What do you always end up throwing away in your house?

[LondonStone]

In our household we can’t seem to get through a packet of raspberries or beansprouts without them going off.

Fancied some raspberries this morning and half of them are covered in furry mould and the other half are just brown mush. They were only bought on Friday night!

I’ve realised we quite often throw raspberries away so I think I probably won’t bother in future unless it’s for something specific.

@shirley thank you! I do that with mushrooms (well I line the tub) but never thought of doing it with bagged lettuce.

Quite honestly, hardly anything. I decided to go on a bit of a waste-free mission some time ago and I’m a lot better at not wasting these days. I make a lot of soup and stews/sauces with odds and ends in.

If anything, I most often have to chuck out the end of a half piece of cucumber.

@LondonStone

In our household we can’t seem to get through a packet of raspberries or beansprouts without them going off.

Fancied some raspberries this morning and half of them are covered in furry mould and the other half are just brown mush. They were only bought on Friday night!

I’ve realised we quite often throw raspberries away so I think I probably won’t bother in future unless it’s for something specific.

Frozen ones are quite nice and might help!

Bread . We use hardly any in this house . 2 or 3 slices a week and it’s the one thing That’s always out of date when I fancy a piece .

Now we have guinea pigs we don't get chance to waste much fresh veg or fruit these days.

People who have soft fruit issues - depending on what you use it for, frozen may be a good shout. If you use soft fruit in baking, or smoothies, or chucked into porridge, it really doesn't make any difference and the frozen stuff is way cheaper than fresh, plus will never go off. Okay frozen raspberries or strawberries can't substitute in for a bowl of fresh fruit salad or strawberries on top of a Victoria sponge but they're very handy to have otherwise!

Also if you chuck out bananas, peel them and whack them in a bag in the freezer then they're ready to use for smoothies or baking or banana 'ice cream'.

I find spinach bags are too big even though I cook it I've had to buy a load of curry ingredients this week to finish off the spinach from last week. I've been having spinach omelette, spinach in sandwiches, nobody else likes it so it's only me! I buy it frozen sometimes to avoid this but I do like the fresh stuff, I just wish they sold it in smaller portions. The salad version doesn't seem to exist where I live sadly.

Beansprouts need to be sold in smaller bags. I can't imagine anyone gets through a whole bag of them!

I’ve switched to frozen spinach - no good in salad, but for anything cooked it works well. It comes nicely rinsed (no gritty bits, which is more than I manage with fresh) and in little frozen blocks so you can easily take as much as you need and leave the rest frozen for another time.

Where do I start.
Bread
Veg
Fruit
Far far too much!raspberries are the first thing to be eaten we go through 5 punnets a week. Our 3yr old and 1 Yr old devours them

Cucumber

Charging cables every time I get a new Apple product, because they change the ends each time.

I tend to put a lot of my shopping in the freezer if I'm not going to use them in the next few days. Raspberries and blueberries as mentioned above - defrost very quickly. Spinach can be frozen as well and then use the quantity you need. Shop bought frozen spinach is too watery.

Chilli peppers in the freezer and herbs too. Milk - if I have too much - then breakfast is pancakes for a few days. But yes I still find i waste uncooked food.

Blueberries and raspberries are the worst fruit wise and we can never finish a pack.

Mushrooms too, they just don't last long anymore I find!

@Letsallscreamatthesistene buy frozen spinach. No waste, no prep! use as much or as little as you need.

Hummus, honestly, buy it every week and for some reason completely forget about it.

Veg goes to the bunny so we don't Chuck that.

I never used to but with covid and the restriction to one supermarket delivery and being unable to pop to the shop 3-4 times a week because DC was home all the time I am throwing food out a lot.

walk to the supermarket and back was part of my weekly exercise. Made sense to do that than go for a separate walks iyswim and I’ve really missed being able to do that and subsequently have been pretty wasteful with food when I don’t intend to.

Mostly it’s fruit and fresh vegetables, occasionally meat as with delivery I’m not able to select the use by date I get what I’m given.

Quite proud I get through 3 bags of spinach a week and don’t throw any out 💪🏼

For those that eat spinach putting a pile on a bowl before putting veg soup or broth over the top is a great way to use it up. I always add spinach to my chicken and vegetable broth for lunch.

Re the spinach, why not freeze it? That's what we do a the bags are so big.
In our house it's the ends of loafs of bread, no one wants the end crusts so the birds get them

Also freeze bread after a few days of it being open, that way it's fine for toast

I’ve swapped most of my fruit and veg to frozen now to stop wastage. There’s only the two of us and normal supermarket packets are too big. Frozen onions, pepper, stewing veg, berries etc.

Potatoes and other root veg last weeks if stored correctly so seem to be okay there.

We also freeze most bread products like crumpets, pancakes etc.

I wish they sold natural yoghurt and dips in smaller containers, we rarely finish a whole carton and that’s what we most regularly now chuck out.

Wash the fuck out of that bagged salad stuff AND beansprouts - Microbiology student here who’s just done half a module on food poisoning

Cream, sour cream and creme fraiche. I usually only need a small quantity- a tablespoon or so- to make a sauce creamy. And then don’t use the rest because I’m trying not to eat too much high fat stuff. Would love it if you could buy it in much smaller quantities.

Nothing! I meal plan so our last meal before another shop is a veggie soup, using up any odd vegetables left. We use punnets of raspberries and blueberries over 2 days....
I freeze very little.

Meal planning and freezing/buying frozen is the answer people.

So much money and time is wasted otherwise.

Chocolate, crisps and wine 😝