You’d never know it from all the communities around the world who suffer from starvation, but food waste is an actual thing. Like, a real epidemic that’s happening on an international scale. In America alone, we’ve got 49.1 million people living without access to nutritious food while it’s also reported that in the same country, people are tossing out up to 40% of the food they buy. That’s just crazy.
There are a few reasons given for why we have this bizarre occurrence. The top 2 appear to be that there’s an a lot of food being produced and that we want all of our food to look Insta-worthy or as the oldies would say, ‘picture perfect’. Another reason (which differs from country to country) is the price of food. In many countries, you can buy food in bulk for a lot less. Think about (or Google) the American retailer, Costco, where you can buy large amounts of food for much less than if you were to buy those same items in smaller amounts.
Even in South Africa, we’ve got deals and discounts from stores like Food Lovers which offer lower prices for bulk purchases. And that seems like a good thing. But actually, those savings don’t mean anything when half the food you’ve bought ends up in the bin because it’s spoiled before you could get to it.
But how are you supposed to save money and stop wasting food? We’re glad you asked, because we’ve got 5 practical ways that you can save money by reducing your food waste.
Plan your weekly meals
Plan out the meals that you’ll prepare for suppers, lunches, and breakfasts. You should even look in the cupboards to see what snacks you’ll want for the week. From these meals and snacks, you can create your shopping list. Using a list to do your food shopping prevents you from buying too much food and reduces how many times you visit the shops where you can make additional (and often unnecessary) purchases. Oh, and it also means that you’ll spend less on fuel.
This’ll take a few tries before you get it right, but please don’t give up. Every small victory will have an impact on your budget and the waste you produce.
Gobble up your leftovers
You should aim to make enough food for those eating so that the groceries you’ve bought will last the week, but it doesn’t always work that way and there may be some meals where you make too much. So, if you’ve got leftovers, then just save it for later or label it clearly and store in the freezer.
If you don’t think that you’ll end up eating this food at all, then consider wrapping it up in a clean ice-cream or yoghurt container and give it to some 1 in need while it’s still fresh and nutritious. Remember to treat these individuals with dignity by following this rule: If you’d be happy to receive it, then it’s okay to give it away.
Store your food correctly
It’s surprising how many people are confused about which fruits and veggies are stored where. When it comes to choosing between the fridge and counter, we’ve found this breakdown from Heart.org which tells you what’s what. While we’re talking about storage, another good suggestion is to declutter your pantry because as the saying goes… Out of sight is out of mind. And food that’s forgotten about is food that’s thrown away.
Rather keep things tidy and visible so that you can finish what you’ve bought before you buy anything new.
What to chuck out
Obviously we want to avoid waste, which means that chucking food out is a last resort and this brings us to expiration and sell-by dates.
These dates are good guides, but shouldn’t always be treated as a rule because they typically identify food quality, not food safety. We recommend that you trust your sense of smell, sight and taste. And when you do toss food items out, try to keep a log of what’s making the trash heap. This way, you can prevent repeating the same mistakes in the future and also keep track of what’s already in your fridge before you go shopping.
Give composting a go
Alright, so the thing is… Life happens. Things like an unexpected power cut can completely ruin your fridge full of groceries. What are you supposed to do with all this food? Well, if you’ve got this kind of home insurance, then you can claim for spoiled food items from a power cut and replace all your groceries with the pay-out (which is just amazing for your budget). And when it comes to your spoiled foods, we suggest that you discard of your spoiled food, peels, pips, and cores by composting it into nutrient-rich fertiliser. And fertiliser is expensive, so you’ve saved on that cost, too.
Ultimately, you can’t be so strict about your anti-food-waste commitment that you become inflexible. What invariably happens is that you end up falling horribly off the wagon and forget about reducing your food waste altogether. Rather focus on building smaller habits over time and you’ll notice a huge difference in your grocery spending and the amount of waste that you produce.
That’s when you really start to win.
Posted in partnership with King Price Insurance
