So sick of throwing food out

[bendmeoverbackwards]

Please tell me I'm not alone.

Yet again I am having to throw out fresh fruit and mouldy bread.

I do try and meal plan and shop for the week but sometimes unexpected things happen and we eat out, or one of my dds goes out with a friend and isn't around to eat the fruit etc.

I feel so guilty at the waste.

Got half used jars of jams, sauces etc in the back of the fridge. I want to do a big fridge clear out and then start again.

Any tips please?

I buy for one less day than I need

I keep a few tins and veg in freezer in case that plan goes wrong

Tupperware and freezer space!

We are a household of two, so I buy loaves of bread, cut them in half, wrap and freeze. If there is anything left over from a meal, it goes in the freezer in some way.
Milk freezes well in ice cube trays, one cube is perfect for a cup of coffee. Veggies are normally made into soup or pasta sauce and frozen. Or blanch green beans or broccoli & freeze the florets. I have lots of lunch-for-one sized tubs, and because I wfh, having lunch ready to put in the microwave is great.

I do freeze bread if I end up buying too much. It's the prepared fruit that doesn't keep too long and soft fruit such as strawberries etc. I did actually make a strawberry milkshake with berries that had gone a bit soft, it worked quite well. It's just hard work keeping up with it all!

Freeze the bread, freeze the fruit when it starts to look squishy for smoothies etc. Jam lasts forever. Look at a meal plan to use up some sauces, most of those last forever too. Ignore dates. Don't eat anything visibly mouldy or bad smelling, accept some losses in that department.

We don't buy prepared soft fruit/veg/salad... you always end up throwing stuff away.

Apples last a while, carrots and broccoli get eaten most veg wise here and last in the fridge etc.

Soft fruit can be cooked into a compote which will keep in the fridge for a good four or five days, much longer than if left as berries.

Prepared fruit and soft fruit like strawberries/ raspberries doesn’t keep well any way, presumably you are only buying enough for two or three days at a time?

You can freeze berries :)

Get a ddog (or 4 ).. Never leftovers here!!

@bendmeoverbackwards

I do freeze bread if I end up buying too much. It's the prepared fruit that doesn't keep too long and soft fruit such as strawberries etc. I did actually make a strawberry milkshake with berries that had gone a bit soft, it worked quite well. It's just hard work keeping up with it all!

Freeze fruit.

Worse case you can throw them in sparkling water for a nice refreshing drink (or shhh even alcohol). Otherwise use with puff pastry from frozen. Easy peasy shove on a baking tray for a few mins.

Another one here who puts some bread in the freezer.
I also tell DH not to buy milk / bread if I can see a glut coming: he buys these staples as a matter of course and seems a bit blind to what's likely to be eaten. Overall if you have are habitually having to throw away you need to buy less and observe / check more.

My way we do run out but have st in the freezer or long life wraps or part baked rolls to fill the gap iyswim.
With berries we buy them to eat them straightaway. Longer lasting oranges or apples are bought to keep. Tinned fruit and frozen berries for any gaps.

I also often write a post it note with a list of what's to eat now and leave it in the kitchen!

Bread goes mouldy we're lucky if a loaf lasts a day in our house.

Buy less fresh fruit. If you like berries etc buy frozen.

I don't bulk buy bread, we have a corner shop on the corner of our street so never go without.

I only buy strawberries on the day I will use them. I do end up throwing bread away. I try quite hard not to and we've gone from being a 5 person household to a 3 person household, so it may get worse before it gets better.

I do the same as a pp and always plan for one less meal than the number of days I'm shopping for. If we do need a meal for that day then we just have a freezer meal (chicken nuggets/pizza/ leftovers etc).

I don't meal plan rigidly because we have fluctuating numbers. So there will be a pasta day or leftovers and salad day in there somewhere.

I do meal plan but life throws you cock-ups so there's always some waste. Bread heels, that last chilli from a pack of three that's gone crinkly, the odd leek or two, a forgotten bag of herbs or salad. That kind of thing.

Our city has a food waste recycling scheme, it goes to make electricity. (They have a thing called an anaerobic digester, which I'm sure is very marvellous but what it actually does is a mystery to me.) So everything I can't use goes into the food caddy, and at least it's doing something useful even.

We buy very little pre-prepared and tend to buy fruit when it’s reduced and freeze a lot (berries etc) or buy frozen. Strict meal planning if we’re feeling skint or I’m really worked up on waste. We often share stuff with friends and neighbours too (ie “we’ve got too much ham that’s been frozen, anyone want some”)

I am not sure what you mean by “prepared fruit” . Do you mean chopped up fruit/fruit salad? If you aren’t eating it then stop buying it, it is far more expensive than apples, pears , bananas so just buy those and freeze /stew those if they are getting a bit manky. As others have said frozen berries are great for smoothies and don’t involve waste.

I freeze bread, and I use odd crusts to make into breadcrumbs or cut into cubes to fry up as croutons for soup/salads. I usually have a bag of both in the freezer.

Any left over vegetables are made into soup and eaten or frozen.

I never fully got on top of bread wastage till I started baking my own. I keep part baked bread in for the days I can't manage it. Otherwise flour can become bread in 1.5 hours or soda bread in half an hour and it all gets eaten because it's much nicer than shop bought.

Berries are devoured in our house or you can blend with a little icing sugar to make ice cream sauce/freeze into cubes/dilute with milk to make milkshake.

I only meal plan for five days. I do enough on one or two of those days to freeze the leftovers, so if we need stuff for the remaining two days we've got stuff in freezer, or if we eat out/order in/just fancy pizza or something else, we can just have the freezer stuff another time/for lunch, etc.

We buy smaller loaves and freeze too. And I buy a lot of frozen prepared veg: chopped onion, garlic, etc. It saves so much time and I don't have gone-off veg sitting in fridge. I buy some stuff fresh for eating (cucumber and carrots, for example) but stuff for cooking, if I can buy it prepared and just get it out of freezer, I'll do it!

@viques yes things like chopped up pineapple, melon, mango etc. We're not big eaters of apples and pears etc. It's hard to judge it, sometimes my dds will eat all the prepared fruit straight away, other times it sits in the fridge. I don't mind too much about the cost if it gets eaten!

Partly to reduce food wastage, and partly for ease due to disability i have one drawer of my freezer solely for preprepared veg & herbs. And another for fruit.
I eat the fruit with yogurt, or on cereals etc.

Bread is always frozen immediately and only a day or two taken out at a time.

Whole pineapple etc keeps better, take a slice off when needed

Would you be open to a composter? I don’t have one myself but I think they’re a great idea

So this - date 5th Sep. Can’t use it till Wed night (8th). Says it can’t be frozen. Would you freeze it or will it be ok on Wednesday?

If you freeze it it won't be good in a stir fry. But maybe useable in a soup?