How to Save Up to $2275 a Year on Food!

It's time to take an honest look at your budget. Do you have left-over meals that no one eats? Do your condiments get scraped and then tossed? Your family isn't alone. "According to the NRDC, the average American family of four ends up tossing the equivalent of $2,275 of food into the trash annually."

Today we're talking about how to transform your leftovers meals, scraps, and condiments into something new so that your family will be more willing to eat up, rather than toss out, saving you money that you already spent. After all, who couldn't use an extra $2,275 a year?

These 33 tips will not only save you money by wasting less food but will also save you from cleaning scary fridge monsters that develop from unwanted food. Here are the leftover money saving transformations in no particular order:

• Have a meal plan, and plan a leftover night. Start meal planning based on what you have in your fridge, freezer, and pantry. It will help you use up foods that you already have. Your leftover night can just be everyone eating the leftovers of their choice, you "cheating" and transforming your leftovers into a different meal, or the ultimate trick, exchange leftovers once a week with friends and eat something new to your family without having to cook it! Everyone beats the fridge monster and saves money.


• Trade or sell your leftovers- Once a week, host a leftover trade with your friends. Have everyone put their leftovers on the counter.  Have everyone add their names and leftovers to a list with three columns. The 1st column lists who brought the leftover, the second column lists what they brought and describes their container and the third column is for someone to write their name with what leftover they took home. After everyone adds what they brought to the list, people write their name in the third column next to the leftover they want. Once everyone has added their name to what they want to take, everyone gets the food from the person who brought it and takes it home, along with any unwanted food they brought. 


• When you meal plan, plan purchases as several meals. An Easter/Christmas ham is part of the holiday meal, leftover ham slices are great for another meal and sandwiches, smaller cubes of ham are great for casseroles, and the bone is great for a ham and bean soup.  The idea applies for a whole chicken, turkey, etc.


• Cut moldy spots off produce and cheese and use them. Cheese is cultured through different varieties of mold, if you catch the food before the mold takes over, it will taste fine. If you cook the vegetables on high heat after cutting off a small piece that's moldy, there won't be a noticeable difference.


• Eat nearly whole bananas- Cut the stem and butt off beforehand.  (Please compost these. It smells better than throwing it away.) Add the entire fruit to any smoothie you would typically add a banana in, but keep the peel's bitterness in mind. Add a bit of honey or maple syrup to counteract the flavor of the peel if you need a bit more sweetness.


• Eat your beet greens. They taste similar to chard. Sautee for an awesome side dish or add in a stir-fry. When at the farmers market ask for scraps. People discard their beet greens and carrot tops (which they already paid for) all the time. If you're ever pinched for cash stock up on these items. Farmers will typically give them away for free.


• Use your carrot tops to make pesto.


• Chop chard stems up with the leaves and cook them together.


• Peel the outermost layer of broccoli stems, chop it finely and add it to a stir-fry.  Toss it with the florets. Shred them up and use them in coleslaw. Use broccoli stems to make pesto. They’re also fantastic in soups and stews.


• Make shrimp shells into shrimp shell stock. Use it to cook rice for other seafood dishes.


• If you make chickpeas from dry beans, reserve your chickpea water. It's a cheap substitute for egg whites in recipes.


• Use strawberry tops to make a strawberry syrup.  Add equal parts honey and water to a saucepan and heat until the honey is dissolved. Add in the strawberry tops and let them soak for at least an hour. To make strawberry infused water,  soak washed strawberry tops in water overnight. Add a little lemon juice before serving. You can also just blend whole strawberries with the tops on in smoothies, etc.


• Use peach leaves to make ice cream.


• Apples, potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, kiwis, and eggplants all can be eaten without peeling. Rub, don’t rinse kiwis, underwater to de-fuzz before eating.


• Prep or cook once and eat multiple times. If you're chopping peppers for stir-fry tonight and you'll need peppers for tomorrow fajitas, why not prepare the peppers together? double the batch? Cook once now and eat multiple times later.


• Carrot and celery sticks-Cut your carrots and celery into sticks and store them in water to keep them crisp.


• Store berries in a mason jar and don't wash them until right before you eat them. If they start to get squishy, move the jar to the freezer, blend them in a smoothie, or bake them in fruit breads/muffins.


