At 3AM I knew something was wrong. Like usual, I was perched on my sofa stuffing a bottle into my baby’s mouth, trying my best to appease her hungry tummy. The problem was my stomach was starving too. Her cries for food matched my own. Waaaaaaaa! Gulp. Chug. Spit up. Wipe.

Somewhere between washing diapers and brewing formula I somehow managed to miss dinner. I recalled seeing Carl peel a hard-boiled egg around 9PM. I think I sliced an apple. But in our frazzled figuring-out-this-new-baby-thing state, our dinner plates went empty. Grumble.

What the heck happened? In our previous child-free existence, we made dinner together every other night, sometimes splitting a bottle of vino. Our meals wern’t fancy or complicated, but they were planned ahead of time, affordable, tasty, healthy, and ready before 7PM. We had lots of leftovers too.

These days I can’t remember the last time I ate anything cooked, let alone shopping with a meaningful grocery list.

At 3:25AM I had an epiphany (or so I’d like to call it in my sleep deprived state) — Carl and I had slipped in our weekly meal planning, and the results were miserable.

My bad. His bad. Frig, I’m pinning this one on the baby.

By 3:45AM I knew the solution and started to get to work, ’cause really, after soothing a baby to sleep and having random epiphanies, it’s impossible to get any shut-eye with all those endorphins floating about. Besides, my dog found a splat of baby spewage on the floor, and watching her lap it up grossed me out in a ‘gag me with a spoon’ sorta way. That’s likely the most unsexy, undelicious, and unfun thing I’ve ever shared. Sorry.

6 Reasons to make a meal plan

Families of all sizes and on all budgets can benefit from a simple menu plan. Here’s why:

1. Reduce food waste.

Since this series is about cutting food waste from your life, I’m putting this one in the numero uno position. If you plan meals and coordinate with your grocery shopping, you won’t have uneaten food go bad in your fridge. You will have an ingredient for every dish ready to go, and plans can include the about-to-expire items in need of a hungry stomach, or a mob of teenagers.

Take the Food Waste Challenge

The $55 Million Squawkfox Food Waste Challenge is a series aimed at helping your family save up to $1,500 this year by reducing food waste. The environment may also thank us.

2. Save money.

Eating out costs a fortune. Eating at home costs less of a fortune. Scouting the sales in grocery flyers and planning meals around these bargain items can save you a fortune. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

3. Avoid meltdowns and other melancholy.

What’s for dinner, Mom? How much longer for lunch, Dad? I’M HUNGRY! WAAAAAA! Yeah, children can be hungry little ducklings. Prevent your kids from doing the monster mash and having meal-time meltdowns by planning your meals a week in advance and serving in an instant. Magic.

Those without kiddlets can have dinner doldrums too. Avoid those home-late-from-work cases of the hungry stomach sads by having your meal prepped and ready to heat. Adults can be (hungry) ugly ducklings too, you know.

4. Save time.

Better meal planning can mean fewer grocery shopping trips (hello, save on gas anyone?), cut dinner prep time since you’ve got all the ingredients for dinner, and reduce time spent staring into an open fridge.

5 Steps to a Freshly Frugal Fridge

What’s inside your refrigerator? Prevent food waste and save money by getting your fridge organized and storing items in the smartest spots.

Lots of helpful tips, great graphics, and easy steps to keep your food fresher, for longer. Check out The Organized Fridge for the details.

Do your food prep ahead of time — when you HAVE time — to cut back on time crunches (and soccer game nights) by making sure your veggies are chopped and ready to rumble and your chicken is thawed and ready for the BBQ.

Plan your meals large enough and reap the time saving (and sanity sparing) benefits of leftovers! Less time spent cooking means more time for other activities, like sleeping. Sigh.

10 Terrific Turkey Leftover Recipes

Take your turkey leftovers and spin them into a second (or third) delicious dinner. Easy recipe ideas for those in a time crunch. See 10 Terrific Turkey Leftover Recipes for the yummys.

5. Make healthier meals.

If you plan it, you’ll eat healthier frugalicious foods. No more takeout ’cause nothing’s ready for dinner. No more more highly processed, sodium stuffed, and fatty instant packaged dinners.

Stop faking it! Eat frugalicious food!

There’s real food. There’s fake food. And then there’s the frugalicious foods. See How to Find Frugalicious Foods for the tasty ingredient sleuthing tactics.

6. Get the family in on the fun.

Involve your family in the menu planning process — your kids will learn better eating habits and might eat all the food on their plates (yep, less food waste) if they’ve helped decide what’s for dinner.

According to Waste Free Lunches.org “[Kids are] more likely to eat a meal that they’ve helped prepare. Involvement in meal preparation also teaches them where their food comes from, and it provides them with the confidence and skills they will need to prepare food for themselves later in life.”

Bottom Line: Starving students can plan meals on a budget to save money, couples can save time by cooking only a few times per week (freezing the leftovers), and families can avoid kiddlet meltdowns by having food ready (and on hand) to fill empty stomachs before the big soccer game or music recital.

Two Meal Planning Tools

I’ve put together two types of meal planning tools: A blank meal planner download, and a DIY whiteboard project. Pick one, or both.

1. Blank Meal Planner Download

Ideal for sticking on the fridge or on a cork board near the family dinner table.

Free Download: Printable Blank Meal Planner (pdf)

2. DIY Meal Planner Whiteboard

This project is great for cutting back on paper, perfect for jotting down ideas, erasing dishes the family vetoes, and creating an on-the-go shopping list for your next grocery trip.

Stuff you’ll need:

Whiteboard items:

• Dry-erase whiteboard
• Dry-erase markers
• Painter’s tape
• Ruler or tape measure
• Scissors
• Cookbooks, with your favorite recipes
• Brain magic

STEP ONE: Measure. Use a ruler to mark and measure a grid three or four columns across (days of week, breakfast, lunch, dinner) and eight rows down. Leave room at the bottom for a shopping list. The size of each row and column depend on the size of your whiteboard.

Note: Carl and I generally only plan our lunches and dinners since breakfasts often consist of just oatmeal, fruit, cereal, or toast.

