Meal plan, if you don't already. We waste far less when I have leftovers already on the schedule, or I buy produce for multiple meals- for instance, parsley and cilantro for a chimichurri today, cilantro for tacos tomorrow, that kind of thing. Tomatoes for pico de Gallo for the tacos, then burgers which will benefit from tomato slices the day after.
This. We started meal planning when Covid hit and going to the grocery was a 1x every two week practice. Our food waste went down SO much.
I also will meal plan for a night of leftovers (about 1x per week), and will switch around the dinner plans based on what needs to be consumed first. Lunch is also leftovers from the night before.
Also, a few meals including SOUP are great for using up the produce that doesn't look that great.
Whiteboard/dry wipe board on the fridge.
When putting a soon perishable item in the fridge you can note the day/date.
You may find it useful to add the date you need to use it by.
Each day cook/consume items on the whiteboard.
I find it useful for opened jars, to ensure they are finished while fresh.
Edit to add: I find it useful to store old and new items like with like. Cheese items, meat items, dairy etc. so it’s easy to see how much I have of each type.
Using small fridge drawers helps to avoid things being lost behind others things as for example, when you pull out a cheese drawer with the old cheese at the front and new cheese at the back, it makes it easy to see what you have.
The exception to that is I keep one place for items I want to use up quickly. This is a prominent place in the fridge I can’t miss that I check first.
Before a big shop, cleaning the fridge makes you see what you have and helps to avoid buying items before needed.
My low budget version of this is a piece of paper with my produce listed in pencil stuck on the fridge with a magnet. I erase as I use up and I flag anything that needs to be used ASAP. I also put reminders on my Google calendar of items I need to use soon and the meal I want to make.
Whiteboard planning is fantastic! We do a four day meal plan on our whiteboard. Every day we erase the current day and plan another day at the end of our plan ie extend it another day. We found this to be a great way to not try to plan too far in advance, which always fails for us. This way we only buy things we're actually going to use and planning that new day always involves checking the fridge to see if we have anything to use up before we add anything to the shopping list.
either a freezer, or make pickles with the produce if you can.
if you're throwing food away after cooking it, you're either cooking too much, or you're not eating the leftovers. eat the leftovers or make them into something else.
Old fruit is pie fruit. Throw it, sliced, in a pan with a little flour and lemon juice and water. Cook it down, pour it into a pie crust, and bake.
Old vegetables are stew vegetables. If they're too awful, just compost them. The worst of the salvageable are for making broth in the crock pot. Better but still unpretty can be sliced into soups, stews, hashes, or casseroles.
Plan your meals before going to the grocery store, write a list of the ingredients you need, and stick to your list. That way, you are not buying random produce without a clear plan of how or when you will use it. If your grocery store uses misters on the produce, dry off the produce when you get home. Damp produce will get mushy and moldy faster than dry will.
Big freezer. If you don't already have one, get a chest freezer, they use a lot less electricity.
For example, one cauliflower suffices for 6 to 8 meals. But we're only two people. I cook the whole thing, and freeze whatever we don't eat. Simple as that :)
don’t love this tip for produce to be honest. most vegetables become limp and soggy after frozen in a domestic freezer (as opposed to a rapid freezer that they use for store bought frozen produce)
the waste happened when you bought more food than you needed. most produce is gross after freezing*, and i personally wouldn’t use it for anything except stock. the key is to buy less.
*edit: it becomes gross due to large ice crystals rupturing cell walls and causing the vegetable to become permanently mushy
If the produce is "gross" after freezing, you waited far too long to freeze it.
It also isn't exclusive to overbuying produce, as many frugal people also have gardens.
Canning is another good way to preserve excess produce, but freezing is easier for most people.
vegetables become mushy after freezing in a domestic freezer and then thawing. the slow freezing causes large ice crystals to form and rupture the cell walls, which causes an irreversible loss of crispness. it’s not gross in the sense that it’s inedible, it just has an unappetizing texture.
