I grew up in a home where a lot of food got wasted -- A LOT. As new food was bought, older food was simply pushed to the back of the fridge, freezer, and cupboards to rot. Leftovers were only occasionally eaten and no care was taken to look at prices when grocery shopping nor were efforts made before shopping to save money (no couponing, no looking over weekly sales ads, no price comparisons).
In some ways, I was very lucky to grow up that way -- I never went hungry and I never feared going hungry.
In other ways though, that type of environment taught me nothing about waste, keeping a budget, or money skills.
It has taken me a very long time to learn any money skills at all or how my food and grocery habits could impact my budget. In fact, although I made great strides after moving out and having a child of my own, it wasn't until my son and I moved back in with my mom several years later that I really started to notice how my family's bad food/grocery habits during my childhood affected my food-related money choices. I love my mom dearly and am so grateful that we were able to move in with her during a time of dire need, but we had very different habits and very different budgets. My mom was financially stable enough to continue to not worry about money, but my budget was extremely tight. I had to weigh my options at the grocery store and be careful that I made our money and food stretch in order to make ends meet and get ahead.
The final straw was when I realized how often food I bought with my own money was getting shoved to the back of the fridge, freezer, and cupboards when my mom bought food. Sometimes my groceries would get smashed so that when I found them they weren't really usable -- like a tomato with a heavy package placed on top of it. I tried talking to my mom about the problem which helped briefly. I tried using hard plastic containers with lids with minor success. I tried a number of other options.
Eventually, my son and I moved out so that I could go to graduate school and I was able to re-implement many of my frugal habits, including minimizing food waste. However, lately I've found both my son and I slip-sliding into bad habits again.
Today, I threw away a half bunch of celery, half bag of salad, and a serving of homemade chana masala. That's not a whole lot, but it still translates to throwing money in the trash. I also realized that I have asparagus that needs to be eaten in the next two days and two apples that will need to be eaten soon as well.
While I may not have cleared out a lot of food waste today, I wish I'd formulated a plan to eat those foods instead. Every time you throw away food, you have to spend more money to replace it. And, if you let THAT food go to waste? Well, more money wasted and more money having to be spent to replace the wasted food again. And, on and on and on...
This week, I'll be hyper focused on minimizing food waste to improve my budget. And, as a side benefit, because I've been buying mostly WHOLE, UNPROCESSED foods, I'm also benefiting our health in the long term which then translates to fewer medical costs over time.
{{I'll do a post in the future about how I save money at the grocery store -- last week, I saved 60% without being super extreme!}}
My zero food waste plans for this week:
- Take my own lunch/snacks to work daily
- Take advantage of free breakfast and lunch at work when my schedule and the meal schedule match up
- Oatmeal, pancakes, waffles for breakfast daily for both of us
- Apple fries for dessert tomorrow night to use up the two apples mentioned above
- Leftovers for dinner tomorrow night (minestrone soup from Thug Kitchen* cookbook -- insanely good!)
- Huge batch of homemade broth from veggie scraps I've been saving in a container in the freezer (it's basically FREE other than the electricity to run the stove and water and soap to wash the dishes! Just the scraps, water, and some seasoning!)
- Asparagus fries as a snack tomorrow night
- Homemade tortilla soup (also from Thug Kitchen) on Monday night
- Evaluate perishables daily and meal plan for the following two to three days based on what's about to go bad
How do you handle food waste, meal planning, and your grocery budget?
Yesterday's post: Paying off debt one penny at a time
Tomorrow's post: How bicycle commuting is saving me money.
And two days from now: How I'm using coloring to motivate my debt reduction
DEBT TRACKING:
Original total: $110,000
Paid off yesterday: $50
New total: $109,950
*Thug Kitchen is a vegan cookbook and IT IS FREAKING AWESOME! Even my son, a teenager who loves meat, thinks the recipes are outstanding. If you eat meat, consider cutting back -- it can save you a ton of money with some practice. However, if you are sensitive to swearing, this cookbook isn't for you, no matter how great the recipes are! It is filled to the gills with F-bombs.
This post may include affiliate links.
No comments:
Post a Comment