Food waste is becoming a big problem for many households. You buy a bag of salad fixings and then don’t use it up before it start becoming sludge — for example. Because of this, you end up spending more on your food bill, and it is a cost that can spiral out of control if you are not careful. Therefore, if you think you are wasting food, here are some of the best kept secrets to help you reduce it.
Plan your meals
Meal planning can save a lot on food waste. This is because you are only using the ingredients you need to make the meals you plan. It’s easy to get into the habit of doing it. It just requires you to sit down and work out the meals you want to eat. You can just do it for your evening meals so you are better prepared. Or if you want to be super organized, consider planning your breakfast and lunch meals, as well. All of which will help you reduce your food waste.
Beware though — if you like to eat out on the spur of the moment, you’ll need to make adjustments on the fly. Many times I’ve ended up with food waste because I ate out more than I thought I would and fresh produce went bad before I could use it.
Make a food shopping list
Planning your meals then allows you to write a food shopping list rather than just going and buying what you think you need. The problem with shopping without a list is that you end up buying things you don’t need. You can get drawn into special offers like discounted items or get another item for free. All of which could end up being wasted. The best advice would be to write a list of all the items you need so you don’t buy more than necessary.
Don’t let food spoil
One of the biggest ways a household can waste food is by letting food spoil or go off. This is because we end up not using it in time and the use by date passes. The reason why we tend to do this is because we don’t prepare in advance by meal planning or writing a shopping list. However, if you do buy a few extra bits on your shopping trip, then you don’t need to worry about food waste anymore. There are ways you can prevent it. By buying a gadget like a Fooodsaver v3240, you can then store food correctly for freezing, meaning you can get use out of it another time.
Batch cooking
Sometimes buying food in bulk can save a lot of money overall. Which is a good way to be if you are looking to reduce your food bill. But if you don’t handle it in the right way you could end up wasting quite a lot, which defeats the purpose. This is why batch cooking is a great way to reduce food waste. Taking an afternoon and cooking up a bigger batch of a meal and then dividing it into portions. You can then freeze the portions. You will have a perfectly healthy balanced meal ready on those days that you don’t have time to cook. Reducing your food waste and your food bill at the same time.
I hope this has inspired you to reduce your food waste.
