Food waste can be harmful not only for the environment but for our wallets too! Americans spend over $500 a year on food that never makes it in to meals....that's literally throwing money into the trash.
Food is one of our biggest areas of waste in our household still. Finally, I decided it's time to take control of the kitchen. Over the past few weeks I have started making grocery shopping more exciting than more of a chore. This is helping us both save money and reduce our food waste. While it's not totally life changing yet, this month I have already saved us over $60 in saving and have drastically reduce
Let's look at what's working for Taylor:
1. I have started taking grocery shopping as a weekly endeavor. This timeline is what works best for us and I honestly can't plan past the week anyway! I have a spreadsheet that notes the meals we want to make (planning for roughly 3 most likely with 1 having left overs and 1 meal being makeshift/eat out). This is super helpful because I can map out the ingredients we need and then find the best deal while color coding where each thing will come from. I will search the BOGO on Publix for the week, my Kroger app for sales and also Ibotta! Here is a peak of what my spread sheet looks like:
2. Another customer suggest Ibotta to me and I've been obsessed! It's an easy way to for me to search my ingredients and guide me to the best deal. In just 1 month I have saved over $20 by uploading my receipts with Ibotta. It's easy peasy and I even have a referral code to share with you that will start you with $10 back on your first receipt upload*. Just use my referral code 'quysjsa' at registration. Sign up at → here.
3. Lastly, I am back to composting! I used to be an expert composter when it was just out in our backyard, but since moving into an apartment it's been a lot more difficult to stay on top of it. What I have learned is it just takes a little bit of effort and can make such a big impact. So much of what we eat can be composted! I store ours in the freezer so it can last a little longer and then pop it off at CHaRM (which is 24/7 and free).
It's important to manage the food that we have and that can be a great help in reducing waste as well. Using products like Bee's Wax Wraps and other low wate alternatives can help us preserve fruits and veggies! Want other tips on food storage? Let us know and we will write about it!
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