How can I stop wasting food?
"You want to combine a set of techniques to avoid throwing food away. Consider setting aside a weekend day or other non-busy time to do some food prep.  Check to see if there is anything in the fridge that needs to be used quickly and prioritize meals that use that item.  Make a weekly menu and get your groceries.  Chop all the vegetables and fruits you need for the week's meals.  Cook meats that can be cooked in advance.  Chefs call the concept of having everything ready for making a meal ""mis en place.""  Try to do yours in advance to energize you for cooking and also make you more likely to cook on those nights you've been at the office late. Get to know and love your freezer.  Buy frozen meat in bulk and portion individually (wrap 1/2 lb blocks of ground beef and chicken pieces in foil then store in freezer bags, for example).  Get frozen packaged fish fillets for seafood.  Boil a whole chicken, shred the meat, and have on hand for easy meals like tacos, enchiladas, chicken pot pie, pasta, etc.  Do the same with beef roasts or pork shoulder for pulled pork, etc.  Freeze vegetables and fruits if you can't use them in time (or buy frozen vegetables to begin with).  You can even consider making dumplings like perogis or pelmeni and freezing for a homemade alternative to a frozen food aisle meal.  You can even go all the way with freezer cooking. Cook with shelf-stable items.  Rice, pasta, beans, lentils, canned goods, and other items can be made into major components of a meal. When you do buy something perishable that doesn't freeze well, try to utilize it in more than one of your meals for the week.  This works well for items like fresh herbs. If you don't want to spend a lot of time cooking, a source like stonesoup is a great place to start - many recipes there can be finished in under 10 minutes, most are five ingredients or less, and all are tasty and good for you. This question from Seasoned Advice has a lot of great suggestions, although geared towards a college student, that you should consider." Try to choose less perishable items.  Besides canned and bottled are adequate for some foods, and frozen foods for a wider range, such as vegetables and prepared foods.  Dairy has a limited life, but some types live longer, like yogurt.  Fruits like apples and oranges will last a good deal longer in the fridge (bananas too, but the peels discolor).  Bread items and leafy vegetables just won't keep long for fresh use; pick them up when you're actually about to use them.  (Keeping bread in the freezer for toasting works well, though.) Buy products that can be stored for a long time or require thorough thermal processing. For example, you can buy frozen chicken meat in two pounds packs - it can be stored in a freezer for half a year, then you roast it and after it cools down you can put it into a fridge and it will last for up to ten days. Just about anything that you've roasted or boiled for several dozens minutes can be stored in a fridge for at least five days - its taste will get slightly worse over time, but it still preserves nutrition value and is safe to eat. Let me start out by saying I know your pain. One of the most important things to do is have the basics in stock in your larder. They are the sorts of things that keep well, and you can make great simple meals from them whenever, without having to worry about them going off in a matter of days.  A simple inventory like this - http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/06/the-well-stocked-kitchen-staple-foods-you-should-always-have-on-hand/ - can make a big difference. (This list is good, but check the comments for additional suggestions. There are a few extras that commenters reckon you should have and I think they are right - I certainly have more than just what's on that list.) And remember - frozen veg may or may not be as nutritious as fresh, but they are better than nothing. Make a menu of 15 (or more) things you like to eat.  Write a grocery list for what it takes.  Divide that list into perishable and non-perishable. Put those items into a calendar and try to stick to it. Depending on the amount of storage space you have, once a week fulfill your perishable list.  Use coupons and shop the sales to keep your prices down. On your way home, stop at the grocery store and buy only the perishables you will need that night for cooking.  I personally chose recipes that didn't always need fresh stuff (like canned tomatoes being good enough.) You spend more on the nightly stuff, but you make up some savings with the long term shopping.  Just count on going to the store for 10 minutes a night a part of your cooking routine.  I used to just look at the wall, but with an app like Evernote this would be pretty easy. Most basic tip:  Don't go to the grocery store hungry. What we do to minimize food waste: On Sunday when my wife and I go grocery shopping, we figure out what meals we are going to have for dinner that week, and we only buy what we need for those meals. We also try to decide in advance what night(s) we are going out for dinner. For example, we know we have to take the in-laws out for dinner on Wednesday, so we don't buy a dinner for that night. As part of our weekly planning, we figure out the lunches we will take to work based on our dinners.  