Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. Why do I do this? Because in March of 2008, I finally got fed up with the amount of food I was wasting, and I thought that showing my waste to other people would motivate me to use up my food instead of wasting it. Because this often embarrassing practice was so helpful for me, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born. If you’re not a blogger but still want some food waste accountability, feel free to participate by leaving a comment.
This is a piece of what used to be fresh ginger.
I used almost all of it up (I had a fairly large piece), but this last piece got moldy.
Happily, ginger is so cheap, it’s almost free, and of course this bit went into the compost. So, not much of a loss on the financial or environmental fronts.
I also found a rotten clementine in my fruit drawer. Plus, a mango I bought was in very odd shape…it had this weird webby stuff mixed in with the flesh of the fruit, and that makes me think it was a bad mango before it ever came into my house.
So, I’m not taking responsibility for that one.
All in all, it was a good food waste week at my house, and I’m feeling particularly pleased with myself because my fridge is relatively empty at the moment, and that always bodes well for the next week’s food waste photo.
Hey, if you haven’t joined us Food-Waste-Friday-ers yet, could I encourage you to consider it? Even if you don’t blog, or don’t want to publicly share your photo, join us in fighting to reduce the food waste in your home.
I know it might seem like a small thing, but if every reader of this blog reduced their food waste, we could make a huge difference in the amount of food that gets thrown into our landfills. There are thousands of people here in the Frugal Girl community, and if we each change and also encourage others in our lives to change, the effect could be really tremendous.
Ten-foot tall snowdrifts are made up of billions of teeny snowflakes, right? All those tiny snowflakes make something enormous, and you and I can can have an effect like that together.
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How did you do this week? If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the widget below. You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don’t blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.
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Today’s 365 post: I seriously need to redo this.
Joshua’s 365 post: Dragons and Eyes and Art! Oh My!
Sabine
Saturday 18th of February 2012
We live in the country and have dogs who get any old food we don't eat and chickens and ducks who get all our vegetable scraps and peelings when I prepare the food. I make individual meals and freeze them from leftovers for my family to take for lunch or eat on a crazy night when dinner just doesn't get cooked. I try to plan several meals when I cook a large piece of meat like a pork roast or turkey so that I know what to do with the leftovers before I even start. I also have fresh fruit on the counter all the time so when the kids pass by they just pick up a piece to eat. I send fruit and/or cut up veggies with school lunches everyday so that really cuts down on waste. I grew up in Europe so I was used to shopping fresh on a daily basis and when we moved to the country I really went overboard buying too much food because I didn't want to run out since I only go shopping once a week. We too have power outages and a freezer in the garage. The best thing to do is to put dry ice in there every day to keep things frozen according to the book that came with the fridge. We make mixed juice with aging fruits, we have a juicer, and have come up with some good mixes, we don't do so well with veggies so I just give those to our chickens and ducks who return the favor with wonderful fresh eggs.
CristinaS
Monday 23rd of January 2012
Just started too weeks ago and already seeing results. I look at my fridge and visualize how to used it before going to waste.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Cristina Portugal
Jenessa
Sunday 22nd of January 2012
I have the tail end of a bag of salad that is pretty slimy. Bagged salad is one of my downfalls, I buy it with good intentions, but unless I have dinners planned around it, it usually doesn't all get eaten. I also have a couple of serranos that are pretty old.
Lilypad
Saturday 21st of January 2012
Speaking of snow drifts, we had a lot of snow in the Seattle area this week, which is highly unusual for us. Our power was out for 32 hours, on for 6 hours, and off for 4 more hours. (Fingers crossed, it's on for now.) I had to throw out $100+ worth of cheese, condiments, expensive non-dairy yogurts and milks, Gardein vegetarian entrees (like BBQ sandwich meat, a great source of protein for my veggie son) and saddest of all, leftover homemade vegetarian corn chowder and lasagne. Sigh. (We're not meat eaters, so I can't imagine how much it would cost if I'd had to throw out the amount of meat the average American family has on hand in fridge and freezer at any given time.) I composted as much as I can but we live in an apartment and everything is overflowing right now. Most people are just dumping their food in the garbage. It's so awful. Well, next week I'll be back to normal, which means having to compost maybe one tiny thing here and there. I've really made an effort for several years now (inspired by Kristen, of course!) and know that this is just an unpleasant and expensive aberration.
Skirnir Hamilton
Saturday 21st of January 2012
Luckily I have never had a power outage for that long. I wonder how long foods in the freezer or fridge can last in a power outage. Doubt cheese would go bad in 36 hours... A chest freezer keeps cold for a long time without power, I am told. But hmmm, now I wonder... Not going to try it out though!
Cindy - His Frugal Wife
Saturday 21st of January 2012
Food waste is like throwing away my money! One of my goals for this year is to keep a better check on the pantry, larder, fridge and freezer in hopes to get this under control! I've just started blogging and you are giving me inspiration! Just love your blog!