Dear Diary,
Help! I think I may be wasting food!
Turns out, most of us are! But blogger Kerry Taylor says a food diary can help prevent food waste. Kerry’s blog, Squawkfox, covers a wide range of personal finance and investing topics. It also offers effective strategies to help you save money at home, such as reducing food waste.
The first step is to identify what food you are wasting and why. Easily followed instructions, including a downloadable food waste diary, can be found on her blog. Taylor’s Food Waste Diary helps record what you throw away after every meal, the reason you threw it away, and how much is being tossed. She even wants you to write down where the food went— compost pile, garbage disposal, organics recycling cart, or your dog’s stomach?
The next step is to then review the results and search for patterns. Recognizing the causes, such as over-pouring beverages, making meals too big, or buying too many perishables at a time, can help you avoid those situations in the future.
The blog also has excellent guidelines and tips for more ways to help prevent food waste:
— Meal Planning
— Organizing your fridge
— Organizing your freezer
— 20 Tasty ways to love your slighted leftovers
For more on food waste, check out Food Waste Reduced: Check! and Food Waste is Low-hanging Fruit.
Photo credit: yulkapopkova | E+ | Getty Images