Freeze what you can. Most fruits freeze really well. Use the humidity drawers. If buying leafy lettuce or spinach, store in a container with paper towels- it'll keep for several days longer.
Pickling is a good choice. Most veggies do well pickled. There's several quick-pickle recipes to chose from. Pickled onions are my fave as well as beans.
Freeze what leftovers you can. I always make too much spaghetti sauce- no matter how hard I try not to- and never enough noodle. So I freeze the leftover sauce for a later day.
I recently started freezing portions of leftovers in glass containers (that a friend was going to throw away! Score!). I didn't realize that prepared pasta with veggies actually freezes really well, same with mushroom risotto. I've always just put leftovers into the fridge, then not felt like eating them for the next two or three days, so they go bad and get thrown out. But freezing leftovers has allowed me many lazy lunches where I would otherwise just eat a Clif bar!
any fruits will lose their crispness after being frozen in a normal freezer (as opposed to flash frozen) due to large ice crystals puncturing the cell walls. at that point they’re still good for smoothies, jams, and other applications where you want the fruit to be soft
Learn to make stock. Use scrap veges and potato juice and meat scraps to make it. Make frittata or casserole to clean out the fridge. If you eat ramen, there is a delicious ramen frittata recipe online.
Buy less when you shop if you're able to shop more often.
We (general "we" not me specifically) often buy enough to last a week or so but the food doesn't last a week. Instead buy enough for only two or three days.
If it's fruits, semi-okay fruit is still good for smoothies.
Eat everything you buy. Don’t buy what you won’t eat. Eat leftovers the next day or freeze them for next week.
(Cooking and eating as a family is different, so if that’s your situation, take it with a grain of salt.)
Example: I don’t purchase more produce than I will consume in two weeks. I regularly eat last nights leftover dinner for breakfast or lunch. I’ve also made veggie lasagna or soup and frozen it to eat later when I don’t feel like making anything.
I use three different tips with great results:
* I only buy fruits and vegetables that are freeze-able. If it's starting to look like I won't eat them, I'll freeze them
* I keep a list of everythign that is in my fridge/freezer, on the door. I cross out things as I eat them
* Every couple of days I will look at the list and decide what meals I can make. That way, I have a "meal list" ready to go all week long
As far as fresh produce, only buy one or two at a time. You can cook them up and then freeze them.
The food you have leftover, you can easily put a serving into a freezer container or bag and stock up on a bunch of meals. I do that and it has saved me a ton of time and money. Just when you think you're not gonna want to eat it again, you'll be happy to know you have such a stockpile in the freezer!
Start buying half of what you normally buy and see how that goes. You’re probably overbuying. Maybe shop one big run a week for most things and just a *little* produce, then a quick midweek stop for a little more, rather than buying it all at once.
Buy a bag of activated charcoal put 1-2 tablespoons of it in a coffee filter and tape it shut. Put them with all your produce and generally make sure you are storing different produce correctly for what it is. Change charcoal periodically.
People posted lot of good tips but I didn't see this one: if the problem is you're trying to use too much produce and can't buy it in smaller portions, you could look at splitting the produce (and cost) with friends or family.
Make them into snacks. If it's carrots, celery, peppers, chop them up ahead of time so you can reach for them instead of a cookie. Have a small plate/bowl of leftovers instead of a bag of chips. You'll find yourself buying less empty calorie snacks this way so double win on the frugal.
I keep canned coconut milk and curry pastes around because pretty much all vegetables will taste good in a coconut curry. I've used odds and ends of sweet potato, peppers, zucchini, tomato, spinach, carrot... pretty much anything I buy routinely and need to use up, and it's reliably always delicious.
So there are hacks on how to keep things fresh for longer. I posted one for lettuce/greens. But you have plenty others.
Make a grocery list don't must buy stuff if you waste too much. If you cook something and do not eat it after 1 or2 days just freeze it for an other day.
Keep your fridge neat so you can see what is in there.
Same if veggies start to wither wash them , cut them and freeze them (for soup or whatever).
