I hate spending money at the grocery store. It’s just food. You eat it and it’s gone. It doesn’t fill your walls for years and make you smile each time you look at it the way artwork does. It’s not a trip that gives you memories to last a lifetime. It’s just food, and if you’re not careful it will spoil and then you’ll literally be throwing money down the drain or into the trash.

Whether you’re feeding a family of four or you’re single, everyone is susceptible to wasting food. You actually waste money in more than one way when you waste food. You not only waste the money you’ve spent on the food that is now rotting away in your fridge, but you’re also now spending additional money to go out to eat or at the store to buy replacement food. Additionally, you also spend more money in gas to go out to a restaurant or the market. Of course, all of this is also eating up time as well.

No one wants to be guilty of wasting time, money, and food. Here are a few tried and true ways I’ve discovered for not wasting as much food and money.

1) So obvious, yet still so true. Making up a meal plan is easy but many people don’t stick to the plan. I usually don’t include the weekends on my plan; instead I use those meals to eat up leftovers or make something from the items I have left at the end of the week. It’s a great time to improvise with items from your pantry.

2) Buy less food. We typically over-purchase items that are perishable and neglect to properly stock our pantry. Try to buy fruits that ripen slowly with those that ripen quickly so you’ll have fruit to eat all week. If you buy ripe peaches, ripe nectarines, and strawberries, you may be out of fruit in a few days and you will have several items spoil. The same goes with vegetables, so consider throwing in hard avocados and green bananas to enjoy at the end of the week.

3) Eat leftovers for lunch. My husband eats out several times a week for business lunches but on the days he doesn’t he always brown bags it with leftovers from dinner. I work from home, so I always try to make a few extra servings for lunches for the two of us.

4) Put the rest on ice. When I’ve gone overboard and made too much lasagna or I have barbequed too much chicken, I slice it up into single servings and put it in the freezer for a later lunch or dinner. For example, I’ve used marinated cooked chicken that I’ve frozen in a chicken noodle soup when the kids were sick. I’ve also frozen that last hamburger and bun in the freezer and sent it to work with my husband when we were out of leftovers. Afraid of freezing? Most things freeze well and taste 100 percent like they did when you made it the first time. The key is wrapping it up airtight to avoid freezer burn.

5) Repackage the return meal. Instead of serving tacos for three nights because you have so many leftover ingredients, reincarnate them and make taco soup, nachos, or taco casserole. How many times can you really eat the exact same thing? This is why people hate leftovers! But if you present it with a different format the family will gobble it up and the perishable vegetables won’t go to waste.

6) Inventory often. Sifting through all of the ingredients in your fridge will help you decide the highest priorities for what needs to be used next. Put a dry erase board on your fridge to remind yourself what you need to eat next and what items need to be incorporated into meals on your next meal plan. I even include condiments, marinades, and dressings into the equation so that nothing sits expired in my fridge door. We’ve all purchased items from time to time for just one recipe. Instead of letting these items spoil, go online and find recipes you can use them in.

Question: What do you do to prevent food from going to waste?