Saving money and reducing food waste

"don’t forget the leftovers in your fridge"

There are many ways to save money, but few can turn out to be as beneficial as proper consideration of how you deal with food. We all have to eat, and one of biggest money dumps for anyone working away from home is the overpriced daily sandwich. The better option would always be a meal you bring from home, but many find that too time-consuming and complicated, too. Let’s consider a couple of things that might change your mind.

You can be more efficient with time and effort if your kitchen and storage are organised in a way that allows you to find and access everything easily. It’s essential to regularly check organise your food stores (keep like with like, and store them correctly) and clear out expired items (also a reminder of what is still there). Make sure you can see everything you have. There is no point in hanging on to tinned food or rarely used items if you cannot see them. Out of sight is out of mind, and when you start planning your next meal, the invisible items will likely not factor into your choice.

Checking your food stores regularly will also make you aware of which items are approaching their best-by date and should be consumed earlier than others. This in turn will inform your choices what to use soon in your food preparations. The “first in, first out” principle applies.

When it comes to planning your meals, you now already know what you have and which meals you may want to cook. At this step, don’t forget about leftovers in your fridge: try to include them in your decisions! Make a list of what is missing for the next couple of meals and strategically shop for those items only. Remember: impulse purchases usually come from not knowing exactly what you need. (Chocolate temptation is allowed in moderation, but that may just be me.)

If you plan ahead for several meals at a time, you’ll be also able to spread your items over multiple dishes – a bag of carrots can be part of multiple meals, and a bunch of parsley can be used in more than one dish.

This should already cut down on expenses, but since we are looking at cutting down on convenience food, maybe you should also look at batch cooking. If you can heat things in a microwave at work, why not bring a proper meal rather than a sandwich? You could easily cook larger quantities and then freeze individual portions to take to work with you at a later date. Frozen portions also mean that you won’t eat the same thing for several days, but you can choose from different options each day…

The same principles apply to meal planning and batch cooking: check what you have, find out what you need on top of that, shop strategically and cook once rather than many times. Besides cutting down on expenses, it will also save you time and effort. What’s not to like?