STEP TWO: Tape. Painter’s tape is easy to remove and shouldn’t leave residue on your whiteboard, so it’s my choice for creating an attractive and durable 7-day menu grid. Cut tape to correct measurements and stick it to your whiteboard. If you love re-drawing a grid every week, feel free to skip this step.

STEP THREE: Label. Use different colored dry-erase markers to represent the days of the week, dinner, lunch, breakfast, and leftovers.

I draw red arrows to show when I’m planning to eat my lovely leftovers.

The space in the bottom serves as my on-to-go shopping list.

How to Make a Meal Plan

Menu planning is easy, people. I made mine at 4:15AM in the morning while watching a baby sleep. OK, the husband stepped in to make sure I was still alive (honestly, I think he missed me. Or maybe he needed another hard boiled egg for dinner. I dunno). But all it takes to devise a 7-day meal plan is a strong desire to eat, and a little brain magic. Don’t ask me what ‘brain magic’ means, it’s 4:15AM.

STEP ONE: Pick a day, any day. After asking the fine people who follow me on Twitter and like me Facebook about meal planning, most agree that Saturday or Sunday is the bestest day to plan weekly meals.

Tip: It’s a good idea to pick a day before your weekly grocery trip so you can create a grocery list that corresponds to your recipes.

STEP TWO: Hunt and gather. This step takes a little legwork.

• Peek into your pantry, fridge, and freezer and list the ingredients you have on hand. Note which foods are about to expire, and how many need to be consumed pronto.
• Check the weekly grocery flyers for sale items and deals on meat, produce, dairy etc., and try to use these bargains in your weekly meal plan.
• Use your noggin (BINGO — that’s brain magic) and think about all the dinner recipes and lunch ideas that tickle your tummy’s fancy using your stocked ingredients and a few grocery sale items. Make a list of seven dinners, lunches, breakfasts, and snacks.

Recipe Sleuthing Tip: Got a few odd leftover ingredients in need of a tasty recipe? Check out Allrecipes.com and search for the top rated meals based on your lowly food items. This is a great tool for finding new ways to use leftovers.

Rotate Your Recipes: Keep a list of all your family favorites and reuse your recipes the next month. Creating a stack of meals on recipe cards can help reduce your planning time in the future.

STEP THREE: Make the meal plan, man. Grab your whiteboard or download our Printable Blank Meal Planner and start scheduling your meals.

Place an ‘X’ through the days where you won’t need a home meal, such as dinners out or office lunch meetings.

Plan to eat easy meals like leftovers on busy days (hockey practice nights) and schedule meal preparation when you have more time (weekends).

Try not to be a bore by eating the same thing all week long, but don’t get too crazy either and introduce more than one new recipe per week — learning how to cook new things can be exhausting and time consuming, no matter how delicious.

STEP FOUR: Get listed. Go shopping. List all ingredients needed for each meal. Cross off any ingredients you have at home, and make note of what’s on sale.

Grocery Shopping List

Stuck in a grocery store aisle wondering what groceries to buy? Download the Printable Grocery Shopping List to help in your quest to find affordable, healthy, and delicious foods fast.

Go grocery shopping. Avoid the impulse buys. Be strong.

STEP FIVE: Get cookin’, good lookin’. Cook your nightly meal and prepare your daily lunches. Store leftovers safely. Each evening, look through the next day’s plan and do any early prep. For example, if beans need soaking, start them now. If meat needs defrosting, pull it out of your freezer.

How to Defrost Your Freezer

When your freezer is a time capsule celebrating the Ice Age, then maybe it’s time to join the Modern Age by thawing your deep freeze. Check out How to Defrost Your Freezer to get the job done.

Next Steps: When things go very wrong

Pobody’s nerfect. Seriously. Perhaps your previous night’s chicken was smaller than you thought, leaving little for today’s leftovers. Maybe you got stuck in traffic and don’t have time to start dinner. Or maybe one of the kids decides to bring home a friend for dinner. Gotcha.

Tactics: When meal plans become problematic

• Swap: No, don’t swap your husband (wife or crying baby), but switch out a complicated meal for something easier.
• Emergency meals: Have a few easy ‘go-to’ emergency meals you can make on the back burner. Scrambled eggs with ham or an omelet can be made in a pinch for an easy dinner.
• Get frozen: On days where you have more leftovers than you had planned (or hoped for), freeze them for future emergency meals.
• Get back on track: Do you best to get back on schedule for the next meal — you don’t want all those fresh ingredients going to waste!

OK, it’s dawn. The birds are chirping and the sun is mocking my spontaneous all-nighter. Carl is making coffee and marvelling at my euphoria-driven insanity to plan meals over the next week. I totally rocked this meal plan, and now I need some serious sleep. Hmmm, but first — breakfast! Chow!

Love,
Kerry

Love the blog? Get the book: 397 Ways to Save Money

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• How to make a budget (series with downloads)
• How to write a resume (series with downloads)
• Frugalicious Recipes
• 50 Ways to Save $1,000 a Year
• Credit Card Calculator
• Download your free 92-page eBook: The Insider’s Guide To Frugal Food & Fitness

When your freezer is a time capsule celebrating the Ice Age, then maybe it’s time to join the Modern Age by thawing your deep freeze.

The Ice Age Cometh: It’s time to thaw that frozen mess.

Photo Credit: Conny Liegl (flickr/MoonSoleil)

These Titanic-sized icebergs require a good melting session.

The causes of freezer frost

There are two common reasons ice may be forming in your freezer.

1. Take a peek. Freezer frost grows when moisture from the air condenses on the walls and turns to ice. Every time you open your freezer to take a peek, a blast of humid air sneaks in and builds up a thin layer of frost.

2. Blame the seals. If your freezer turns into a block of the cold stuff quickly, it’s likely your door seal. Cracked, worn, or misaligned freezer seals can let warm air in and cold air out. Yep, this is costing you some cool cash, so check those seals and stop gawking into your open freezer.

The cost of growing glaciers

Your freezer needs to work harder to keep your food cold since ice acts as an insulator. If you’re growing glaciers in parts of your freezer, you’ll use more energy to keep the internal temperature low. Plus, your food may not be stored at a low enough temperature, leading to food waste. According to the USDA, frozen food should be kept below 0ºF (-18ºC) or spoilage can occur.

