Month four of our efforts to reduce food waste. We’ve been planning out meals and eating at home more – taking away from our single use plastic contribution.
It was my husband’s idea to change our grocery shopping habits – we’d tried to do fast food prohibition in the past and that didn’t work. So instead of spending money on convenience food, J suggested that we buy the junk food at the grocery store and eat at home. So far, it’s been a success and we spend time together shopping for groceries instead of doing the “I don’t know – what do you want to order?” dance.
J has also been cooking his own lunches, learning portion sizes and what exactly he needs to cook so he doesn’t overcook or overbuy. His learning in the past month has been a contributor to our increase in food waste as a significant portion of waste was due to lunch spoilage. RIP food.
In April, we (I feel) learned more than intended and we saw a bit of an increase in food waste. However, knowledge is power and tracking has helped us to talk about strategies. Being able to see data and talk about change is the best part of the spreadsheet I have for this project.
As a reminder, in March our food waste was 5.01 kg (11 lbs). As much as a HUGE Nutella jar!
In April, our food waste was 5.165 kg (11 lbs). Since I’ve already used the fun Nutella reference, our food waste could also be equated to a cat.
I feel we can do a smidgen better. I think we can cut this down by 10% in May. How?
- Eating convenience food a bit less. We’re not great with total restriction.
- Meal planning more for portion sizes and not guessing what we’re preparing.
