5 Ways To Reduce Your Food Waste And Save Money
Do your bit for the planet by aiming to cut down on your food waste every day.
We’re all guilty of overbuying or overordering when it comes to food. Let’s face it, sometimes we overestimate just how much we can eat or we decide to abandon our vegetables in the fridge and opt for a takeaway instead.
Reducing food waste is one of the top three ways to combat climate change and wasted food also means wasted money, which as a student you definitely want to avoid.
Making smarter choices when it comes to shopping and eating will not only help to save the planet but it will also save you money too. So, here are just some of the ways you can help to reduce your food waste.
1. Freeze your leftovers
If stuff is heading towards the use-by date, this doesn’t have to mean throwing it out. Whether you’re freezing bread or fruit and vegetables to cook with at a later date, most foods can be frozen and saved for later.
Fruit and vegetables tend to have short shelf lives, but by freezing them you’ll always have key ingredients for your meals in your freezer whenever you need them to cook with. You can also freeze your leftover meals too, to help you meal prep or to enjoy a tasty meal on an evening where you don’t feel like cooking.
2. Donate food
If your cupboards are full of cans and tins that you don’t use, you can donate them to a local food bank. Food banks rely on donations, and chances are there are people who will be grateful for the food that you have sitting around and not being used.
Donating food rather than throwing it out also means your money won’t be wasted by just tossing stuff out that you don’t want.
3. Try a HelloFresh subscription
If you struggle with overbuying, a HelloFresh subscription is a great way to reduce food waste. You’ll be sent a box weekly with pre-portioned ingredients to help you cook meals without wasting any food. It’s also super handy if you don’t have time to go to the supermarket or struggle with cooking as the recipes are easy to follow.
4. Compost your kitchen waste
Composting is super easy and allows you to produce your own fertilizer. All you have to do is keep a bucket with a lid in your kitchen and add any food waste, such as the peel or skin from vegetables and fruits, or leftovers from your plate after you’ve finished eating. You can use your compost for your garden, lawn or flowers. Also compositing in your house, rather than leaving food to decompose in a landfill means there won’t be any methane production which massively benefits the environment.
5. Be smarter with your shopping lists
A lot of the time food shopping is making a mental list of a few things you know you need, and winging it with the rest. While there’s nothing wrong with impulsively buying chocolate or cakes that you didn’t plan to- it can lead to increased food waste if you already have stuff at home that’s nearing the use-by date.
Try and check your cupboards and fridge before you do your shopping and keep track of the use-by dates to see what’s going off and needs to be eaten as a priority. This way you know you’ll need to cook with this within the next few days, rather than buying something new to eat which also has a short use-buy date. It can also help to note what you already have at home in the back of your cupboards and haven’t used yet before you set off, to prevent you from overbuying stuff you just don’t need.
