Shop More Often Than Wholesale Perishable Items to Save Money
When it comes to saving money at the grocery store, common sense is to “buy in bulk”. However, this can backfire if you are buying perishable goods. Many Americans don’t realize how much food they are throwing away.
While non-perishable foods can stay in your pantry forever (or be donated to charity if you choose not to eat them), perishable foods have an expiration date that we often forget. You buy meat for a week or milk for a month. Later on, you eat out a couple of times and your meal schedule shifts and suddenly you don’t need those perishable foods before their expiration date. It’s easy to get stuck in this trap if you don’t have a clear meal schedule ahead of time.
It is difficult to estimate how much a person is wasting and will obviously vary from person to person. However, the National Institutes of Health estimates that up to 40% of our products end up in landfills . Your personal food waste level is probably lower, but if you are buying in bulk consider whether you will actually use all of that food before it goes bad.
Living in the United States from Food Waste | Bloomberg via Mother Jones