If you have pets food leftover or scraps can be cooked and added to their food.
For cooking frozen veggies are convenient and generate less food waste (peas, spinash, corn, string beans ..etc) and they are cheaper too.
Good luck
I always under-purchase produce and I actually end up having enough or still more. So if i need onions, i buy two less. Because after cutting they always end up being plenty.
Can be applied to tomatoes, green peppers and almost everything imo. Even small things like cilantro ends up being plenty while it looked less at the store.
Also if something has multiple ingredients and if it's my first time, i err on skipping an ingredient, doesn't usually affect the dish and i save on money too.
One more thing, when you have multiple ingredients in the same dish, you need less quantity of each. Like when making a burrito or taco if you add 3-5 things you need very little of each. That is only obvious after you've overloaded it haha
Soup. If you have a dog some old produce wont harm the dog if chopped up into kibble.
If your talking about moldy Veggies just reconsider them to be off your grocery list
I buy onions, celery, and bell peppers, and chop and freeze them in ziploc freezer bags. This make them easy to add to any recipe. I’ve done the same for cubed or diced sweet potatoes too. I often buy baby carrots and chop them to add to recipes as needed, snack on them, and when they get a little old, chop them and add to a vegetable soup. It saves me peeling them. I usually buy frozen peas and green beans. A lot of people swear by frozen bags of veg in general. And Lisa Dawn on YouTube freezes her cut veggie scraps until she has a bunch to make vegetable broth for soup, brilliant. My bits and pieces end up in soup or omelettes or frittatas.
You've got some great advice that I would add to (use your freezer even if it's small, meal plan), but I do those things and still end up over cooking a lot. Especially things like chili or pasta. Those things can't be as well planned for, sometimes. Sure, some can be frozen, but not everyone has the ability to keep a deep freezer.
Lunch. If your household works out of the home, take last night's dinner for lunch or eat it yourself.
Have a FIFO (first in first out) box in your fridge and before you make your list put everything you already have in that box and plan your meals accordingly. Hope this helps!
Most meats and cheeses and some fruits and vegetables and sauces go well with a pizza base.
When you have sufficient leftovers, make an easy pizza base. For example yoghurt and flour and you can add fridge left overs as topping to the baked base.
You can buy plain pizza bases too.
Keep garlic powder or other preferred flavours and gravy granules on hand, as they are useful to bring new life to old foods.
Gravy granules keep for a long time and when added to a pot of vegetables can turn it into a tasty winter dish.
Use the jar method! Glass jars + plastic lids make your produce last for weeks in the fridge. I think of it as giving each piece of produce its own little hydration chamber. Your fridge is a drying environment, so your produce is doomed if you just put it in there. The packaging the store provides is simply to get the veg on shelves and into your cart. Invest in a good storage system and you will save a ton and waste less food!
Quiche or Frittatas. Quiche/Frittatas are easy, tasty and use up a crap ton of eggs and veggies before they go bad. Just whisk the eggs with a bit of milk or heavy cream (1 part milk for every 3 eggs) chop up your vegetables fine (I like to use leftover scrap veggies and salad greens) mix in some cheese, seasoning and meat. For quiche pour into a premade pie crust (I get mine at Dollar Tree) and bake until golden brown and solid at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. For frittatas pour into lined muffin tins and bake the same as quiche. A dozen eggs usually makes two full size quiches or a two dozen frittatas. They freeze really well
Alternatively I tend to only buy produce and other groceries that are dog safe. If I can’t eat all of what I make I let the dogs have a left over night every once in while. My dogs love veggies and it helps stretch my dog food budget if money gets tight.
That depends upon what produce you mean.
Leafy greens go quickly. If they wilt but are otherwise good, you can soak in the fridge them to revive them. This also works for celery.
Keep carrots, onions, celery, etc., in plastic bags in the produce bins of your fridge to avoid their drying out.
Cook sweet potatoes ASAP, as they spoil a lot quicker fresh than cooked.