Hold the ice: There’s no space for food.
Photo Credit: “Bennet” (flickr/bennett4senate)

Where’s the beef? Or frozen veggies, or stored leftovers? A lot of ice buildup can turn your ice box into an ice block, making it impossible to store perishables and access food. Why bother plugging the thing into an energy sucking socket if you’re just using your freezer space to foster frost?

How to defrost your freezer

You can beat the glaciers into a hasty retreat in five easy steps. Here’s how to get ready for the great freezer thaw:

Stuff you need:

• bucket
• hot water
• towels
• vacuum cleaner
• dish soap
• plastic spatula
• freezer thermometer (optional)

Total thaw time: One hour — longer if you’re storing the arctic.

STEP ONE: Free the food. Start by emptying your frost-filled freezer and moving the perishables to another ice box or transferring the goods to a cooler.

If it’s a cold winter’s day, you can probably store your freezer contents in bins outside — as long as you don’t have any wildlife or hungry neighbors nearby.

This is a great time to take a detailed inventory of what’s hanging out in your deep freeze. Toss out or compost anything that’s gone bad.

Add all chucked food to your Food Waste Diary (free download)

Composting Made Easy

Check out How to compost without raising a stink for the easy-to-follow composting steps.

STEP TWO: Get unplugged. Don’t get into a battle with your freezer by attempting to thaw ice while the machine is trying freeze it. Huge waste of time and energy, people — kinda like running up the down escalator. Unplug your freezer to save yourself from this frustration.

STEP THREE: Thaw the sucker. Place a towel in the bottom of your freezer to collect the water from melting ice.

This step is particularly important if your freezer is a front-door-loader and not a chest model, since large amounts of water could drip out the door. Yeah, messy.

Place a small plastic bucket of hot water in the freezer. Close the door and wait 10 minutes. Repeat a few times. The heat from the water will defrost (or loosen) the ice.

Bonehead Move: Do not use a metal pot with boiling water to defrost your freezer — you might melt the plastic lining, forcing you to replace the dang unit.

Once the ice beings to loosen, go ahead and use a plastic spatula to gently remove the larger chunks.

Take care not to damage the freezer lining.

STEP FOUR: Scrub a dub. Place all ice pieces in a bucket and use a towel to mop up any water.

Using warm water and a bit of dish soap, wash and wipe every surface inside the freezer and dry it with a towel. Carefully clean the door seal. Vacuum any dust from coils along the outside and back of the freezer.

Money Saving Tip: Inspect and replace freezer door seals if they’re cracked or fail to close evenly. You’ll need to know the exact make and model of your freezer to order a new seal kit.

STEP FIVE: Lock and load. Plug in your freezer and wait for it to cool down. Once the freezer is cold, reload all the food that passed your freshness test in step one. Don’t forget to list all expired or freezer burnt food in your Food Waste Diary.

Bonehead Move: Don’t load cold food into a warm freezer — you’ll defrost the lot and possibly spoil your perishables. Expensive mistake.

Allow 24 hours for the temperature to stabilize, and then use a freezer thermometer to check the temperature. Most manufacturers recommend freezers be set to 0ºF (-18ºC) or colder to keep food from spoiling.

Make homemade ice cream with leftovers?

After removing the unwanted ice from your freezer, why not stock up on some tasty ice? Click on over to Healthy Snacks: A tasty twist on homemade ice cream for a frugal treat that fights food waste.

Happy thawing!
Love,
Kerry

Love the blog? Get the book: 397 Ways to Save Money

Top Squawks

• How to make a budget (series with downloads)
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• Frugalicious Recipes
• 50 Ways to Save $1,000 a Year
• Credit Card Calculator
• Download your free 92-page eBook: The Insider’s Guide To Frugal Food & Fitness

Dear Daughter,

Of the many choices in life, turning left may not always be the easiest route but it might get you where you want to go.

Love,
Mom

Happy Mother’s Day

Love the blog? Get the book: 397 Ways to Save Money

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• How to make a budget (series with downloads)
• How to write a resume (series with downloads)
• Frugalicious Recipes
• 50 Ways to Save $1,000 a Year
• Credit Card Calculator
• Download your free 92-page eBook: The Insider’s Guide To Frugal Food & Fitness

Your cool fridge is likely a hotbox for food waste. Since many families toss around 25% of all groceries purchased every year, you gotta know your refrigerator is the place where good food goes to die.

You can change that.

By keeping your fridge organized and in tip-top shape, it’s easy to prevent fresh food from going foul. Start by keeping a Food Waste Diary so you know what’s getting trashed, then follow these five easy steps to get your fridge frugally fresh and reap the savings.

Step One: Find the fossils.

Pull up your sleeves and clear your kitchen counter top, ’cause it’s time to go on a mini archeological dig. No, you don’t need to don an Indiana Jones-type Fedora and brave a sea of snakes (hopefully), but I do want you to crack the whip in search of ancient artifacts.

This step is all about exploring for expired items, searching for science projects (yeah, those plastic containers filled with moldy bits), and turning your fridge into a happy place to store tasty things.

Money Saving Tip: More space, less food waste. Removing expired and foul food from your fridge creates more space for leftovers, and your fresh food won’t be hidden from view and risk spoilage. Besides, spending money on your electrical bill to cool expired and moldy items is a complete waste of cash.

Here’s how to get the job done:

1. Empty your fridge. Pull everything out of your refrigerator. To prevent good food from spoiling, be sure to stack your perishables in a cooler or a second fridge.

2. Scrutinize dates on packaged products. Not all dates are created equal — Best before, Display until, and Sell by all define different things, so your food could still be safe to eat after the magic date has passed. Yes, this is confusing. No, you don’t need to throw everything out.

It’s a date:

• Display until, Sell by: Feel free to ignore these dates — they are for the store only, and don’t determine food quality.

• Best before: If the product is stored correctly, the manufacturer guarantees food to be in its prime before this date, and many foods are good afterwards. Best before doesn’t mean Worst after.

• Expiry date or Use by: Toss it. All food not consumed by this date should go. Add these items to your Food Waste Diary.

• Packaged date: Some regions require a Packaged date on products like meats. Use this together with the Expiry date to determine food freshness.

