We spend over two thousand dollars a month on food-- mostly groceries (typically around $500/week for groceries-- more if we are going to Costco to stock up on things). And then! Nights out, quick dinners, takeout-- all of the things. So closer to 3k (and over?)
Soooo, when we are taking a look at our budget and trying to cut the fat, this is, of course, the first/ most obvious category to consider.
This month, I am going to keep doing the 2 no-spend days a week, and I am also going to tackle the problem of food waste. I think (based on nothing but casual observation and a hunch) that we are wasting quite a bit of fresh food, and if we ate it, we'd all be healthier.
Frist, Ben and I cleaned out the two giant (and really annoyingly deep-- I think the shape of our kitchen cabinets really contributes to food waste) cabinets where all of our meal ingredients and snacks live. We only got rid of expired things and stale things, and the the difference is startling. We can SEE what we HAVE, which is radical for us.
Also, say hello to the winning expired products of shame (beating corn bread mix from 2021 and green beans from the start of the panny): RAMEN FROM 2018
Next, I have started encouraging everyone (including myself) to open the fridge first when they are looking for a snack, not the cupboard.
Third, I have started cutting up veggies in small amounts every other day or so (I used to wash and chop and prep them all when I put away groceries as part of weird pandemic hygiene theater), and then I have them on hand to offer as a pre-dinner snack or eat myself when I need something crunchy.
Fourth, I am saving and re-serving fruit the kids don't eat. Dorothy, for example, ate like a third of an apple at breakfast, and I knew she had another apple in her lunch (and giant off-season organic honey crisps are like $2 a pop). I sliced up her breakfast apple and put it in a bag and returned her lunch apple to the fruit bowl. Minnie might find, for example, her leftover cutie wedges from breakfast mixed in with sliced strawberries at lunch. She eats half a banana every night after dinner and refuses the other half the lext day because iut gets brown. So now I have a tupperware of browning bananas for bread/muffins.
What other suggestions do you have for me as I solve this problem in February?