5 Ways to Reduce Food Waste that Will Save Money!

In today’s world everyone’s trying to be more frugal.  Who can blame them? Everything is expensive.  As for my family, we have been on the self-sustainable lifestyle journey for a lot longer than the hard times were in today. But even with us already being frugal and working towards self-sustaining. Inflation has made us look at what we waste to see what we can improve. This is just a few ways you can also reduce food waste in your home.

There are so many ways we as a society are wasteful. Simply because we’re not used to having to make the most out of what we have. There are so many things we throw away that we could save and reuse. The same things our great grandparents already did every day during the Great Depression. I think we should look back to what our great grandparents did to better help us in today’s world.

I by no means know all the tips and tricks to having a completely zero waste kitchen. But I do have many tips that I wanted to share with you today. Especially for people beginning on their self-sustaining journey.

These are tips for only your food waste. Which means you can practice these tips anywhere, whether you live on a farm or in an apartment. As long as you cook for yourself these tips apply to you.

 Every kitchen needs to try to be as zero waste as possible to save you the most money. There are so many items in our kitchen we normally throw away in today’s society that can be reused and turned into something else. So lets jump into it!

1. Never throw away food scraps.

I save all food scraps that would make good vegetable stock. I store them in a gallon Ziploc bag in my freezer. It may take some time to save enough to fill the gallon bag but that’s fine. I just keep it stored in its own place in my freezer. Then I make stock when it is full or I have chicken bones.

So what food goes into that freezer bag? All onion skins, carrot peelings and tops, broccoli stems, cabbage leaves and cores, garlic skins. I even save lemon and limes that I’ve squeezed the juice from. I do put them into their own bag and keep them separate. Because I use those sparingly, if you overcook a lemon in stock for too long it can turn bitter. It gives your stock a wonderful flavor but you don’t want to overcook it until it turns to mush. However when cooked just the right amount can give your stock or soup a delicious lemon flavor.

So pretty much everything can go into your stock. The only Items I stay away from for my stock are fruits and potatoes. I know some people put skins and pieces of white and sweet potatoes in their stock. But they can make your stocks starchy and thick. Again this is something you can use sparingly but I stay away from all together.

When my bag is full or I have cooked a whole chicken or turkey. I’ll either pull out my Crock-Pot or instant pot and make stock. Making stock is extremely easy and after you have finished you can either freeze or can it. There really is no reason for anyone to buy store bought chicken stock.

2.  Canning!

Now please if you’ve never canned before hear me out. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It is completely safe there’s lots of books, classes, videos, your mama and many other resources for you to learn how. Whether it’s water bathing or pressure canning, they are all tried and true tested ways to preserve your harvest (or leftovers).

Really canning is a good way to save yourself money and reduce waste. You can preserve and put up your extras for later.  For example If I made a pot of chili and I got carried away. Which I’m known to do, I can freeze my extra chili or I can also can it for later. This way I can keep a little more room in my freezer available for other items.

It doesn’t matter where you store your canned goods, as long as it is in a climate controlled environment. You can put them in your pantry or you can stick them under your bed whatever works for you. There are plenty of resources with specialty trained certified people to teach you how to can. So I’m not going to do that here. I know there’s lots of online courses you can take also most extension offices offer a canning class every year. So if you’re looking to learn, I would check your local Extension Office.  

3. Save the fruit!

There are so many things you can do with overripe fruit it’s almost endless. The main thing is to just not waste it. You put good money into buying that fruit to just let those bananas rot on your counter.

I do the same thing with my fruit that I do with my veggie scraps. If I let fruit get too ripe, especially berries. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries or strawberries. They’ve gotten a little soft and mushy and I don’t want to eat them. However they’re not molded. I want to clarify that. We don’t want to be cooking and eating moldy food.

Fruit that is overripe to the point you don’t really want to eat it as is. You could use the same concept as your food scraps and put them in a gallon bag in your freezer. No need to split up all the different kinds of berries as long as it is a berry of some sort. Keep them in your freezer until you’ve got a good amount. Then make a small batch of mixed berry Jam.

If it is a small batch and you still don’t feel comfortable canning.There are lots of freezer jam recipes. You could also make fruit compote or an infused vinegar. A raspberry vinegar would be delicious to make a homemade raspberry vinaigrette with.

This way you didn’t waste anything. You took something you normally would give to the chickens or compost. And turned it into another item in a different form. Which is the name of the game here, sometimes we have to be creative. That’s how our grannies did it and they made it through hard times just fine.

4. Eat your leftovers!

I have worked in the food service industry for about 12 years! The general public is something else but that’s off topic. It always blows me away when I offer someone a box for their leftovers. Then they turn me down and reply with I don’t eat leftovers. We have to get away from that mind set. Animals died to feed you and a farmer worked hard to raise it. Not to even mention how many people in the world would love to have your leftovers. Okay I will get off my soapbox now.

There are two different ways we eat our leftovers. First we have a leftover day once a week. On this day I don’t cook and we only eat leftovers from the refrigerator. They may not always go together but our bellies are full.

The next way I learned from Appalachia’s Homestead with Patera! If you don’t follow her on YouTube you really should, she is amazing. But anyway you have one large storage container in your freezer that you put your leftover giblets in. Then when it is full or you have stock you need to use. You put your frozen leftovers in a pot with some stock and make a soup! I know some of you will think that is gross but it really is amazing!

The last time I made it I had chicken and broccoli casserole, green beans, a few pieces of tomato, chili and chicken stock. Guess what, that was the best darn soup I ever had!

5. Save the grease!

I save the fat from everything. Especially bacon and sausage grease. My mamaw would have never thrown out grease. There are so much you can do with bacon grease. I keep my different greases in mason jars in the refrigerator until I need it. They can go rancid out on the counter if left for a long time.

I use them to cook veggies in, cabbage, potatoes, brussel sprouts, whatever I want to add that good bacon flavor to. You can make a delicious breakfast gravy or just simply grease your cast iron with it.

If eating your grease is just not up your ally. You also can save it until you have enough and make soap with it! Yes I said soap, the old fashion lard soap our grannies made was from lard. That’s fat from the hog they butchered, just switch the lard for bacon grease.

6. Bonus tip Feed to the Chickens

If you ever get busy or overwhelmed and you have chickens. You can always feed your waste to them. You wont be wasting anything then because they need to eat too.

Then they turn those leftovers into more fresh food for you by giving you eggs and meat! It is a win win in my book. Anything that cuts the feed bill down is a great idea.

Well there are many more ways we can reduce food waste. We have only scratched the service here but we don’t need to get overwhelmed. It takes time to change habits. If you start changing them slowly, before you know it your world will be completely different.

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy How to Make Chicken Stock and How to Make your Chickens Pay for Themselves.