3. Leave the leftovers? If you’ve left your leftovers for longer than four days, the Mayo Clinic advises you toss them to prevent food poisoning.

If you’ve made too much dinner or can’t finish lunch within the four-day deadline, go ahead and freeze them right away.

4. Take a sniff? If something smells bad (unless it’s stinky cheese), toss it regardless of packaging dates or leftover age. However, just because something doesn’t smell bad doesn’t mean it’s good. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says illness-causing bacteria generally have no smell, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency cautions consumers to never use their senses to judge the safety of food. “You cannot tell if a food may cause foodborne illness by its look, smell or taste.”

Step Two: Clean your fridge filth.

Have you been giving your fridge the cold shoulder on your weekend clean-ups? Yeah, since this wee announcement I’ve been guilty too.

Money Saving Tip: Clean up for big savings. A clean and well functioning fridge can be an open door to closing costs on food waste. A debris-free fridge can keep food at a constant temperature better than a cluttered mess, and a clean fridge makes your leftovers look more appealing to eat.

Since you’ve already emptied your refrigerator, now is a great time to get scrubbing. Here’s what to wipe:

1. Remove your drawers. Keep your pants on, but remove all fruit, vegetable, and deli drawers. Yes, your refrigerator drawers are likely a crumby mess. Mine are, err, were too.

Like your rack and drawer placement? Stick a few Post-it Flags to mark shelf height and position before removing the lot — this makes putting your fridge back together easy. (We can all thank Carl for this trick.)

2. Wipe, vacuum, scrub. Clear out crumbs and debris by wiping or vacuuming them away. Use a dab of dish soap in hot water and a soft rag to scrub and clean any ketchup drips and caked-on messes. Use a clean rag to dry the interior of your fridge.

Go ahead and soak fridge drawers, racks, and other cooling doodads in a sink filled with warm, sudsy water. Get those fridge gadgets shining!

3. Don’t forget the door seals! Vacuum and wipe all door seals — they often trap crumbs and other food bits which can cause refrigerator temperatures to fluctuate and food to spoil. Cracked and damaged fridge seals can also raise your energy bill, so consider replacing them.

4. Clear the perimeter. Look behind your fridge (where the dust bunnies live) and vacuum air vents, grills, condensers, and coils to remove all gunk (technical word) — this can improve fridge temperature regulation and lower your energy bill.

Wipe all kiddlet fingerprints and dog nose marks off the exterior. Plastic fridge doors wipe up well with warm water and a dash of dish soap. Those with a stainless steel exterior may require a streak-free cleaner — I use these stainless steel appliance wipes to protect my fridge.

5. Put the pieces back together. Go ahead and place all drawers, racks, bits, and pieces back into your fridge. This is where those Post-it Flags come in handy. (Thank you Carl!)

Everything should be gleaming.

No more crumby drawers for me.

Step Three: Save food in containers, label.

How old were those leftovers? What’s growing in that container? Don’t tell me you’ve never opened a low quality, throw-away, plastic container to find a former meal (turned science project) tucked in the nether regions of your fridge. Here’s how to end the moldy cycle:

1. Invest in quality, clear containers. Take the guesswork out of your dinner plate by using high quality, air-tight, glass containers to keep ingredients and leftovers fresh. Heating up leftovers is easy in a glass container, and since glass is see-through, you’ll stop wondering what’s hiding under the lid. Also, glass containers can stand the test of time, whereas those plastic throw-away 99-cent models often melt, become stained, and get chucked after a few uses, loading up our landfills with crap.

I love this Kinetic Go Green Glass Lock 16 Piece Set of containers, and the GlassLock 6 Piece Set is a budget-friendly way to get started.

If plastic is a better choice in your household ’cause you prefer a lighter container to pack lunches, try the affordable Kinetic Go Green Food Storage set.

I use both plastic and glass in my fridge.

Food Storage Tip: Use several smaller, flat containers rather than one massive one so leftovers can cool down more quickly. Smaller containers are also easier to stack in your freezer, and make for quick reheating later.

2. Label your leftovers. Grab a Sharpie and a stack of Post-it Notes, and write the date on each container. Remember: The Mayo Clinic says you shouldn’t keep leftovers for more than four days!

Food Storage Tip: Store your leftovers at the front of the fridge at eye level so you can see them (and eat them) before they spoil.

3. Combine the odds and ends. How many ketchup or salad dressing bottles do you have on the go? When too many condiments are eating into your refrigerator space, it’s time to combine the lot into a single container.

Hello? Mr. Newman? I love your dressing, so I’m moving the leftovers to a single bottle to save space.

A massive Costco-sized jar of sauerkraut is condensed into a small glass container to encourage Carl to take it to work for lunch. (Right, Carl?)

4. Sort fruits and vegetables. One bad apple spoils the lot, so every week I sort through my produce and cull the good from the bad.

Remove the bruised bits and keep the good pieces in a container to preserve freshness. These strawberries became a refreshing snack after I finished my fridge cleanup.

Not all vegetables come in fancy branded packaging. After visiting the local farmers’ market, I stored my broccoli and peppers in quality Ziploc resealable bags and used a sheet of paper towel to absorb moisture. I rinse and reuse these bags every week.

Placing chopped lettuce or loose spinach in a salad spinner can help keep salads fresh.

Food Waste Tip: Most fruit, vegetables, and meat products come prepackaged in a resealable freshness bag, so there’s no need to repackage these items. Repackaging cold cuts and some meats may expose them to bacteria, which increases the chances of spoilage.

Step Four: Store food in the smartest spots.

There are right and wrong ways to store your meat, milk, and leftovers. Here are the general rules:

1. Keep your cool. Many of us keep our refrigerated food at the wrong temperature. Are you guilty of this chilling offense? Go check your fridge temperature, and set it to 40ºF (5ºC) or below. Any food left in the danger zone (40ºF to 140ºF / 5ºC to 60ºC) is at risk of growing food bacteria which can make you sick! When in doubt, use a thermometer.

2. Are your drawers hot? Hopefully, not too hot. If you have a newer fridge, go on and check the temperature settings on your drawers and crispers.