For example, if we plan to make a big pot of pasta for dinner one night, we know we'll have leftovers for lunch, so we won't buy a lunch for the following day. Basically, we try to match our food purchasing to our food consumption. During the week, we generally try to cook the dinner that uses the most perishable items first.  If we buy seafood, that will be Monday night's dinner.  The frozen pizza can wait until the end of the week. My wife an I both have to deal with the occasional unexpected late night at work, which can mess up our cooking plans.  As a result, it is not uncommon for us to be too tired to cook, so we skip a dinner.  It is less wasteful to do that with something frozen/preserved. Also, we try to consider cooking time vs our work schedule.  We don't pick a complex dinner for a night that we know in advance will be a long work day. The best way to stop wasting food is to create a weekly plan. Every weekend, before making your grocery shopping, take 30-60 mins and plan (with your spouse if your married) for the next week's meals. It doesn't need to be too detailed, but it'll help you to approximate what you need in terms of food for the whole week and buy accordingly. I have a similar problem where I need to go out often and also work a lot. But spending some time on the weekend to create a plan helps me minimize my wastage a lot. My inspiration to do this has been from the below 2 articles from Trent in SimpleDollar http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/10/16/how-to-plan-ahead-for-next-weeks-meals-and-save-significant-money-a-step-by-step-guide/ http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/09/15/the-one-hour-project-plan-your-meals-for-one-week-in-advance/
Sure, I understand compassion, and I have compassion for things that matter.  Such as an abused child or an elderly adult.  However, why waste the time and energy on having compassion for an animal that we are simply going to eat in 3 months.    What does it accomplish?  Does it make the food taste better?  No, it only raises the cost of the food. &gt;Oil is important because without it US can't go to war  That's may be a reason but its far from the main one. Without oil the whole economy shuts down instantly. People can't get to work or stores to buy stuff. We can't run diesel peaker plants for electricity demand as easily either (although that's changed some due to natural gas).  We use so much god damn oil that if supply is cut off for a day or two, everything stops. While grain is very important, that doesn't happen with food commodities. We actually grow so much extra food that we turn a lot into oil. If food was short, we'd stop doing that (I hope).  Lastly, we scrutinize it in the media because our main supply is external. A lot comes from Canada sure, but the middle east is a major component of our supply. If those lines are cut off, prices surge. That *used* to hurt us bad because wed have to buy from more expensive sources (offshore, south america, anywhere else really). Now, small bumps in price are helping the US economy because of shale gas production in PA and Ohio. So oil is a very political commodity on the global stage. Look at Venezuela right now with low oil prices cutting off demand for their more costly oil.   TLDR Oil is the feedstock for our economy and its a scarce resource. "At some point isn't it counter-productive to slap warnings on so many products that have an unproven correlation with increased cancer risk?    Where do you stop? Grilling food increases carcinogenic compounds in food. Does California need warning labels on grills?  Once there are enough warning labels they'll just get ignored, defeating the original purpose. Has your mattress warning label really made you more cautious about potential fire hazards?   While I don't know if RoundUp really increases cancer risk  (I'm inclined to doubt it given the last couple decades of 'human trials"" and no clear science based evidence that I'm aware of) I do know that crying wolf is the best way to condition people to ignore serious warnings about real risks." "This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.france24.com/en/20170618-shots-fired-australias-war-food-waste) reduced by 85%. (I'm a bot) ***** &gt; Globally, one-third of food produced for humans - about 1.3 billion tonnes costing around US$1 trillion - is lost or wasted annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.  &gt; With Canberra stepping into the fray, waste warriors are optimistic that incentives including tax breaks could reduce excess in supply chains and encourage businesses to keep surplus food still fit for consumption away from landfills.  &gt; &amp;quot;It would save food going to waste, it would be good for the environment, it would be very good for the taxpayers&amp;#039; pockets because we would be paying less for the food, and I think it&amp;#039;s a win, win, win,&amp;quot; she said.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6hyvrj/australias_first_recycled_supermarket_is_giving/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~147095 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **food**^#1 **waste**^#2 **produce**^#3 **more**^#4 **surplus**^#5" Abso-fucking-lutely not. And the idea that vegetarian or low fat items make them healthier should be called into question as well. There's nothing inherently healthier about eating vegetarian, except vegetarians tend to make more mindful food choices and live healthier lifestyles in other respects. But I've known very overweight vegetarians who survived on sugar and carbs as well.   