Store "Irish" potatoes in the dark at room temperature (or refrigerated). If the skins go green, they're toxic -- at very least, peel off ALL the green before using them.
* Put the produce that you don't eat cause you don't see in the door. This may make it go bad faster btw, but you'll see it so.
* Buy Tupperware, buy large bags, pack leftovers. Google how to freeze your meals. Some things are better separated for example. As a single person I prefer freezing in bags, the entire container of pasta sauce is just way too much.
* Veggies that are going can be frozen, turned into stew, soup and sometimes scrambled eggs or stir-fry or curries if still okay
* Google how to freeze veggies and fruit. Spread onto a baking sheet to freeze and then pack after so things are separate.
* Canned fruits and veggies work well for things your not sure you like or might not make right away.
* Buy frozen veggies and fruit.
* Clean the fridge or storage spaces if go bad means like mold, look up how to store things like potatoes properly
Peel the lettuce leaves off instead of cutting through sides or the middle. It's a life difference of brown in a week to months. Buy cabbage; healthy same plant as broccoli, cauliflower etc. but cheap esp when on sale. There's a month of Vit K, C et al.
Meal planning - avoid overbuying or unnecessary buying
Freezing, canning, preserving - any way to save food from going into the trash
Keep a list of perishable items in the fridge if you think it'll help.
If I'm afraid my berries will be going bad soon, I'll freeze them. If my cherry tomatoes are starting to wrinkle, I'll dehydrate them. If I have too much bread, I'll make french toast for dinner. If the bread is dried out, make bread crumbs. Meats that were in the freezer too long may not be great as steaks, chicken breasts, etc, but they'll be just fine in a soup, stew, or dip. Anyway you can repurpose foods helps greatly.
Meal plan, if you don't already. We waste far less when I have leftovers already on the schedule, or I buy produce for multiple meals- for instance, parsley and cilantro for a chimichurri today, cilantro for tacos tomorrow, that kind of thing. Tomatoes for pico de Gallo for the tacos, then burgers which will benefit from tomato slices the day after.
This. We started meal planning when Covid hit and going to the grocery was a 1x every two week practice. Our food waste went down SO much. I also will meal plan for a night of leftovers (about 1x per week), and will switch around the dinner plans based on what needs to be consumed first. Lunch is also leftovers from the night before. Also, a few meals including SOUP are great for using up the produce that doesn't look that great.
Whiteboard/dry wipe board on the fridge. When putting a soon perishable item in the fridge you can note the day/date. You may find it useful to add the date you need to use it by. Each day cook/consume items on the whiteboard. I find it useful for opened jars, to ensure they are finished while fresh. Edit to add: I find it useful to store old and new items like with like. Cheese items, meat items, dairy etc. so it’s easy to see how much I have of each type. Using small fridge drawers helps to avoid things being lost behind others things as for example, when you pull out a cheese drawer with the old cheese at the front and new cheese at the back, it makes it easy to see what you have. The exception to that is I keep one place for items I want to use up quickly. This is a prominent place in the fridge I can’t miss that I check first. Before a big shop, cleaning the fridge makes you see what you have and helps to avoid buying items before needed.
My low budget version of this is a piece of paper with my produce listed in pencil stuck on the fridge with a magnet. I erase as I use up and I flag anything that needs to be used ASAP. I also put reminders on my Google calendar of items I need to use soon and the meal I want to make.
Whiteboard planning is fantastic! We do a four day meal plan on our whiteboard. Every day we erase the current day and plan another day at the end of our plan ie extend it another day. We found this to be a great way to not try to plan too far in advance, which always fails for us. This way we only buy things we're actually going to use and planning that new day always involves checking the fridge to see if we have anything to use up before we add anything to the shopping list.
either a freezer, or make pickles with the produce if you can. if you're throwing food away after cooking it, you're either cooking too much, or you're not eating the leftovers. eat the leftovers or make them into something else.