• Meats and cheeses: Use the Meat or Deli setting to be sure your fridge channels extra cold air (just above freezing) into this space.
• Produce: Are your fruits and vegetables set to the correct humidities? I get this wrong all the time — maybe you do too. Fruits and vegetables should not be mixed in the same crisper, and each drawer needs to be adjusted to the right setting to maintain optimal produce freshness.

3. Beware of the door prize. Don’t place your milk or quick-to-expire perishables in your fridge doors. According to the USDA, door temperatures fluctuate more than any other spot in your fridge, which can lead to food spoilage and sour milk.

4. Meat belongs in the bottom. Place raw meat and seafood on the bottom shelf of your fridge. Relegating animal products below other items won’t help them last longer, but can prevent drips from contaminating food located below. Be sure meat products are wrapped properly, and clean up any spilled juices immediately.

5. Crowds are not allowed. Is your fridge stuffed to the brim? Then it’s time to rethink your stuffed shelving. Air needs to circulate around your food to keep it cool, and an overly stocked fridge can result in warm spots and cool spaces — you’ll end up freezing your lettuce and souring your milk. (Yeah, it never happens the other way around.)

Overstocking solution: Combine like condiments into one jar, remove items that don’t require refrigeration (such as an entire flat of pop), remove the junk (see step one), and freeze your leftovers if they cannot be consumed within four days.

6. Keep it whole. A single big piece of anything will take longer to spoil than many little pieces. For example: A chunk of ham lasts a lot longer than sliced deli meat, and whole apples stay fresh longer than apple wedges. So don’t cut up meat, fruit, or veggies until you’re ready to consume them (unless you’re freezing the lot).

7. Do an ongoing fridge rotation. Spinning your fridge in circles is not what I’m squawking about here. This step is about moving the older foods hiding in the back of your fridge forward. Carl and I do a ‘fridge rotation’ before every grocery trip to see what’s hiding, and hopefully cross an item off our list if it’s already in stock. This step prevents food waste in our family and saves us money.

Step Five: Do a refrigerator inventory.

Now that your fridge is in tip-top shape with everything in the perfect place, it’s time to take inventory of what you have chillin’.

Why keep an inventory?

A refrigerator inventory details what you have too much of, warns you when items are about to expire, and may inspire you to make meals with the ingredients you have on hand. Anchovy pizza, anyone?

Free Download: Printable Fridge Inventory (pdf)

Keeping a fridge inventory can help with meal planning and grocery shopping since you’ll know what’s in stock and what needs to be replenished. An up-to-date inventory can also make shopping less wasteful, saving you big money on your grocery budget. Who knows, maybe you can skip a supermarket trip!

What to record:

• Item: What’s in your fridge? List eggs, milk, cheese, juice, condiments, wine, or whatever you chill on a daily basis. Write down the food expiry date in this section for your reference.

• Quantity: How much milk is in stock? Do you have enough leftovers for dinner? Quantity is an ongoing itemization of what you have in stock and what is about to run out. Make sure the kids update this column too!

• Item Cost: You keep your grocery receipts, right? Go ahead and list the money spent on your food. It’s easiest to update when you’ve just done the groceries and stocked your fridge. This column can be a real eye-opener when you add up the total cost of food in your fridge. Those with teenage boys may cry.

Download a copy of my free printable Fridge Inventory and keep it near (or on) your refrigerator so it’s easily updated.

Phew! Now that I’ve cleaned out my fridge, it’s time to tackle my freezer.

Love,
Kerry

Love the blog? Get the book: 397 Ways to Save Money

Top Squawks

• How to make a budget (series with downloads)
• How to write a resume (series with downloads)
• Frugalicious Recipes
• 50 Ways to Save $1,000 a Year
• Credit Card Calculator
• Download your free 92-page eBook: The Insider’s Guide To Frugal Food & Fitness

The soft voice of the social worker on the other end said that Carl and I had been picked by a local birth mom to adopt her newborn baby girl.

I don’t remember what I did with that glue gun or those potatoes, but I somehow managed to find a nearby stairwell to lean onto for support.

Born a preemie weighing in at 4lbs 7oz on January 25th, she was sent to an out-of-town hospital for care.

Carl wasn’t doing anything dignified (either) when I called him with the long-awaited and amazing news. I think his hiking boots are still in need of the laces he dropped, and left behind at the local shoe cobbler.

We spent the next three weeks driving many long hours to see our baby girl get stronger in the hospital. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is not where any parent wants to be. Dealing with feeding tubes and seeing scary machines designed to measure heart rates and breathing patterns is not ideal. I have a huge respect for the nurses and doctors who helped our daughter during those long weeks. I have an even bigger respect for the many parents we met, and the kindness shared.

Our daughter’s name is Chloe.

We brought her home on February 15th, a very happy and healthy kiddlet. We haven’t slept a wink since that amazing day.

Like our lives, this blog just took a turn.

My sincere apologies to those waiting for an email reply over the last while. I’ve had my hands a little full as of late, and my three-month-stale inbox doesn’t demand a diaper change.

Send coffee, please.

Love,
Kerry

P.S.: To Karmavore of See Theo Run, there are not enough THANK YOU’s for your helpful words and kind advice during our adventures in local, open adoption. So, Thank You.

Our friends and family deserve many Thank You’s too.

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Anyhoo, most days I get by with very little flair buttoned to my blouse — except yesterday.

While wearing (OK, gardening in) this classy, colour-coordinated, orange ensemble with a pair of clashing pink Crocs (Yes people, Crocs!), I learned that a very kind money blogger included a quote from me in her very first glossy magazine story.

Look out fashion world (cough), I’m quoted in the May 2012 edition of Flare Magazine.

Congratulations (and a BIG thank you) to Krystal Yee, of Give Me Back My Five Bucks fame, for the fun and frugal fashiony piece!

Flare Magazine | Getting Out of Debt: Confessions of a (former) shopaholic | By Krystal Yee

‘Cause really people, nothing says I’m quoted in a HIGH QUALITY FASHION MAGAZINE like an orange pair of clam diggers and pink Crocs. Scarlett Johansson, eat your heart out. Smile.

Feeling gouged? The nine biggest rip-offs out there

The numero uno story in the April 17th edition of The Globe and Mail wasn’t written by me. It was written by personal finance reporter and editor Roma Luciw. Yay!

