The law of unintended consequences. The 1950's mom said "don't leave food on your plate - think of the starving children in China." The 70's mom said "eating everything on your plate will make you fat - you can't ship leftovers to China."  We learned to pile up our plates without guilt. Now we find out that wasting food hurts the environment we share with the kids in China. Maybe 1950's mom knew what she was talking about?

Walmart has their employees not just throw away, but open and destroy the rotisserie chickens before they're thrown away, thus making sure that no one can get any good from them. This bothered me and now that I've read about the Bill Emerson Food Donation Act, I'm really angry, though not too surprised........

We are constantly baraged with messages to eat less in our society.  Now we are seeing that eating less is leaving both households and stores throwing product away and producing waste that is a hazard for the environment.  I guess we should call this effect our carbon foodprint.

frugalityonedayatatime.blogspot.com

my mother was telling me the story the other day of how little food her family had in the hill of ky. during the early 40's, it was early spring and most of the canned goods were eaten up during the winter but my grandmother went out and picked the ealry green onions and they had green onion gravy with corn bread and the young teenagers that had come over to play guitar and sing had a great time and enjoyed the food and company, I often feel guily about the waste that I have, living alone I am sometimes have to throw food out if it goes bad but I think times are coming that we will have to get back to raising our own food if we are able and certainly cutting back on what we buy, my mother says that todays kids don't know how to save and "make do" the way that they did long ago, mainly because we never had to (thank God). sorry this is so long.

My parents, now 83, and raised in poor, rural times motto is "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."  Do I have the courage to live that now?  Don't know!  I have become very spoiled in my lifestyule.  

I agree with checking out a mechanic prior to requiring one. I use to manage a repair, shop, wrecking yard, & body shop. I still try to do most of my repairs myself but with the newer cars and the electronics it is becoming more difficult because the dianostic equipment cost about 30 grand with all the adaptors to fit the majority of vehicles. I still perform as much as I can such as brake jobs, spark plug & wire changes, coolant flushes. But do take it in for oil changes because of the oil disposal. However some new vehicles come with extended to life time power train warranties and are void if you cannot prove the maintenance was performed at the required intervals.

I have seen just as many rip off mechanics in small neighborhood shops as dealerships  In some cases even though a dealership is 45 to 50 dollars higher on the per hour labor rate a good dealership may be the best overall rate. However I would stay away from the chain repair shops because those mechanics are generally part time high school and recent HS graduates and are trained by self study videos including the ASE certification process. One of the most expensive places a vehicle can be taken to for repair is Goodyear and look out for the upsale as chain repair shops in most cases the mechanic makes a commision on additional work sold.

Also if your vehicle is running and you go somewhere for a repair special or service then only authorize the specialty repair, those specials are advertised to increase the traffic so full inspections can be performed to convert from the special to a commsion based repair. If you are approached for an upsale say no thank you and request them to only perform the work authorized and leave and have the vehcile properly checked out by someone you trust. There are times you may have no choice when this occurrs but if your car was running and can get you back home then take the time and write down the additonal work becasue once you refuse to have it performed you will not receive the information in writing.

Be very cautious of water pumps, water hoses, brakes, fuel injector cleaning, radiator flushing, shock & strut replacement. These items pay a very high book rate for example book pays 2.5 to 4 hours for a water pump replacement on most vehicles you will also be hit with radiator coolant & most likly a flush, new hoses, thermostat replacment, new belts and the water pump replacement can be performed in under an hour which means you are charged the 2.5 hours as well as the mechanic being  paid for the 2.5 hours along with the other items added in. In other words all the work would be performed in time frame of the book time on the water pump but then book time will also kick in on the added items which would be approximately 5 to 6 hour book time. Mechanic work is commison based and mechanics look for work coming in with overlapping commisions and a good mechanic in the last couple of hours of the day is making over $100.00 per hour. Just imagine what the store is making if it has 5 mechanics they are paying anywhere from 10 to 20 dollars per hour commision and charging the customor anywhere from 85 to 130 dollars per hour.

Darkon, think you're on the wrong blog.

I'm single and I too became concerned about wasting food.  My solution was to stop buying processed food  and things like veggies, rice and pasta can be added to my dogs' food.  My next step is to start composting, which will reduce my trash significantly.

My parents always used things up. We had stews made with old vegetables-limp carrots and celery, etc. They even now rarely throw out food. I've decided already to go through my fridge daily and use up what needs to be used. supercook.com is a good site for this. Type in the ingredients that you have available, and it'll give you good receipes.

I am 40 years old with a family. We eat what we make. never processed only homemade. We may eat leftovers that same week or if it can be frozen we save if for a quick meal some other time.

It's very ironic to see "breaking" stories on eating leftovers, growing a garden, not eating out when I have been doing this all my life. We have become a wasteful, throw away society. This is a gently reminder as to how delicate things really are. People need to get back to basics whether they like it or not, they may not have a choice.

want to save more money on fresh healthy vegetables tell your grocer that everything doesn't have to be picture perfect,I want a fair(good) price for healthy fruits and vegetables so instead of making the farmer pay to have vegetables picked and then thrown away because they have a scar or misshape caused by mother nature buy it at a cheaper price and offer it to your customers at a cheaper price that is a win win for all.