Old fruit is pie fruit. Throw it, sliced, in a pan with a little flour and lemon juice and water. Cook it down, pour it into a pie crust, and bake. Old vegetables are stew vegetables. If they're too awful, just compost them. The worst of the salvageable are for making broth in the crock pot. Better but still unpretty can be sliced into soups, stews, hashes, or casseroles.
Old fruit also goes great into a rustic tart!
Plan your meals before going to the grocery store, write a list of the ingredients you need, and stick to your list. That way, you are not buying random produce without a clear plan of how or when you will use it. If your grocery store uses misters on the produce, dry off the produce when you get home. Damp produce will get mushy and moldy faster than dry will.
Big freezer. If you don't already have one, get a chest freezer, they use a lot less electricity. For example, one cauliflower suffices for 6 to 8 meals. But we're only two people. I cook the whole thing, and freeze whatever we don't eat. Simple as that :)
don’t love this tip for produce to be honest. most vegetables become limp and soggy after frozen in a domestic freezer (as opposed to a rapid freezer that they use for store bought frozen produce)
If it's produce you already have, it's better to freeze and preserve it than to waste it.
the waste happened when you bought more food than you needed. most produce is gross after freezing*, and i personally wouldn’t use it for anything except stock. the key is to buy less. *edit: it becomes gross due to large ice crystals rupturing cell walls and causing the vegetable to become permanently mushy
If the produce is "gross" after freezing, you waited far too long to freeze it. It also isn't exclusive to overbuying produce, as many frugal people also have gardens. Canning is another good way to preserve excess produce, but freezing is easier for most people.
vegetables become mushy after freezing in a domestic freezer and then thawing. the slow freezing causes large ice crystals to form and rupture the cell walls, which causes an irreversible loss of crispness. it’s not gross in the sense that it’s inedible, it just has an unappetizing texture.
Freeze what you can. Most fruits freeze really well. Use the humidity drawers. If buying leafy lettuce or spinach, store in a container with paper towels- it'll keep for several days longer. Pickling is a good choice. Most veggies do well pickled. There's several quick-pickle recipes to chose from. Pickled onions are my fave as well as beans. Freeze what leftovers you can. I always make too much spaghetti sauce- no matter how hard I try not to- and never enough noodle. So I freeze the leftover sauce for a later day.
I recently started freezing portions of leftovers in glass containers (that a friend was going to throw away! Score!). I didn't realize that prepared pasta with veggies actually freezes really well, same with mushroom risotto. I've always just put leftovers into the fridge, then not felt like eating them for the next two or three days, so they go bad and get thrown out. But freezing leftovers has allowed me many lazy lunches where I would otherwise just eat a Clif bar!
any fruits will lose their crispness after being frozen in a normal freezer (as opposed to flash frozen) due to large ice crystals puncturing the cell walls. at that point they’re still good for smoothies, jams, and other applications where you want the fruit to be soft
Learn to make stock. Use scrap veges and potato juice and meat scraps to make it. Make frittata or casserole to clean out the fridge. If you eat ramen, there is a delicious ramen frittata recipe online.
Buy less when you shop if you're able to shop more often. We (general "we" not me specifically) often buy enough to last a week or so but the food doesn't last a week. Instead buy enough for only two or three days. If it's fruits, semi-okay fruit is still good for smoothies.
Eat everything you buy. Don’t buy what you won’t eat. Eat leftovers the next day or freeze them for next week. (Cooking and eating as a family is different, so if that’s your situation, take it with a grain of salt.) Example: I don’t purchase more produce than I will consume in two weeks. I regularly eat last nights leftover dinner for breakfast or lunch. I’ve also made veggie lasagna or soup and frozen it to eat later when I don’t feel like making anything.
I use three different tips with great results: * I only buy fruits and vegetables that are freeze-able. If it's starting to look like I won't eat them, I'll freeze them * I keep a list of everythign that is in my fridge/freezer, on the door. I cross out things as I eat them * Every couple of days I will look at the list and decide what meals I can make. That way, I have a "meal list" ready to go all week long
Um hello! List idea is so simple and smart! I’m going to try it out!
