Wasted food equals wasted money: Saving money on food and staying healthy

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – At a time when money is so tight, especially with what we're spending on food, every way to save helps.

So, how can you save $2,000 per year on your groceries?

You've already bought them, you've spent your hard-earned money, and it's right up there waiting to be eaten, and yet in staggering numbers, it ends up in the trash.

Checking out at the grocery store, the last thing you would do is just drop your bags into the garbage.

"At least 40-percent of food is wasted each and every day," said nutritionist Leslie Bonci.

Bonci said in restaurants, cafeterias, and our homes, will never make it nourish us and that can add up to really big numbers – as in dollars.

"Over the course of a year, in every American household, at least $2,000 – that's what you're throwing away, that's a lot of money," she said.

Bonci said that comes in the form of food allowed to expire or leftovers allowed to sit beyond edibility.

"The refrigerator is the place where leftovers go to die," she said. "It's become the kitchen sink, literally, and that's a problem."

Now, checking the price and cringing at the grocery store has become the norm, so how can we save money?

"Before you go to the grocery store, take a look and see what it is you already have," Bonci recommended. "Take a look at what's there, if you have things that are getting close to the use-by date, use them!"

With a little creativity, she said a good idea is to challenge yourself to create a meal with just what's on hand and not spend a cent.

"That's a win all the way around," she said explaining that the fridge is an extension of the usefulness of food. "Remember things that don't keep forever, especially if it's in the refrigerator. That means it's perishable."

That especially applies to leftovers.   

"If you're making fish, chicken, meat, and it's in the fridge – two to three days max," Bonci said.

Another way to reduce waste, according to Bonci, is to make less or "go through the effort of making something and then freeze it so you don't have to eat that same meal the next day."

Bonci said that option is a pleasant surprise when you open the freezer and remember that a delicious meal is there.

The biggest mistake people make is buying something they already have or over-buying, making it easy to put things in the fridge and forget they're there.

A quick and easy way to get around that is to use storage bags or containers which leads to seeing what is in them.

How do we stack up against other countries when it comes to wasting food?

Among the affluent nations, we're in the top five along with China, India, Germany, and Japan.