The cool thing about this top story is I got to gripe (publicly, for once) about life’s biggest wallet-whopping rip-offs.

Since I love a good (wallet) whopping, I shared my top three rip-offs with Ms. Luciw. Weddings, bank fees, and branded cleaning products topped my hit list. Globe and Mail readers had 477 other ideas at last count. Yeah, that’s nearly FIVE HUNDRED comments on a single story. I guess we Canucks love a good money gripe.

Globe and Mail | Feeling gouged? The nine biggest rip-offs out there | By Roma Luciw

This story was spun off in the Home Cents Blog later that week with reporter Dianne Nice’s Ten total rip-offs that drive us mad.

Again, hundreds of comments.

Go ahead and read these stories. Leave (a few) comments. Enjoy!

Love,
Kerry

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Food is so plentiful these days that we’re throwing it away. How much tasty trash is being tossed? Estimates top about 250lbs per person each year — that’s around 1,400 calories canned by each of us daily.

We don’t talk about our food waste, we don’t think about the financial costs, and many of us don’t realize the environmental impact. This can all be changed by taking notice of what we waste.

So I’m challenging you to open your eyes by keeping a Food Waste Diary. Yeppers, I want you to track your trashed food by recording what you throw away after every meal, the reason for the chuckage, and how much is being tossed. I even want you to write down where the dinner went — did you compost it, feed it to the dog, dump it down the drain, or toss it in the garbage bin?

Free Download: 7-Day Food Waste Diary (pdf)

Please print double-sided.

The idea is to see where the food waste in your household happens, ’cause if you don’t know what is being chucked and when, then it’s pretty hard to fix the problem. Recording food waste is akin to tracking your spending and keeping a budget — seeing your missteps and mistakes can encourage you to change.

How to use the Food Waste Diary

Get your family on board by placing your Food Waste Diary in the kitchen or near the dinner table, and track everything that’s wasted over one week. Warning: Results may shock you.

What to record:

• Meal/Snack/Other: Which meals cause the greatest garbage in your household? List your wasted drinks too.

• Food: What foods are thrown out? Salad, cereal, or egg sandwiches? If you find spoiled milk or rotting fruit in your fridge, then make note of all this under Other.

• Amount: A cup of cereal (with 1/4 cup milk), a head of lettuce, or a chicken leg — write down all wasted quantities.

• How Disposed: Record how that food was disposed, even if leftovers were fed to a pet. Did you just drain 1/2 cup of coffee down your sink, compost an apple, or chuck some stinky tuna fish in your garbage bin?

• Reason: List why you’re throwing away your food. Too many dinner leftovers, lunch tasted terrible, not enough time to finish breakfast, bananas went brown, and expiry date passed are common reasons.

• Cost: Go ahead and estimate the money you blew by tossing away this food. Crying is allowed.

Be super honest with yourself while doing this exercise — you’ll benefit most by tracking what’s really hitting the trash can, not what you wish wasn’t wasted.

Review your results

When the week is over and you’ve completed the diary, do yourself a solid by reviewing the results.

STEP ONE: Find the pattern. Review your diary to see what, when, and where food is being wasted. Is there a particular food that’s tossed regularly? Perhaps a meal is often composted? Add up the cost column to calculate your financial loss.

STEP TWO: Recognize the reasons. Knowing WHY your food is tossed can help avoid the situation in the future. For example: making meals too big could create too many leftovers, over-pouring glasses of milk for the kids can cause beverage waste, and buying to much food in bulk may make it impossible for your family to consume the lot before the expiry date.

STEP THREE: Strive to improve. What strategies can you employ to end the food waste in your household? Buying fewer apples, making smaller sandwiches, and learning to love leftovers are just a few tactics to try. Do the diary again and see if you can improve on past mistakes.

Carl and I were amazed by the results after keeping our food waste diary for just three days. Not only did we stop feeding our dog perfectly good leftovers (sorry moochy pooch), but we made a game of how to reincorporate certain foods back onto our dinner plates. Carl ate more fruit, and I bought less lettuce. You may be amazed too.

Your Turn: Don’t be shy, sharing your findings and ideas with others helps everyone. Which foods are being wasted the most in your family? Which meals create the most food waste? What strategies help you prevent food waste?

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I’m challenging you to stop wasting food.

Go ahead and give me the stink-eye or tell me I’m full of bunk, ’cause you never, EVER waste food and toss it out as junk.

Right?

Wrong.

According to a 2011 United Nations estimate, one third of the world’s food produced annually goes to waste. That’s 1.3 billion tons of food, people.

If you live in North America — a continent where food prices have risen 4.1% on a year-over-year basis (StatsCan) — chances are you regularly garbage your groceries.

A study by the University of Arizona in Tuscon shows that up to 50% of all food produced in the United States is wasted, while the Canadian Value Chain Management Centre says around 40% of all food is wasted, with over 50% of this waste happening in the home.

Given these recent numbers, we’re throwing away about 25% of our groceries each and every year. I Squawk you not.

Taste the price of waste

Wanna know how many dollars you’re dumping? Here’s the costly mathy math:

Canuck Bucks: Canadians spend an average of $7,262 per household on food each year (StatsCan). If 25% of all food is wasted at home, then every Canuck household could save around $1,800 a year by garbaging less grub.

U.S. Greenbacks: American households spend an average of $6,129 on food annually (BLS). Trashing 25% fewer meals brings home a savings of $1,532.25 each year.

Bottom Line: By refusing to refuse up to 25% of your grocery haul, North Americans could save up to $1,500 every dang year.

But it’s biodegradable

Chucking out that leftover chicken or tossing that wilted lettuce may not seem harmful, but it is if you’re the environment.

When food rots, it releases carbon dioxide and methane, greenhouse gases which impact global climate change. According to this study: The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its Environmental Impact, food waste now accounts for more than one quarter of our total freshwater consumption and around 300 million barrels of oil per year.

Your leftover lunch is not only filling up our landfills, but it’s likely increasing your total tax bill too. For example, in Toronto, taxpayers spend nearly $10 million a year to dispose of food waste that’s not composted.

More composting, less guilt?

