How sustainable living can help you save money and reduce food waste

Many people today are concerned about both the rising cost of groceries and their environmental footprint. However, food waste remains a major problem within our society — and Canadians produce about 50 million tonnes of food waste per year.

There are many steps that you can take to dramatically reduce the amount of food waste you produce and support greater sustainability. Let’s review several strategies to help decrease your environmental footprint and save money on groceries in celebration of Earth Day.

 Explore versatile cooking

Versatile cooking can be a great tool to reduce food waste. It involves having several recipes that can work with many different combinations of ingredients to use up the odds and ends left in your fridge. Common versatile recipes include soups, stir fries, curries, or pot pies that can be made using whatever ingredients you have on hand.

Reduce perishable items

Cutting down your fridge inventory can help greatly reduce your food waste. If you find yourself throwing out a lot of food that has gone bad before you could eat it, stop buying perishable groceries until everything has been used. The next step is to make your weekly goal “Empty Fridge Friday” (or whichever day of the week you do your grocery shopping.) If it’s Friday and your fridge isn’t empty of perishables, keep reducing the amount of fresh good you buy each week until it is.

Start meal prepping

Another method to start reducing your food waste is through bulk weekend meal prep. While the prospect of producing an entire week’s worth of food can seem intimidating, you can work your way up to it gradually by preparing meals for a set number of days. For example, some people prep for the entire month and freeze everything, while others only prep as far as Tuesday. Both cases help save money, reduce food waste, and decrease stress.

Embrace new food shopping habits

Two easy shopping habits can help reduce food waste at the grocery store level immensely. Most grocery stores throw out or mark down food that is close to the expiry date, as well as products that are not visually perfect. If you have decided to try weekend meal prepping or another structure system, you can buy the marked-down products that expire in a week as you know that you will eat them before the time is up.

The second strategy involves keeping an eye out for food products that are not visually pleasing — such as carrots with two legs, overly large or small potatoes, and package products with damage like a torn or crooked label. These types of products end up in the landfill very quickly despite still being edible — and purchasing these products can help cut down on food waste.

Divert unsellable items from the landfill

Many cities now have thriving communities of people committed to diverting unsellable food items from the landfill. This involves contacting factories and warehouses to ask if they can provide you with any food that has been marked from the landfill, which can be a truly shocking amount.

These food products are often still edible, and end up marked for the landfill for reasons including:

• Incorrect labelling — It is often less expensive for companies to throw out the products instead of trying to correct the labelling.
• Expiry date — Stores typically want quite a bit of leeway on expiry dates, since produces can sit on grocery store shelves for some time before being sold. If the expiry date is too close, stores often will not accept the product.
• Wrong quantity — The store may only want full flats of the product but one container on a flat broke.
• No market — The product has been discontinued.
• Superficial damage — The vegetables may not look visually perfect, or the box has been dented.

There can be any number of other reasons why food may be marked for the landfill. While this may be too extreme step for most people, it can be rewarding if you would like to explore a new way to reduce food waste.

Take the next steps

These simple steps can help you reduce food waste and save money — no matter whether you decide to explore versatile recipes or cut down on the perishable items in your fridge. This helps benefit both the environment and your bank account.

If you are struggling with debt and financial stress, contact a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (LIT). LITs can help you explore all your available debt relief options so that you can choose the solution that works best for your unique situation. Together, we can help you achieve a debt-free future.