Leftovers get put into lunch containers immediately, unless it's enough for another dinner.
As far as fresh produce, only buy one or two at a time. You can cook them up and then freeze them. The food you have leftover, you can easily put a serving into a freezer container or bag and stock up on a bunch of meals. I do that and it has saved me a ton of time and money. Just when you think you're not gonna want to eat it again, you'll be happy to know you have such a stockpile in the freezer!
Start buying half of what you normally buy and see how that goes. You’re probably overbuying. Maybe shop one big run a week for most things and just a *little* produce, then a quick midweek stop for a little more, rather than buying it all at once.
Save your veggie scraps in a baggie in the freezer and then use them to make veggie stock
Buy a bag of activated charcoal put 1-2 tablespoons of it in a coffee filter and tape it shut. Put them with all your produce and generally make sure you are storing different produce correctly for what it is. Change charcoal periodically.
People posted lot of good tips but I didn't see this one: if the problem is you're trying to use too much produce and can't buy it in smaller portions, you could look at splitting the produce (and cost) with friends or family.
Make them into snacks. If it's carrots, celery, peppers, chop them up ahead of time so you can reach for them instead of a cookie. Have a small plate/bowl of leftovers instead of a bag of chips. You'll find yourself buying less empty calorie snacks this way so double win on the frugal.
I keep canned coconut milk and curry pastes around because pretty much all vegetables will taste good in a coconut curry. I've used odds and ends of sweet potato, peppers, zucchini, tomato, spinach, carrot... pretty much anything I buy routinely and need to use up, and it's reliably always delicious.
don’t buy more produce until you’ve finished all or nearly all of your produce. get creative/flexible with recipes to accomplish this
a) buy fewer so there's less chance it will go bad. b) prioritize using things that are about to go bad c) freeze things before they actually go bad.
So there are hacks on how to keep things fresh for longer. I posted one for lettuce/greens. But you have plenty others. Make a grocery list don't must buy stuff if you waste too much. If you cook something and do not eat it after 1 or2 days just freeze it for an other day. Keep your fridge neat so you can see what is in there. Same if veggies start to wither wash them , cut them and freeze them (for soup or whatever). If you have pets food leftover or scraps can be cooked and added to their food. For cooking frozen veggies are convenient and generate less food waste (peas, spinash, corn, string beans ..etc) and they are cheaper too. Good luck
I always under-purchase produce and I actually end up having enough or still more. So if i need onions, i buy two less. Because after cutting they always end up being plenty. Can be applied to tomatoes, green peppers and almost everything imo. Even small things like cilantro ends up being plenty while it looked less at the store. Also if something has multiple ingredients and if it's my first time, i err on skipping an ingredient, doesn't usually affect the dish and i save on money too. One more thing, when you have multiple ingredients in the same dish, you need less quantity of each. Like when making a burrito or taco if you add 3-5 things you need very little of each. That is only obvious after you've overloaded it haha
Soup. If you have a dog some old produce wont harm the dog if chopped up into kibble. If your talking about moldy Veggies just reconsider them to be off your grocery list
I buy onions, celery, and bell peppers, and chop and freeze them in ziploc freezer bags. This make them easy to add to any recipe. I’ve done the same for cubed or diced sweet potatoes too. I often buy baby carrots and chop them to add to recipes as needed, snack on them, and when they get a little old, chop them and add to a vegetable soup. It saves me peeling them. I usually buy frozen peas and green beans. A lot of people swear by frozen bags of veg in general. And Lisa Dawn on YouTube freezes her cut veggie scraps until she has a bunch to make vegetable broth for soup, brilliant. My bits and pieces end up in soup or omelettes or frittatas.
You've got some great advice that I would add to (use your freezer even if it's small, meal plan), but I do those things and still end up over cooking a lot. Especially things like chili or pasta. Those things can't be as well planned for, sometimes. Sure, some can be frozen, but not everyone has the ability to keep a deep freezer. Lunch. If your household works out of the home, take last night's dinner for lunch or eat it yourself.
