It’s Food Waste Friday time! I was determined this week to have zero food waste because we all know that wasted food equals money down the drain. Last week, despite only having been home from vacation for less than a week, I already accrued some food waste.
This week, I’m happy so far to report less waste. My food waste consists of:
- 1/2 cup spoiled milk
- 3/4 package fresh parsely
- and 1/2 a kiwi- my 22 month old opened the fridge, took out a kiwi and smashed it with her hands. Normally I would have thrown it in the compost. But in the spirit of FWF, I decided to see what I could salvage. Here’s what she left me:
I got out my sharp knife and added what I could to a smoothie. Smashed doesn’t much matter in a smoothie, eh?
Today I’m putting a dollar amount on my food waste. Here goes:
- milk ~ .50 cents
- parsley ~ .75 cents
- 1/2 kiwi ~ .10 cents
Grand total cost of wasted food: $1.35
That’s not bad, but it SHOULD BE zero. If I only waste $1.35 each week, that adds up to $70.20 cents for the year. Normally, my food waste is more than $1.35 though.
$70 could buy me several nice chunks of gourmet cheese at Sam’s Club – things I don’t normally buy because there isn’t much wiggle room in my budget. Or, $70 could buy me TWENTY THREE pounds of Trader Joe’s rGBH free butter (at $3 a pound which is what it cost last time I checked)! Holy Cow! Do you see what I’m getting at? I have got to stop wasting food.
FOOD WASTE = BAD. WASTEFUL. WASTE OF MONEY. GOT TO END. I’m going to take steps to reduce my food waste to zero. How do you keep your food waste to a minimum? I’d love to hear!
Linking up: Food Waste Friday; Frugal Friday; Frugal Tuesday; Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways;
About Michelle
Welcome! I'm Michelle and I'm glad you're here. Simplify, Live, Love is a blog about simple life in rural Iowa. We are a self-employed, frugal, green, mostly homeschooling family of 6 working to go off the grid on a modern day homestead in Eastern Iowa. Please subscribe for gardening tips, green living hints, recipes, fun giveaways, and frugal ideas. Thanks for stopping by.
You can eat those peels.
Also, I think you might be being a little hard on yourself.
I’ve tried kiwi peels – don’t think they taste that good. Do you vitamix them? Wasted money is wasted money. I’d rather buy something than throw it away!
Last week I figured out about how much $ I wasted in food and I came up with over $5! This week it was probably around $3. I’m going to clean out my fridge today, so I can hopefully not wast ANY food next week!
This week’s total was pretty low. I’m sure I normally waste between $3 -5. It doesn’t sound like that much on a weekly basis, but for the year, it adds up!
I freeze everything I can now. If I think it’s going to be in the fridge for more than a day and I can get away with freezing it, I can.
You can bake with turned milk as long as it’s not clumpy. That’s all that sour cream and buttermilk are. If it’s too funky, you can add a splash of vinegar, make a buttermilk substitute and make scones or pancakes.
Shoot – did not know that about the milk. But I will remember that tip!
That is a great tip! I will remember it for sure.
And I think putting a dollar amount on food waste is good info. Thanks for sharing.
I think, you had a great week! But it really gives you a different perspective on your food waste when you put a monetary value on it. I’ve been doing it from the beginning of the year, and so far I’ve “wasted” $27.18…Sigh…By the way, I don’t know the stage of your spoiled milk but when it just turns sour, you can use it in pancakes (like buttermilk).
I did not know that about milk. It probably would have worked. Thanks for the tip!
When you move to your barn, you can feed all those left overs to chickens who will turn them into eggs for you!
I wish we were able to waste so little food! We have been sick for over a week and I am having the hardest time getting around to cooking all the veggies we have in the fridge before they go bad. I need to freeze them at least. Thanks for the motivation, hopefully it gets my off my butt before the rest of my produce goes bad lol.
Sometimes waste just happens. Looks like you had a pretty good week.
Two of the three can go into compost, so it’s not all bad.
Michelle, I clicked here from Life as Mom, and love what you are saying! I am the worst when it comes to food waste! I buy this stuff at Aldi or somewhere on sale, thinking I’m getting a bargain, but what bargain, if I let it spoil? Thanks for keeping me accountable and not throw out money!! Blessings from Bama!
Thanks for your comment! While I’m very happy with only $1.35 food waste from this week, adding it up (and thinking about it in terms of something I would like to buy) was eye-opening for me! Hope we both have less waste next week.
I feel ya on the monetary cost. I only had a few wasted items this past week, and they were all very minimal in cost. Hate wasting expensive things though. My hubs does remind me though that even a little waste each week, while it is money thrown away, still ends up costing less than buying prepared foods or eating out.
I love how you put a $ cost on your food waste. I am about to have to throw out a 1/2 gallon of milk that I bought specifically to make yogurt and have not gotten around to. So sad. Next time I won’t buy it at all unless I am sure I will make yogurt right away. It was on a whim that I purchased it. It is whole milk that we don’t normally drink and I could have used it in so many baked goods before now. Ugh!
great point. it gets painful once you’re really aware of it, isn’t it? most of our leftover food goes toward future lunches, so we have very little waste. have you read alea at premeditated leftovers?
Yes, I read Premeditated Leftovers. I do a lot of that too, but it seems there is always some waste.
We applaud your efforts!!! Good for you!
Do you compost? Composting helps me feel better about stuff that would otherwise be waste.
I do compost! And it does make me feel better. But I’d still rather have 22 pounds of butter than a heap o compost!