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Post by dtesposito on Oct 30, 2015 12:41:07 GMT -5
On this thread, I’m going to record my efforts to try to get my pantry and fridge under control.
If anyone wants to join in, either to clean out a pantry/fridge, or to plan their menus more efficiently so there’s less waste, PLEASE hop on board!
I’ve had pantry challenges for myself before, planning to empty out the “extras” from my food storage areas so they’re not stuffed full all the time. I’ve been moderately successful in emptying food out, but I end up filling them up again—so that I’m realizing that the problem isn’t a one-time issue, but the way I’m perceiving how much food I need to have on hand, and the way I’m planning (or more accurately, NOT planning) my meals so that the food sits around for too long.
I have a bad habit of being in the store, seeing something that looks really good, then when I get it home I no longer want it. Or, I eat one serving and the rest of it sits in the fridge until it spoils—not that I forget it’s in there, but because I no longer have a taste for it.
My goal for this thread is to try to get to a point where I do some shopping for food, eat it ALL up, then go shopping for more. Keeping a few extra items for emergencies, but not weeks worth of extra food on hand. Sounds easy, but I’ve been unable to do that.
I would like my pantry to look neater, to have more space, to waste less food (which translates into money) and as a side issue, to be more consistent with eating nutritious food every day—instead of having one super-nutritious day followed by one that is not. This requires more planning and more thought put into menus. I live alone, so have a very casual attitude towards when and how I eat. That’s fine, I can still do that, but the nutrition aspect should probably get a little more attention. Not to mention that my financial situation does not allow me to routinely spend money on food and then throw it away when it spoils.
If anyone else is having the same issues, or any pantry/fridge issues you want to work on, please join me.
Diane
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Post by iprocrastinate on Oct 30, 2015 13:18:12 GMT -5
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Post by aa on Oct 30, 2015 13:23:47 GMT -5
We had a pantry drive this week at work for our campus food pantry. I was just sure I had so much I could donate. I was so disappointed when I started going through stuff and found so many expired items. I didn't clean out everything, but I did get a box for the drive and a box for the trash . With me and leftovers, I can normally eat what I made the night before for lunch the next day, but that's it. I don't want it for another dinner and I basically forget about it for lunch if I don't eat it the very next day.
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Post by Arid on Oct 30, 2015 13:25:11 GMT -5
Me, too!! Me, too!!
For the past two weeks or so, I've *really* curtailed my grocery shopping.
I'm making a concerted effort to use through some of the "stash" that I have in my freezers. (Yes; that "freezers"--plural!!)
In that relatively short amount of time, I've pretty much emptied out one complete shelf in the big upright freezer.
Arid
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Post by dtesposito on Oct 30, 2015 14:18:49 GMT -5
Wow! I guess I'm not the only one!
The thing about sales is, I don't want to feel that I can't stock up when there's a good sale on something I use a lot of. The last time I was trying to clean my pantry out I did think about the "sale buying", and I decided I could still buy but it had to be during the couple of times a year that it was a really exceptional sale. Stuff goes on sale all the time, but if you do the shopping for the household you probably know that once in a while there's the sale that pretty much cuts the price in half, or almost. But that doesn't happen very often, and I don't want to feel compelled to buy every time the price goes down a few cents.
I remember years ago, when coupons and rebate offers were very plentiful--back then, I DID buy too much, and I remember throwing stuff away that I didn't use. I learned then that just because there's a coupon or rebate it doesn't make sense to buy a lot. But I also can't afford to always pay full price, so for the dozen or so items that I use often, I still want to stock up--but reasonably. So every time I shop I have to remember my goals, instead of always reacting to the sale prices.
Arid--you have TWO freezers? How large is your family? Do you stock them up with things on sale? Or just feel like you have to have a large emergency supply of food?
I don't think leftover food tastes bad (well, unless it sits in the fridge for 2 weeks...), and I'm pretty non-adventurous when it comes to food--I have my favorites and I'm happy with them. So I'm not sure exactly what's happening with not eating up what I buy. I tried putting a small dry-erase board on my fridge with a reminder of leftovers that were in there, and that worked for about 1-2 weeks. Then I stopped looking at it.
And, I have a basket system for my fridge--I use plastic storage baskets so that things don't get pushed to the back behind other things where I can't see them. So I'm not sure how to keep track of what I have in there so that I'm inspired to eat stuff up. I also know that I can't do elaborate inventory systems on food--I would never keep up with adding and subtracting what I was using--so I'm not even going to try that. I actually like the dry erase system but it's like any other system--I have to make the effort to USE it for it to work. I'll have to think about this.
I think for now, I'll start out with a goal that my PM meal be something out of my pantry or freezer. That will use up the extras--but the big challenge will be when I shop, maybe I need to make a list of some of the things I have already, and actually attach it to my shopping list--then when I'm in the store if I see something that looks good, I'll make myself look at the list of what I have at home and hopefully that'll show me that I don't need more food.
This will be interesting--I have no idea how it'll go, but I'm just fed up (ha ha) with my pantry situation and I want it to be different.
Thanks for joining in you guys, I hope that we have some success making some changes.
Diane
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Post by papermoon on Oct 30, 2015 17:47:44 GMT -5
I go through bouts of food waste when I'm stressed and binge-eating junk food instead of the good stuff in the fridge. It doesn't matter if I stock up on good stuff... in times of extreme stress I head straight for the junk. It's a repeat problem, and I've found that I have to get a grip on the the stress-eating before I can regain control of my fridge. Right now (and for the past 5 weeks), I'm challenging myself to eat more vegetables, adding a new one each week. I'm up to 5 per day, and that has helped keep me on track with a functional fridge. I've also had some extreme stresses during this time, and turned to junk for comfort, but nonetheless I'm eating my veggies and my fridge is in good order.