Fat is not your enemy at taco bell. It's the tortillas wrapped around corn chips filled with beef mix that has oat flour as a filler - and the processed fake cheese made of vegetable oil and god knows what else.    Carbs are responsible for the obesity epidemic and saturated fat is not the dietary villain isn't been cast as. Everyone would be better off cutting out sugars and grains and sticking to real meat and veggies.  Cook with real butter and don't buy the leanest meat you can find. Bread and pasta and sugar will spike your insulin levels and promote fat storage as well as wreak havoc on your body over time. "As others have said, doing a monthly budget is a great idea.  I tried the tracking expenses method for years and it got me nowhere, I think for these reasons: If budgeting isn't your cup of tea, try the ""pay yourself first"" method.  Here, as soon as you get a paycheck take some substantial portion immediately and use it to pay down debt, or put it in savings (if you have no debt).   Doing this will force you to spend less money on impulse items, and force you to really watch your spending.  If you take this option, be absolutely sure you don't have any open credit accounts, or you'll just use them to make up the difference when you find yourself broke in the middle of the month. The overall key here is to get yourself into a long term mind set.  Always ask yourself things like ""Am I going to care that I didn't have this in 10 years? 5 years? 2 months? 2 days even?  And ask yourself things like ""Would I perfer this now, or this later plus being 100% debt free, and not having to worry if I have a steady paycheck"".   I think what finally kicked my butt and made me realize I needed a long term mind set was reading The Millionaire Next Door by Tom Stanley.  It made me realize that the rich get rich by constantly thinking in the long term, and therefore being more frugal, not by ""leveraging"" debt on real estate or something like 90% of the other books out there tell you." Looks like you don't want to participate in the consumerist rush but feel that you just have to do that too. First of all, you don't have to do what you don't want. Then there're researches showing that joy from a compulsive purchase only lasts for a short period of time and then you are left with a relatively useless item in your house. So it's one thing if you really wanted that cool full-electronic sewing machine (or whatever DIY item you might want) to be able to repair all the stuff and craft all the nice things you wanted, but it's another thing if you look at the item and can't decide whether you really need it. The latter scenario is you struggling with the consumerism rush. If you feel really happy and can save half of what you earn just save the difference - it won't hurt. Having a good sum of money saved is really helpful in many scenarios. For a long time, I thought that all the nice things that I live with I could only have because other people somewhere in the world went with less. That I had a nice life only because through magical economy and forced servitude, someone else had a bad life. Then I heard the parable of specialization.  There are 3 people. Alice is a farmer, Bob is a farmer, and Charlie is a candlestick maker. Every person needs to eat 1 potato and 1 egg every day to live. There is no money.  Alice has always had a knack for making eggs, and trained herself to become even better. Bob has a nice field with fertile soil, and so is quite good at making potatoes. Alice spends her morning making 2 eggs, and her afternoon making 1 potato, while Bob uses his morning to make 1 egg, and his afternoon to make 2 potatoes.  In the evening, Alice brings her 1 extra egg to Charlie, trades it for a 1-hour candle, goes back home to eat her 1 egg and 1 potato, and read her book for an hour before going to bed. Bob does the same thing, except he trades his 1 extra potato for a 1-hour candle. Charlie can make 1 1-hour candle in the morning, and 1 1-hour candle in the afternoon. He eats the 1 egg and 1 potato he got, and goes to bed.  One day, Alice and Bob meet at their fence, and talk about the books they're reading and how they can only read for 1 hour each night, and how much food they each produce. Then they get an idea and agree on a new plan.  Now, Alice spends her morning making 2 eggs, and her afternoon making 2 eggs, for a total of 4 eggs every day. Bob starts making potatoes only, and makes 4 every day. At the end of the day, Alice gives Bob 1 egg, in exchange for 1 potato. Alice then brings her 2 extra eggs to Charlie, and Bob brings his extra 2 potatoes. Charlie now starts getting 2 eggs and 2 potatoes every day. So he gets a lovely wife, Daniel, from the next county over, and trains her to make 1-hour candles. She's just as good as Charlie, and makes 2 per day.  So now, Alice gets 2 1-hour candles for her 2 extra eggs, and reads for 2 hours every night before bed. She's happy. Bob also gets 2 1-hour candles for his 2 extra potatoes, and reads for 2 hours before bed. He's also happy. Charlie uses the 2 eggs and 2 potatoes he gets to feed himself and Daniel every day, and Charlie and Daniel play in bed every night. Charlie and Daniel are happy.  And so, because of specialization, we start with 3 unhappy people, and end with 4 happy people and 0 unhappy people. Good lives can be gotten without making other people suffer.