All You Grocery Challenge: Day 2

Since I didn’t even leave the house today, I didn’t spend anything on groceries. So instead of updating you on what I bought and how much I paid, I thought we could brainstorm a list of ways to keep our grocery budgets as low as possible… while still eating well.

My idea for today is to not waste food. I’m FAMOUS for over-planning the amount of food that we’ll need. We stash leftovers in the fridge and then sometimes forget about them. We’ve made a conscious effort to remember what’s in the fridge and eat it, but there are still times when science projects are born on the bottom shelf. For example, last week we grilled enough chicken for two meals….. or so I thought. We actually made enough for three meals. I had great plans for the last two pieces of chicken! Until I forgot about them. OOPS! I found myself scooping them into the trash can last night.

Fast forward to tonight. If you saw my menu plan for this week (HERE), you saw that last night we were grilling chicken and pineapple kabobs (pictures HERE). We were also grilling enough chicken for another meal. The grill was already hot, so we figured we’d make the most of it! I decided to move Wednesday night’s Grilled Chicken Parmesan to tonight instead. That way the chicken won’t accidentally be forgotten if something throws off the plan for tomorrow night. The leftovers have been used…. nothing wasted this time.

Another way we’ve put leftovers to good use is eating them for lunch. I quit buying lunchmeat on a regular basis, and we’re eating other things (probably healthier things?) for lunch. Sometimes it’s just peanut butter and jelly or tuna salad, and other times it’s leftovers. This keeps us from wasting them, and it takes care of the lunch menu.

Ironically, as I was thinking about this topic today, Money Saving Mom linked to a post entitled 20 Tips to Waste Less Food over at Small Notebook. She offers some great tips, so I recommend heading over to read it.

Do you have creative ways that you keep from wasting food? I’d love to hear them! Just click the Comments link below to share.

Today’s Grocery Challenge Spending: $0
Monthly Grocery Challenge Spending To-Date: $4.95