Anyone live with a spouse/SO who came from a family who NEVER threw away food? I was fortunate, I grew up middle class and while we never wasted food, when something wasn’t going to get eaten, it got tossed.
However, I’ve run across people who came from poorer families who would make sure every crumb of food was eaten. These attitudes, I’ve found, are very hard to change.
I try to plan the cooking for the week based on what’s in the fridge and plan the shopping based on what’s on sale during the week. Still, I feel there is always going to be some waste. A loaf of bread that has gotten stale because fewer sandwiches were made. Condiments which were left over from the 4th of July cookout. Eggs which have sat around too long. Sometimes, the leftovers get tossed if no one has had a chance to eat them in a few days.
Still it is a small amount, and yes, I know food costs money.
Still, the proportion of thrown away food is a small part of the food budget. Also, food costs aren’t a huge percentage of all our weekly expenses.
But, I have to do it all in secret. I can’t imagine eating stale bread when the damn loaf only costs a dollar or so. And, no, I’m not going to risk food poisioning eating something that has been in the fridge too long.
So, am I rational or “throwing money down the sink?”
I have a theory that the “clean your plate”/“don’t waste food” mentality that so many older and poorer people have is at least partially responsible for so many people being overweight these days. People eat more than they really want to so they don’t waste the food.
I’m a tosser. (Oops, not that kind!) If something isn’t very fresh, it’s gone. If there’s a dab of canned corn left over, but not a serving’s worth, GONE! Meat scraps make my dog happy, not me. I am horrified by many people’s refrigerators I encounter… remnants of jars of things years past their expiration date, sour milk, science project leftovers, little dibs and dabs of stuff that will never get used…AAARGH! Disgusting!
It’s funny, I’m not a neatnik at all; I’m lazy as sin, but I’m fastidious when it comes to food ingredients and preparation.
But I don’t like to be wasteful, either, so I try to gauge things to keep it to a minimum, buy things on sale, etc.
I think you’re right. For instance, I’ll make a casserole for dinner and serve bread and veggies with it. I’ll take some, but not ALL, of the leftover for lunch the next day minus the bread/veggies and throw out the rest if it eaten in a couple of days.
My SO will take the entire leftover which is probably 1 and 1/2 services. Suffice to say, he’s gained wait.
I think you’re right. For instance, I’ll make a casserole for dinner and serve bread and veggies with it. I’ll take some, but not ALL, of the leftover for lunch the next day minus the bread/veggies and throw out the rest if it eaten in a couple of days.
My SO will take the entire leftover which is probably 1 and 1/2 servings. Suffice to say, he’s gained weight.
I love to throw stuff away. It makes me feel refreshed. Family members no that so they know the have to be fast if I pick something up that they can tell will get the negative judement. “Don’t throw that aw…” Ktttshhh. Too late.
Some people don’t throw stuff away out of guilt (the old kid’s in China argument). I just have to say that there is more than enough capacity to feed everyone in the world. The problem is just politics and distribution. There is no way that stale loaf of bread is going to get to those starving kids. Packing on extra pounds yourself doesn’t average it all out.
You probably could save some pennies if you used and reused every bit of food that you bought. However, that would cause some serious life satisfaction issues for me and wouldn’t be worth it. What would you be saving money for exactly if you have to eat shit all the time?
The way I heard it, it was kids starving in Europe. Many years later, the man I married happened to have been one of those kids. He said he didn’t feel any worse – or any better either – those nights when we didn’t eat our green beans.
I grew up in a "Don’t waste that food’ kind of family…and yes, my family is/was significantly overweight…to the point that I had surgery for weight loss (I had a lap-band put on my stomach and lost about 150 pounds). I do believe that the “Clean plate club” mentality has a lot to do with many people’s weight problems. Teaching people to eat based on cues other than physical hunger is common but obviously not a very good habit to have.
It used to be difficult for me to throw away food…but since my surgery, I have become fairly ruthless about tossing food I am not enthusiastic about. I realized pretty quickly it would be a far greater waste to sabotage my weight loss, than to save a few bucks on groceries by forcing myself to eat leftovers I didn’t really want anyway.
Tell me about it. It’s been three generations since anyone in our family was poor enough to go hungry, but the “waste not, want not” mentality is a hard one to kick. Take last night for example:
Me, glaring at the remaining two spoonfuls of spaghetti bolognaise on my SO’s plate: “Aren’t you going to eat that?”
SO: “I’m full”
Me: “You have to eat it! There’s not enough to freeze!”
SO: “So throw it away.”
Me: “Fine, I’ll eat it!”
(Takes a mouthful)
“But I’m sooooo full!”
At this point, Crusoe gets up, takes the plate from me, and scraps it into the bin.
Me: “Thank you.”
Having said that, and recognising my own insanity, it does have it’s good points. The other day, I made a Sunday roast for the family. On the Monday, I made risotto with the leftover chicken, courgettes and gravy. On Tuesday, we had Bubble and Squeak from the left over potatoes and brocolli. On Wednesday, I used the chicken carcass to make stock. Now you can’t tell me that’s not good housekeeping. My grandma’d be proud.
My grandparents and parents both lived through the time of rationing of WW2 and beyond. There was a sustained publicity campaign not to waste any food because it was so scarce . Examples here and here .
This has rubbed off on to me and I hate to waste any food and always try to find a way to use up any that is safe to eat.
I do feel guilty when I need to throw food away. I’ll offer it to the cats or throw it out in the yard if it seems likely that some other critter will eat it.
You’ve hit a nerve. My current guy friend drives me absolutely, completely, INSANE by refusing to throw away any food.
If there is even one morsel of food left it goes into the fridge to be eaten later. This would include: 1 broccoli fleurette, 1 bite-size piece of steak, a little bit white rice that wasn’t eaten with the Chinese takeout. He will even save those little packets of soy sauce if they’ve been opened and only half of the packet was used.
I savor the times when he’s away for a few days. That’s when I throw away everything that’s been collecting in the fridge.
Mrs. Mercotan will always insist that leftovers be put into the fridge. There, they are allowed to age for a few more days (or weeks), then they are thrown out.
My husband absolutely hates to throw any food away. He’ll nibble on it the first day after or we’ll eat it for leftovers, which is fine, but if he forgets about it then remembers it a week or two later, he’ll still suggest we eat it, which kind of grosses me out. I got seriously sick on week-old leftovers once, and, while the chances are slim that it would happen regularly, I’m still paranoid of a repeat, particularly since I’m pregnant and every illness seems to be magnified.
So, while I don’t really like wasting food, I’ll do it without qualm if it’s a) really unhealthy leftovers that I got from a restaurant and shouldn’t be eating anyway or b) something haven’t gotten around to eating for a week or two.
This post could have been written by CubHubby. He’s right, of course, no one is going to eat the tiny dab of whatever but I still can’t throw it out, just in case.
My solution these days is a big jar in the freezer. Dibs and dabs get dumped in there, and when it’s full, I make “leftover soup”. Soup, with leftovers tossed in. Quite tasty, and it makes me feel thrifty.