Don’t congratulate yourself too loudly for scraping your dinner scraps into the compost bin. Turning your less-loved leftovers into soil may feel virtuous, but you really haven’t accomplished a thing.

Composting doesn’t prevent food waste. Sticking leftovers in a green bin not only fails to cut your grocery costs, but composted food still burns through the same oil and water resources before hitting your garden.

Yes, I love composting, but isn’t it better to prevent the waste in the first place?

The $55 Million Squawkfox Food Waste Challenge

I’m challenging Squawkfox readers to stop wasting food. I’m calling this food waste series, Tasty Trash: The $55 Million Squawkfox Food Waste Challenge.

I figure, based on our 37,000 regular readership, we could save a combined $55 million by cutting an average of $1,500 from each of our food waste totals.

Yes, you read that right. That’s FIFTY-FIVE MILLION dollars saved, by you guys, by not wasting food.

That’s some serious moolah for a frugal blog audience. It’s good for the environment too.

How are we going to do this?

Over the next few weeks I’ll share a few tools, methods, and ideas to help you save A LOT of money by not wasting food. This series will challenge you to peek in your pantry, flash open your fridge, and defrost your freezer. Are you making food storage mistakes? Perhaps you’re leaving perfectly good leftovers to languish? This will all be covered.

I’ll also share my food organization tools that have helped my family reduce waste. And food spoilage? That’s also a big waster, so we’ll tackle that topic too. I might even do an experiment, or two.

So stay tuned to the Tasty Trash Challenge, ’cause together we might just save $55 million, and that’s not a figure worth trashing.

Your Turn: So, are you joining in?

Love,
Kerry

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Easy peasy, people. The answer can be found on your breakfast table, at the farmers’ market, or in your compost heap. Do I have you walking on eggshells? Eggscellent.

To sow some extra savings this gardening season, go ahead and crack open a tossed eggshell and make your own seedling pots — your budget will thank you.

8 Reasons to get cracking:

1. The entire eggshell starter pot is biodegradable.
2. Cost for the eggshell planter is $0.00 — they’re free if you eat eggs.
3. Eggshells contain soil-happy minerals, such as calcium and other earthy nutrients.
4. Eggshell seedling pots are pet safe and kid friendly.
5. Starting seeds inside (in any container) gives you a huge headstart on your garden, far before the last frost.
6. Sprouted seeds are heartier and stronger when planted.
7. Sprouting indoors lets you cull the weakest seedlings and remove the ones that failed to germinate.
8. It’s a fun project for the kiddlets.

Gardening Tip: Want to grow a garden but don’t know how to start? Check out How to Build a Square Foot Garden for the easy-to-follow instructions.

If you’re looking for a little seed money, here’s how to make your own frugal seedling pots by using everyday eggshells:

Gardening: Eggshell Seed Starters

You’ll need a few good eggs and some gardening tools to get this job done. But don’t worry, most items are likely already stocked in your kitchen or somewhere in your home.

Stuff you’ll need:

• seeds (saved heirloom seeds, etc.)
• eggshells
• egg carton
• potting soil
• spoon
• awl, needle, or thumbtack
• knife
• pot and stove
• natural soil-safe crayons or finger paints (optional)
• spray bottle (optional)

Instructions: How to plant seedlings in eggshells

STEP ONE: Prick a pinhole. Using a thumbtack, gently punch a small drainage hole in the bottom center of each shell. Make the hole large enough so it won’t get clogged by soil or roots.

STEP TWO: Chop the top. Remove the top 1/3 of the eggshell using a small knife to gently pick away at the shell. Take care not to damage the bottom of the egg.

Topper Tip: Lightly tap the top of the egg, and then pick your way down. Cutting carefully with a sharp serrated knife may work too.

STEP THREE: Make dinner. Empty the raw egg from the shell into a bowl. Make an omelet or save for scrambled eggs for dinner. Yummy.

Inspect eggshells for leftover debris, and let them dry.

STEP FIVE: Protect eggshells. Place each eggshell in a cardboard egg carton (or a small pot) for support.

Egg cartons serve as a frugal base for up to 12 eggs.

Creative types may like miniature clay pots or fancy decorative planters.

STEP SIX: Spoon soil. Fill 2/3 of each eggshell with potting soil.

Gardening Tip: I used nutrient-rich soil from my finished compost. See How to compost without raising a stink for simple steps even apartment dwellers can follow.

STEP SEVEN: Plant a seed. Add a seed to the soil. Always follow the recommended seeding depth on your seed package, and be aware of the average germination time.

Gardening Tip: Many people buy seeds from a store each season — and that’s OK. But if you’ve invested in heirloom seeds, be sure to save them for years to come! Check out How to save heirloom tomato seeds for the uber frugal and totally tasty steps. Note: Saving seeds only works for heirloom varietals.

STEP EIGHT: Add sunlight, water. Place eggshell seed starters in a warm and sunny location.

Keep the soil moist (but not soaked) by watering regularly. Watch your seedlings sprout!

STEP NINE: Make your mark. Using natural soil-safe crayons or natural finger paints, gently label the outside of each shell with the type of plant seeded.

Decorating eggshell seedling pots is a fun project for the kids, plus you’ll teach then about gardening.

STEP TEN: Get planting. Once your sprouts have sprung and the frost is forgotten, go ahead and plant your eggshell seedling pots in some freshly tilled soil in your garden.

When planting, give each eggshell a gentle (yet crushing) squeeze — you want the seedling roots to easily find the fresh soil.

Gardening Tip: You don’t need a big (or small) square foot garden to plant fruits and vegetables. Back when I lived on a ledge (OK, in an apartment block with a skyrise balcony), I grew my own food using a method called container gardening. See 11 Fruits and Vegetables You Can Grow in a Pot for the steps.

Your Turn: Are you growing a vegetable garden this season for food or just for fun? What do you plant?

Happy sprouting!
Love,
Kerry

Love the blog? Get the book: 397 Ways to Save Money

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Squawk Surprise: Make a ‘Squawk Mock’ Kinder egg and treat your kids to a little tasty fun for less. Can you spot the doggone difference?

Yeppers! The U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Customs and Border Protection (phew) deems the chocolate eggs — which are totally legal and super fun in Canada — a hazardous toy worthy of banning.