• Store onions and potatoes in a cool dark place separately. Open baskets are a cute way to do this so that you can see what you have to work with.


• Send all leftovers to the freezer to prevent them from being forgotten and going bad. You can even put leftovers into reusable "TV dinner trays" for quick and easy meals that you can reheat for individuals. You can also use the "TV dinner method" for packing lunches at work. Freeze lemon/lime juice if they need to get used up.


• You can save scraps like meat bones, carrot peelings, onion skins, garlic skins, and tops of celery to make a stock. Just keep a mason jar in the freezer and add your scraps as you cook other meals. Once the jar is full, try to cook the stock right away. This way you don't end up with several jars of scraps taking up room in your freezer. A stock could also be canned so you have it on hand when you need it.


• If you use a juicer or make stock, the blended vegetable pulp is great in meatloaf/veggie loaf.


• Reuse leftovers in another way, such as using water from cooking pasta to make pasta sauce.


• Bake leftover food into something else that tastes better, raw kale becomes kale chips. Dried beans get cooked into high-protein brownies.


• Use leftover pickle juice in a marinade or substitute for vinegar to create your own salad dressings. See the next tip for a sweet dressing.


• Use 3 tablespoons of leftover pickle juice, apple cider vinegar, or kombucha that fermented too long and swish inside of a used up jam/jelly jar to get the last bits of jelly/jam and make it into a tasty salad dressing.


• Use a half-eaten apple to make a one-person apple crisp. Cut off the good parts of the apple and cut into slices/bites. Combine 1/2 tsp honey/maple syrup, a dash of cinnamon, 1 tsp whole wheat flour,  1 tsp oatmeal, and 1 tsp of butter or avocado oil. Top the apple slices/bites with the mixture and bake in a toaster oven/microwave.


• Save dried out bread and any breadcrumbs from slicing by storing in the freezer. You can use bread bags or freezer safe containers. You can either make french toast with slices of bread, or you can grind up the bread into breadcrumbs and toss in melted butter with seasoning.


• Use yellow-flowered broccoli in quiches to hide the color.


• Use leftover rice in a "leftover casserole", (see the next tip) or combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 oz of shredded cheese, and one egg as a crust for a quiche. Pat out and don't grease the dish. Bake at 425 F for 20 minutes.


• Mix leftovers into a casserole in the following portions: 1 cup protein (canned tuna, leftover cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, ground beef, cubed beef, cooked beans or lentils), 1 cup filler (thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, bite-sized vegetables, chopped hard-boiled eggs), 1-2 cups starch (thinly sliced potatoes, cooked pasta, cooked rice) 1 1/2 cups binder (white-sauce, sour cream, extra yogurt, can of soup, clabbered milk), and seasoning to taste. If it is too dry, add in 1/2 cup stock. Place the casserole in a greased pan and top with potato chips, cheese, or bread crumbs. Bake at 350 F for 30-45 minutes.


• Leftover Soup- put all similarly seasoned bits and pieces leftover from meals (sauces, bits of meat and vegetables, soups, etc. ) into a large container (5 lbs or so) and freeze. When the bucket is full, reheat as a "new" soup dish.


• Leftover Quiche- Using the leftover rice as a crust, put 1 cup of leftover vegetables and 2 oz of grated hard cheese/dried pieces of cheese on the bottom of the crust. In a bowl, combine 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, and season to taste. Cover the vegetables and cheese with egg mixture. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes or until solid.


• Make leftover turnovers by taking 1/4 cup of sourdough for each person, roll into a circle, fill each turnover 3/4 of the way with a leftover of choice, with the option to add cheese, pull up the edges and pinch them together. Bake in a 400 F oven for 15 minutes.


• Leftover Pot Pie- put all similarly seasoned bits and pieces leftover from meals (sauces, bits of meat and rinsed vegetables, soups, etc. ) into a large container (5 lbs or so) and freeze. When the bucket is full, heat up the leftovers. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spoon the heated leftovers with enough broth to cover the vegetables into a crust. Cover with a second crust and bake at 350 F until done.


• Green onions, leeks, celery, and lettuce are all super easy to regrow. Just place the base in water and change the water daily. Use the growing water to water another potted plant or your compost. You don’t even need to mess with soil to grow these foods at home.

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