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Post by italianlady on Oct 30, 2015 20:00:36 GMT -5
I'm confused. I thought it was a good thing to have a good stock of canned and box pantry food. You could miss work and not have money for groceries for a week or two or it could snow and the stores would be closed or lots of reasons you might be stuck without being able to buy any. I always try and keep a months worth around.
I wouldn't worry about the expire dates for canned and box things unless they have meat in it. As long as its not opened it will be good for months after. Plus it takes years for most of that to even get to those dates.
I usually grocery shop once a month and get everything I need but goo back for perishables like milk and vegetables and cheese. I keep the meat in the freezer.
What are you buying that you aren't using and why not just use it up instead of throwing it out of giving it away?
I buy almost the same things every month but make varied menus from them. I mainly live off staples. I can give you a list of things to keep in hand so you can make almost whatever you want from it. Most of it doesn't go bad either. If you want me to post that let me know. It's really helpful. I feed my big family on about 400 a month and we eat good too, not cheap tasting things.
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Post by imamess on Oct 30, 2015 20:39:05 GMT -5
Italianlady, I keep a lot of staples around too. I would run out of milk and bread, but I keep some powdered milk in the pantry and could make bread, I'm just too ***.
I would really like you to post your list and maybe some of the things you make from them. It might give me some new ideas, since I'm in a rut.
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Post by aa on Oct 30, 2015 21:16:59 GMT -5
I know with me personally - if I buy something and don't use it rather quickly, I probably won't ever end up using it. And our campus pantry won't take expired food. There were some items like canned chicken that I might have used up, but it was a requested item for the drive, so better to donate it now than chance it going to waste.
Sometimes I buy foods thinking I'll make something specific and I just never get around to doing it and then forget about it.
We're really guilty about getting into a routine of eating the same thing over and over again, so we stock up, and then we just get tired of it and don't want to eat it again for a long time.
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Post by shellsncheese on Oct 30, 2015 21:35:19 GMT -5
Hi everyone!
I struggle with this too! I've been working on zero fridge waste and I want to focus on eating what is in the pantry. I cleaned out my pantry this past week and had food that I know I brought with me when I moved in 4 years ago! Yikes!
I have a few items that I have amassed too much of (lentils and pistachios).
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2015 21:58:04 GMT -5
Yes my fridge gets full of stuff I end up throwing out. I need to learn how to shop appropriately too.
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Post by dtesposito on Oct 30, 2015 22:23:47 GMT -5
I'm confused. I thought it was a good thing to have a good stock of canned and box pantry food. Of course it's good to have a stock of food if you have room for it and you use it up in a timely manner! You're doing it the right way. I'm talking about buying the food and not using it. Why? Who knows? That's the point of this thread! Yeah, I've heard that food pantries don't take expired food, even if it's just past the date--I don't know if that's all of them, but some won't take it. Then there's the "best by..." date, which is just a suggestion, not an expiration. I'll eat expired food, I know it's actually good beyond the date--but if I planned more appropriately, I wouldn't have to! Tonight was a success, I took a can of lentil soup from my pantry, steamed a butternut squash that's been sitting on my DR table for over a week, and put some steamed squash chunks and a little shredded cheese into half of the soup. Wow, it was delicious! And healthy, if you don't count the cheese! There's enough for one more serving, plus a little extra squash which I hope to put into a crock pot dish over the weekend. Diane
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Post by shellsncheese on Oct 30, 2015 22:43:00 GMT -5
Great work Diane!
There are two things I want to do to focus on my pantry/fridge issues.
1. Plan at least one meal a week around something that is in my pantry.
2. Only buy groceries for three days at a time. Living alone, one of the things I run into is buying too much fresh food. Then I end up eating at work or at a relative's (which happens frequently these days) and I don't use up all the food. Three days sounds really short, but I know three days is really five. I've been doing well at making my lunch at home and taking it into work more frequently.
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Post by dtesposito on Oct 30, 2015 23:09:41 GMT -5
Only buy groceries for three days at a time.You know, this is the type of thing I'm thinking about (like the old movies of people in France going to the store every morning with their string bags to buy that day's food), but since I don't have a car and don't have a reasonably priced grocery store near me, I keep thinking it's impossible. So I have to compromise about this in some way--maybe make sure I get to the far away grocery store once a week, no matter what, but only buy a week's worth of food. The other thing I'm thinking is that--instead of buying cheaper food and wasting it, I can go to the more expensive store more often, buy less each time, and actually EAT the food--the price would be the same! I do still want to have an emergency stock of food, but a reasonable one. After all, I live in a city, there are convenience type stores a couple of blocks away--even if we get a massive snowfall I'm certainly not going to starve to death! As long as I always have a huge supply of cat food and litter (and bird food, of course) I'll be okay. I think having less food in the house is something I should practice being comfortable with. And here I thought the only thing I was still hoarding was books! Diane
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Post by shellsncheese on Oct 30, 2015 23:14:53 GMT -5
I'm lucky enough to have multiple food stores near me and a car, so I don't have any excuse. A couple of more ideas I've been thinking about. I recently got an open wire cart for my kitchen, if I pull food out I may be more likely to use it. I also have a white board on my fridge. I put it there with the intent of noting what is in the fridge that I need to eat before it goes bad. Now I just need to put it into practice.
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