From the CBP: “Kinder Chocolate Eggs are banned for sale and import into the United States because they contain a toy surprise hidden inside and pose a choking/aspiration hazard in children younger than three years of age.”

For those living under the dark, chocolate egg ban: Kinder Eggs are hollow milk chocolate orbs wrapped in a branded foil wrapper. The ‘hazardous’ toy is contained in an oval-shaped plastic capsule, which is encased in the milk chocolate orb. I use the words ‘milk chocolate’ loosely here since the ‘chocolate’ is pretty dismal tasting stuff.

The smallest Kinder is the size of hen’s egg weighting in at 20g, the medium weighs 100g, and the Kinder Surprise Maxi (the big egg every kid wants) is 150g. The Kinder Maxi likely contains the biggest aspiration hazard of them all — a lot of chocolate, followed by a major sugar high, all topped with a massive surprise toy. Woot!

Now, I’m the first to admit that Kinder Surprise Eggs are dangerous stuff. Hazardous toys (cough) aside, have you seen the prices on these banned beauties? The small egg cracks in at $0.99, the medium ostrich-sized egger is $4.98, and the Kinder Maxi maxes out at $9.98. Are you choking yet? No wonder the American border police banned these silly stuffed eggs — they’re expensive!

So, in my bid to bring ‘surprise eggs’ to the masses, I’ve devised a secret plot to help Americans (and cost-conscious Canadians) build a safer, cheaper, and healthier secret egg.

Cracked Open: Make your own surprise eggs and customize the toys and candy for the tastes of a boy or girl.

(Yes, I painted a replica Kinder Surprise Egg. Yes, this was a crazy feat. Don’t do it — make a prettier egg using my paper mache method below.)

That’s right people, by cracking open your kitchen supplies, blowing up a balloon, and getting creative, adults and three-year-olds alike can now enjoy chocolate eggs with safer (larger) toy surprises, healthier (higher quality) chocolate, more colorful wrapping, and fewer bans by the border police. Smile.

Here’s how to to make a medium-sized 100g mock Kinder Surprise egg for $0.99 — a savings of 80%.

How to make a Surprise Egg

This is a fun and frugal paper mache craft for the kiddlets. Just be sure to keep the candy, chocolate, and toys a secret so your kid can open the egg and still be surprised.

Egg building supplies:

• Small balloons (blow up to an egg shape)
• White tissue paper
• Colorful tissue paper
• Corn starch
• Crafty hole punch or scissors
• Paint brush
• Small glass (to hold egg while you’re building)
• String (to hang eggs to dry)
• Toys and candy (seek bulk supplies for frugal pricing)
• Tape and needle (for popping balloon)
• Optional: ribbon, for opening egg
• Optional: paint

Cost Cutting Tip: Buying dollar store craft supplies, shopping for smallish toys out of season (or on sale), and sourcing quality candy in bulk are the best ways to keep your surprise egg frugal. Using these tactics, each egg cost me under a buck to make.

Check Out: 50 Gift Ideas from the Dollar Store and 12 Gift ideas disguised as Christmas ornaments, and How to make your own Christmas Crackers for many frugal egg stuffing ideas.

STEP ONE: Blow. Put your lips together and blow an egg shaped (and sized) balloon. Mine mimic Kinder’s 100g medium-sized surprise egger.

STEP TWO: Layer. Using corn starch paper mache glue (recipe below) and an old paint brush, glue a layer of white tissue paper onto the balloon. I created a simple paper sleeve, positioned the balloon within it, and layered three pieces of tissue paper onto the balloon. You’ll need to measure the tissue paper sleeve to fit your balloon. Be sure to keep a space at the base of the balloon clear of tissue paper.

A small glass is a good base from which to work.

If you’re painting the eggs, let layers dry overnight by hanging your balloons with string.

Paper Mache Recipe:

1. Scoop 3 tablespoons of corn starch into a small bowl.
2. Add just enough cold water to mix and dissolve starch. The mixture should be clump-free and look milky.
3. Quickly whisk in 1 to 1.5 cups boiling (still bubbling) water. The starch should change from milky to a gray, translucent goop. Don’t stop adding water until the color changes and the glue reaches the consistency of thick gravy.
4. Use right away.

STEP THREE: Decorate. Egg painters should start painting only when the white tissue paper is dry. Those using colorful tissue paper can start to decorate when the white tissue paper is still damp.

Using craft hole punches or pretty hand-cut shapes, apply a single layer of colorful tissue paper to your egg with the corn starch glue.

Hang to dry overnight.

STEP FOUR: Pop. When the paper mache (or paint) is completely dry, place a square of tape at the exposed base of the balloon — this prevents the balloon from popping too quickly and destroying your egg. Stick a needle into the tape and slowly allow the air to escape. Gently remove the balloon.

With scissors, cut a two-inch incision down your egg to create space for surprise stuffing.

STEP FIVE: Stuff. Gently place your chocolate, candy, stuffed animals, puzzles, or toys into your egg. You could even write a message to a loved one and pop it into the egg. Perhaps a marriage proposal? Sky’s the limit, people.

Stuffed critters are a great filler for keeping your surprise egg from collapsing under the weight of candy.

Bunnies may be best for Easter.

Hop on over to 8 Ways to celebrate Easter for under $5 for egg dying tips and fun games to play on Easter.

I bought a three-pack of small, quality, stuffed animals on sale for under a dollar.

STEP SIX: Close. Tape some string or ribbon along the inside of the egg incision to seal the surprise. Pull the string, and the child can easily open the egg to reveal the stuff inside.

Use leftover tissue paper and starch glue to close the hole.

ENJOY!

If you’re into it, use photographs to further personalize the egg. Do you have fancy handwriting? Write scripty letters to illustrate a message. Or just add some holiday stickers and decorate to your heart’s desire. Creativity is free.

My big eared dog makes a great Kinder Surprise bunny, dontcha think?

Love,
Kerry

Love the blog? Get the book: 397 Ways to Save Money

Top Squawks

• How to make a budget (series with downloads)
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• Frugalicious Recipes
• 50 Ways to Save $1,000 a Year
• Credit Card Calculator
• Download your free 92-page eBook: The Insider’s Guide To Frugal Food & Fitness