A Simple Way to Avoid Food Waste and Save Money on Groceries

You have one of the best money-saving devices known to man sitting in your kitchen right now: your freezer. If it is yet to be chock-full of homemade, already prepared, frozen meals, you can begin now to save your time, energy, and especially your money by putting your freezer to good use.

How much food do you waste by throwing away leftovers after they’ve sat in the fridge for a few days? From now on, you can freeze what’s leftover and make another tasty meal from it.

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Start Saving Money on Groceries 

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Keep a supply of quart- and gallon-size freezer bags and plastic containers in your cupboard. Ensure the plastic containers you select are freezer safe. Then, when you cook soups and stews for dinner, either double the recipe or use the leftovers for the next step.
• Fill the containers to near the top with your soup and put on the lid tightly, ensuring you’ve “burped” out the air. Write today’s date on top of the lid so you know when you first froze the soup. If you’re using freezer bags, write the date on the bags before filling.
• To fill freezer bags, line an empty bowl with the bag by placing the bag in the bowl, allowing the bag’s top to spread over and around the bowl’s sides. Then, pour or spoon in the soup or stew. Remove the air out of the bag and zip it closed. Carefully lay the bags flat in your freezer.

If you freeze foods when they’re freshly cooked, they’ll still be fresh when you thaw them. To thaw, simply place the frozen bag or container into your fridge in a dish the night before you plan to eat the food. If you prefer, take the foods straight from your freezer to your microwave, as long as you place the frozen block of soup in a microwave-safe dish and cover to thaw and heat.

Use Ice Cube Trays

You can also freeze things like leftover milk, cream, or broths in ice cube trays so you have them when you want and they’ll be fresh.

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Chop up fresh vegetables like bell peppers, zucchinis, onions, or carrots. Then freeze them in bags in measured quantities to use in your next recipe. This means you’ll never again throw away the left-over bits of expensive, unused, fresh produce.

Put your freezer to work for you, starting today. You’ll save way more money than you think!

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