Post by crazycakes on Aug 23, 2012 10:53:43 GMT -5
We try to be conscious of what we have purchased and build meals around it. We do toss some produce that we can't eat because it goes bad, but we do try to eat everything up before it gets to that stage.
My parents are terrible. It's just the two of them, but they buy produce from Costco in huge quantities, and they buy food like they're feeding an army. Every time I visit them, I find old, wilted, over ripe produce in the fridge. At least they compost, but still. I don't think they've ever learned how to shop and cook for two.
My mom has admitted she had trouble with food when us kids moved out. When my sister moved out, my brother just ate more; when I moved out, my brother ate more / they had more leftovers; and when my brother moved out, my mom stopped cooking entirely. She had to completely re-learn how to cook for two, after cooking for 5 (including a very hungry teenage boy) for over 20 years. I can see how it would be hard - after defaulting to buying 4L of milk per week for years on autopilot, going to maybe 1L of milk every 2-3 weeks is a big adjustment.
I would totally give them credit for this if I weren't an only child.
It's just me and my H, no kids. We have a hard time finishing a full loaf of bread before the end pieces mold. A bag of potatoes just went rotten (I still don't know why, this is unusual). A jar of con queso or salsa is likely to mold before we are interested in eating it all. We can't finish a full package of celery before it turns brown. And so on... I have tried to stop buying food we can't finish, but some things I still have to buy, like bread.
If you refrigerate bread it will last longer. I've kept bread like hamburger buns for 2-3 months before. It normally takes us about 4-6 weeks to finish a loaf. Potatoes like it cold and dark so also fridgerate that and they'll last a long time.
We have four people so can usually finish bread, but we keep it in the fridge to extend the life. We do have the potato issue, so I buy single potatoes even though it is cheaper to buy a bag per lb. or if I do buy a bag, baked potatoes will be on the meal plan weekly until they are gone. Stuff like cereal or taco shells that gets stale- to bad, eat it anyway! DH gets crabby at me about that, but I have no sympathy. The kids waste a lot, but a few months ago we instituted a policy that if they don't finish their meal, it gets out in the fridge and they get it again for the next meal. That was mostly a picky eating policy, but it has worked wonders for not wasting food.
I am not perfect ad I hope I don't come off as judging, but we spend 600-800 a month on food, and if we were throwing away some huge percentage, the budget would go up accordingly, and we just can't afford to waste that much money. I would rather have the extra few hundred a month, and eat a little stale cereal or eat celery every day until it is gone, than throw it all away and waste the money.
My parents are terrible. It's just the two of them, but they buy produce from Costco in huge quantities, and they buy food like they're feeding an army. Every time I visit them, I find old, wilted, over ripe produce in the fridge. At least they compost, but still. I don't think they've ever learned how to shop and cook for two.
My mom has admitted she had trouble with food when us kids moved out. When my sister moved out, my brother just ate more; when I moved out, my brother ate more / they had more leftovers; and when my brother moved out, my mom stopped cooking entirely. She had to completely re-learn how to cook for two, after cooking for 5 (including a very hungry teenage boy) for over 20 years. I can see how it would be hard - after defaulting to buying 4L of milk per week for years on autopilot, going to maybe 1L of milk every 2-3 weeks is a big adjustment.
My parents do this too.
They also fill up their fridge with randome stuff like 5 different kinds of jam. It will take 2 people like a year to eat it all, why not buy one at once? Or 3 or 4 kinds of pudding cups, or 3 kinds of flavored applesauce, etc. So when we visit, and buy food to make actual meals, there is never room in the fridge because it is full of the entire pudding cup section of the grocery store! Drives me batty. That stuff doesn't expire, it is the disorganization and overstocking that my brain cannot handle.
My family is SO guilty of this & I'm trying hard to cut back. Shopping more frequently but buying much less, giving kids much smaller portions, not buying things like a bag of oranges unless we are sure they are good quality, no More buying produce at Costco, packing up leftovers & putting in fridge instead of tossing, etc.