The leftover calendar: Getting more from food dollars
Posted
Jul 08 2008, 08:05 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.
My wife and I have been trying to cook more often as a way to combat the rising price of everything. One unfortunate side effect of this is that we've been throwing out our leftovers as we discover them pushed to the back of our refrigerator.
The solution is to use a leftover calendar. We took advantage of a calendar we already have on a kitchen wall and turned it into our leftover calendar. We found a Sharpie and stuck it on top of the calendar. As we make meals, we write what we made in the box for that day. As we eat the leftovers, we cross it off the list.
With one glance, we can see what we have left, as well as the priority they should be eaten in. It acts like an inventory. We know what we have in our fridge, when we made it and roughly how long we have left until it goes bad.
We started using the calendar at the beginning of the month, and I'm happy to report that the only thing we've thrown out is a small container of homemade chicken broth. I estimate that it had been in there for a month, so I claim that it's a casualty of the pre-leftover calendar system.
We don't confine this list strictly to leftovers of things we've made. Last night we visited our favorite pho place and my wife brought back some leftovers, which then made it onto the calendar. When she eats them, they'll get crossed off, rather than tossed out because we forgot the small white box behind the milk.
We also plan on marking raw foods we buy, like chicken or beef, so that we are aware of the limited amount time we have. We rarely throw out raw foods, maybe once every six months, because we don't buy them unless we plan on using them.
As they say, "Out of sight, out of mind," and we hope the leftover calendar prevents that. So far, so good.
Other articles of interest at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity:
United First Financial money merge accounts: Scam or legit?
Realistic hypermiling
Managing your own mortgage escrow
