Buy empty deli containers and food prep at least half the meals for the week.
Clean up fridge on day off, note overstock and old stock
Plan meals for the week using the over/old stock.
Use the pickup service at the market instead of shopping so you don’t buy stupid things.
When you buy raw meat, cook it within two days, even if you’re just going put it back into containers, it’ll last far longer.
We cook and eat the food.
This happens to us - if I cook dinner for everyone, two of us eat, if I cook dinner for two of us, everyone wants to eat. If I make enough for leftovers, nobody takes them to lunch. If I don’t make enough, they ask why there is not enough for lunch.
Things that help on your question though -
Canned beans, canned tomatoes, canned coconut milk, canned pumpkin, jarred spaghetti sauce, spices - a lot of our staples are not perishable.
Do you live where you can stop by the store on the way home? Then don’t buy perishables for the week, buy them for the meal you are making.
Some foods and meals freeze pretty well, freeze them and keep a list of what’s in the freezer so you remember to eat it.
I hate meal planning but it helps a lot. I sometimes put a note on the fridge “we have food for dal with spinach, chicken & cabbage, sheet pan gnocchi with sausage and broccoli, eggs and potatoes” or whatever we have the food to make, and cross them off as they are made.
Some foods make other foods. So if I make a hunk of pork, it’s pork, rice and beans then enchiladas then burritos, and so on.
Perishables take more planning. Get just enough and have a plan to use it. Use canned and frozen food to account for uncertainty. Be aware of expiration dates of your food and plan accordingly.
It’s called a freezer and lunches for the extra. Eat chicken? Batch cook that pallet- brine in about a couple of water, a bouillon cube, garlic and a bunch of salt, parsley, oregano, rosemary (to your taste), and a couple of the cheapest white wine at the grocery store if your feeling fancy or really like gravy. After a few hours or overnight, dry and throw in your oven at 400 for twenty minutes. When its out, let the chicken cool on a cutting board, slice some up and chop up the rest. You now have a baseline chicken that tastes as good as deli-quality that works well in everything from dinners, sandwiches and salads, and if you skip the rosemary, its a good stir fry addin.
Freeze your fresh bread and only defrost the amount that you’re going to eat.
Freeze stuff
Walk yo and from the grocery store
Buy stuff that will last a while
Grow your own produce
Use a software/app to meal plane. (Mealie/Tandoor) You pick the recipes you fancy for the days/week/whatever period. It generates a grocery list containing exactly what is needed for the meals you chose, nothing else.
I haven’t thrown away anything in a couple years now. Oh and freeze leftovers if needed.
Buy food that has a long shelf life - lentil, rice, beans, canned vegetables, salsa jars. As a bonus it also doesn’t have to be refridgerated.
You now have gout from eating too many preservatives.
That! And then forget you have them for three years because ADHD.
In my household we tend to buy just enough that we know we can eat it over the course of two to three days if it is perishable foods.
If the store sells smaller packs of meat and vegetables and other perishable foods, we buy those and use them in our cooking the next few days.
We don’t have a lot of freezer space and we don’t have a garden, so we try and avoid bulk buying unless we know we will be able to eat it all before it goes bad. It works pretty well.
I had this issue with produce. I stopped buying it because it would just go bad before I used it.
Cook in bulk for the week. Grocery shopping on Saturday, cooking on Sunday. Then all you have to do is heat things up at meal time.
*I should clarify that you only need to refrigerate, not freeze, the type of stuff I’m talking about. Works better if you’re vegetarian
I found that visitng shop frequently and buying a little each time helps with this. Also, knowing what you have and planning what to cook with stock in mind. Also, one might find better to buy at small grocery stores (turkish in my area). These have ability to buy as an example 10 or less potatoes instead of fixed 2.5kg of potatoes. That way you’re not bound to swiftly eat potatoes before they rot.
i dont, my family always buys too much food regardkess to how many times i tell them to not
Don’t mourn, organise!
