 28th, 2016 at 10:03 pm 1454018635
    1454018635

    Livingalmostlarge - Actually I think our problem is the opposite...we are actually shopping too often. My husband is the manager of a grocery store, so he brings home some groceries almost everyday (like 1-2 things). We never go "big" grocery shopping since there is never a need. Every time I want to make a recipe or have a craving for something he can just grab it on his way out of work...so we are probably actually shopping TOO MUCH and so then we end up with a small amount of MANY different items.

    Lena - Good tip! Thank you!

  12. Banker Gurl Says:
    January 29th, 2016 at 04:11 pm 1454083897
    1454083897

    PatientSaver - That is great! But the goal of the challenge is for us to not be spending dollars on items we are not using, so not really the same goal.

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