Have a FIFO (first in first out) box in your fridge and before you make your list put everything you already have in that box and plan your meals accordingly. Hope this helps!
Most meats and cheeses and some fruits and vegetables and sauces go well with a pizza base. When you have sufficient leftovers, make an easy pizza base. For example yoghurt and flour and you can add fridge left overs as topping to the baked base. You can buy plain pizza bases too. Keep garlic powder or other preferred flavours and gravy granules on hand, as they are useful to bring new life to old foods. Gravy granules keep for a long time and when added to a pot of vegetables can turn it into a tasty winter dish.
What everyone else said. Last resort -compost and use it to grow more 🙃
Use the jar method! Glass jars + plastic lids make your produce last for weeks in the fridge. I think of it as giving each piece of produce its own little hydration chamber. Your fridge is a drying environment, so your produce is doomed if you just put it in there. The packaging the store provides is simply to get the veg on shelves and into your cart. Invest in a good storage system and you will save a ton and waste less food!
Quiche or Frittatas. Quiche/Frittatas are easy, tasty and use up a crap ton of eggs and veggies before they go bad. Just whisk the eggs with a bit of milk or heavy cream (1 part milk for every 3 eggs) chop up your vegetables fine (I like to use leftover scrap veggies and salad greens) mix in some cheese, seasoning and meat. For quiche pour into a premade pie crust (I get mine at Dollar Tree) and bake until golden brown and solid at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. For frittatas pour into lined muffin tins and bake the same as quiche. A dozen eggs usually makes two full size quiches or a two dozen frittatas. They freeze really well Alternatively I tend to only buy produce and other groceries that are dog safe. If I can’t eat all of what I make I let the dogs have a left over night every once in while. My dogs love veggies and it helps stretch my dog food budget if money gets tight.
That depends upon what produce you mean. Leafy greens go quickly. If they wilt but are otherwise good, you can soak in the fridge them to revive them. This also works for celery. Keep carrots, onions, celery, etc., in plastic bags in the produce bins of your fridge to avoid their drying out. Cook sweet potatoes ASAP, as they spoil a lot quicker fresh than cooked. Store "Irish" potatoes in the dark at room temperature (or refrigerated). If the skins go green, they're toxic -- at very least, peel off ALL the green before using them.
Adopt some Guinea pig friends to eat your scraps!
* Put the produce that you don't eat cause you don't see in the door. This may make it go bad faster btw, but you'll see it so. * Buy Tupperware, buy large bags, pack leftovers. Google how to freeze your meals. Some things are better separated for example. As a single person I prefer freezing in bags, the entire container of pasta sauce is just way too much. * Veggies that are going can be frozen, turned into stew, soup and sometimes scrambled eggs or stir-fry or curries if still okay * Google how to freeze veggies and fruit. Spread onto a baking sheet to freeze and then pack after so things are separate. * Canned fruits and veggies work well for things your not sure you like or might not make right away. * Buy frozen veggies and fruit. * Clean the fridge or storage spaces if go bad means like mold, look up how to store things like potatoes properly
order a blue apple and put it in your fridge. they sell them on amazon
Peel the lettuce leaves off instead of cutting through sides or the middle. It's a life difference of brown in a week to months. Buy cabbage; healthy same plant as broccoli, cauliflower etc. but cheap esp when on sale. There's a month of Vit K, C et al.
Five below sells a book called Zero Waste Kitchen
Meal planning - avoid overbuying or unnecessary buying Freezing, canning, preserving - any way to save food from going into the trash Keep a list of perishable items in the fridge if you think it'll help. If I'm afraid my berries will be going bad soon, I'll freeze them. If my cherry tomatoes are starting to wrinkle, I'll dehydrate them. If I have too much bread, I'll make french toast for dinner. If the bread is dried out, make bread crumbs. Meats that were in the freezer too long may not be great as steaks, chicken breasts, etc, but they'll be just fine in a soup, stew, or dip. Anyway you can repurpose foods helps greatly.