Monday, April 25, 2016

Reducing Personal Food Waste

"Kiwi consumers are throwing hundreds of dollars worth of food away every year because they 
buy too much, do not store it properly and do not use it well"


Guilty!  As part of my getting organised mission, I've decided that I need to do something about my 'more is more' style of food shopping.

Most of my issue stems from busyness. If I haven't pre-organised myself, I'll probably buy something easy cook on my way home, rather than try to mentally recall what is already in the fridge. But also, I just overbuy

Perhaps it's a personal issue that I need to introspect about.  I feel secure when my fridge and cupboards are stuffed, even though most nights there are only two of us to feed. As a result, in spite of the Sunday ritual, our green bin and compost heap are often full of last week's good intentions.

No more! I've done my shop for the week, and my fridge and fruit bowl look like this:




There are also things in the freezer and cupboards, but mostly it's fresh fruit and veg that go to waste.

This week I bought far less than usual, and I'm determined to actually use as close to all of it as possible. This should also save me some money, which would be a damn fine thing as I've got a few expensive things coming up.. such as a Fitgenes training workshop, and visit from Kerryn (yayyyy!).

I'll let you know how this worked out next weekend. Speaking of weekend, this was my breakfast this morning. It's oats with a somewhat clunky swirl of chocolate and pureed pumpkin. Autumn is here, and that means, pumpkin everything. :)


6 comments:

  1. I'm not THAT expensive... 😁

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are not the only one Sara, as I travel from house to house I find a variety of items which should have been thrown out years ago. Living from house to house addresses this problem for me - my pantry is now a box. If you cannot eat the ice cream in one house sit then you don't buy it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like a great way to accidentally minimise your food haul. My grandma is the worst for hoarding. She literally has jam and chutneys that are 20 years past expiry. Quite impressive how long these things can last without going mouldy if you are doing it right...

      Delete
  3. We were actually talking about this at work today. The very well stocked pantries etc. A work mate is embarassed and has hidden some of the surfeit from her partner's critical eye. As I was doing the cooking tonight, I looked at the waste disposal unit and thought, I don't really need this as it's rare for us to waste any of our horrendously expensive GF and organic food.

    However it's a challenge when you forgt to cancel the home delivery of fruit and vegies (Ooomby)when you're still munching your way through what was delivered a fortnight before and what's coming out of the garden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm hoping that in the next week or so I'll be able to stop buying leafy greens completely. We've got a whole bunch of kale and spinach finally happening. Jase did a great job getting our covered gardens functional again. For the last year they've been pretty much just big poop boxes for the cats..

      Delete

I love to hear from you! Tell me what's in your brain, your heart or your dinner plate :D.