I'm a complete dim-wit about leftovers and food-keeping

[Enraha]

I need to do a bit more batch-cooking and generally be a bit more frugal, but don't have much freezer-space.

Can I have some sensible pragmatic guidelines on how long things can be kept in fridge for?

e.g.

1. A cooked veg-based dish (e.g. mashed potato)
2. A cooked meat-based dish - e.g. bolognese sauce
3. Left-over pasta without sauce
4. Chilled soup
5. Half a tin of beans / chopped tomato etc
6. An uncooked meat pack (e.g. 1/2 pack of chicken breasts)

The rice rule is no more than 24 hours, I think. I know you have to take things out of cans if you are saving bits, but otherwise I'm a bit clueless and don't want to poison people

lovefoodhatewaste

I'm the same thanks for the link jeddy I have posted it on my other thread about trying to save money hope you don't mind.

I make soup on a sunday and I keep it in the fridge for lucnhes all week (ie til friday) been doing this for years andnver had a problem, even if the soup had meat in eg bacon.

Mashed potato- 2 days? Im really jjust guessing, i have no idea what would happen if left longer. Pasta i would think a few days? although pasta is so quick to cook would it be worth cooking extra to heat it up again as i find it goes rubbery?

Meat dish- i would say eat it the next day.

Beans (remove from the tin and put in bowl as Im sure the tin can react with it?others will know better!) but will keep 2 days i think. chopped tomato/onion- couple of days but will depend on their ripeness when used originally, IYSWIM.

Most of these are just my own habits, other people may well feel differently.

Some good tips on that site jeddy, but I couldn't find the 'rules' I'm looking for (unless you can point me in the right direction), so happy to listen to more views

maybe food standards agency or this is more helpful?

In terms of food safety, I would reckon up to a week for vegetable things and maybe 4-5 days for meat, though it depends crucially on whether I'm going to reheat it again, in which case I'm not so worried, or not, in which case I wouldn't take any chances.
However, there's the taste issue too. IMO - mashed potato generally doesn't taste nice after more than a day (though a very cheesey mashed potato pie might be all right, and in shepherd's pie the meat flavour would probably disguise the stale mashed potato). Pasta on its own is dry after more than a day, though if you drenched it in oil you might get away with a few days.
Uncooked meat - use your eyes and your nose, though be aware that often food only starts to smell once it comes from room temperature, so you need to take it out of the fridge a while before sniffing!

We keep food until it grows things or looks/tastes/smells funny

LOL yes, fur is a useful clue that food is not good to eat.

Although DD is almost 11, a bit different I guess if you have littlies

the general rule in our house for left-overs seems to be if it's been in the fridge more than a week, it's chucked

though pasta that's been hanging about in the fridge a while isn't very nice really

stuff in tins-better to empty out into a dish then should be ok for a few days at least

I will eat stuff that's past it's sell-by date if it looks and smells ok eg humus, pesto, cheese, milk etc

however uncooked meat i would go by the sell-by/best-by date (not that we buy much meat as I don't eat it)

prawns/fish-i tend to chuck in the freezer if they're not going to be eaten within a day or 2