Reading Time: 2 minutes How to Waste less food, Save Money
The average household wastes 14% of their food purchases. It has been estimated that an average family of four throws out about $600 of food a year.
Think what you could do with all that money! Save money and waste less food by learning how to store foods and understanding grocery cycles.
Save Money and Waste Less Food – How To Store Foods and Other Tips
How to store Foods
It is important for consumers to understand how to properly store foods so that they will last longer. Do you know how long meat can last in the fridge? What about the freezer? Bookmark the Whole Foods cold storage chart. You’ll want to keep referring back to it.
Two Week Grocery Cycle
Lifehacker and the Green Cheapskate recommend switching to a two-week grocery cycle.
With this cycle, you cook two or three meals’ worth of each recipe at the beginning of the two-week period and immediately freeze the extra portions for the second week. Freeze any meat that you won’t be eating within the next 48 hours.
Use up fresh fruits and vegetables first, and then supplement them with just-as-healthy frozen (foods) as you get into the second week.
Check expiration dates on dairy products before you buy them; in most cases, you can find products that will remain fresh for two weeks or longer. The idea is to always USE UP what you buy before you shop again.
More Great Sites to Help you Waste Less Food
Check out Love Food, Hate Waste, a UK site devoted to helping people waste less food. There are meal making tips, money and time-saving ideas, ways to bring stale food back to life. You can even leave comments on the site and share your tips with others.
If you know of a site like this for the U.S. please let me know and I’ll add it.
What are some tips you have to waste less food and save money?
Rachel is an Austin blogger, educator, mom, wife, young breast cancer survivor writing about health, saving money, and living a happy life in Austin, Texas.
Rachel has written for HuffPost and Hometalk and has been featured on KXAN, Studio 512, Fox 7 Austin, and CBS Austin.