My husband had assigned one of our housemaid to monitor the food in the fridge particularly the leftover. When the food is old and stale, it will just go to waste. Our barometer for the leftover food is 2 days, that is the maximum and beyond that, we have to throw it away for it is already stale. I think it is a good idea to conform with our policy of eating fresh food all the time.
I think it's a shame to waste good food because of an arbitrary time limit. Some foods last much longer than others.
First, @Corie Henson............you and your husband have housemaids????? Ok, I'm now jealous! Because, at our age, we don't have "iron stomachs", like we did at a much younger age, we end up tossing some leftovers that don't get eaten. Just not going to trust eating something, getting sick and ending up in the ER.
I do have an iron stomach and I'll eat something until I see visible signs that it's moldy or smells off or I may just be sick of it. I've yet to be sick from anything I've eaten in my like. I've never even gotten sick when so drunk that I couldn't remember the night before. Although I don't drink now, I did have some good times in Hungary, lol. Only because I had absolutely no responsibilities...I'm too OCD to get drunk otherwise.
Yes, @Cody Fousnaugh, I understand that having a housemaid is a luxury there but over here, middle class people can afford a housemaid. We actually have 2 to take care of our dogs and act as the housekeeper when we are away. It may be interesting to you that the salary of our housemaids is only $100 per month but it comes with free board and lodging, of course. They also have a day off whenever they wish and we treat them as part of the family since we don't have children. You are right with the food, we have to be discerning with what we eat. And we don't scrimp when it comes to fresh food. Would you believe that even our dogs are not fed with old stock food? And the water is also the purified, tap water may have organisms that is bad for the health of our dogs.
You know what we learned to do t save money and eat fresh? We just cook less, try to eat it all up in 2 days, freeze it if it can be frozen and shop for fresh every 2 or 3 days and not buy fresh in bulk. It isn't easy for you got to shop more, but you'll have fresh, not have too much leftovers and no waste at all. I live half a block from a supermarket, so it's easy to eat fresh for us and we're just 2 in the family, so we try not to waste. We don't particularly like leftovers too, so we change our cooking ways and just have almost no waste. I say almost because I'll admit there are times when I buy too much fresh veggies and we didn't have time to cook it all...now I'm more careful about fresh and buy less like instead of a big head of lettuce which goes fast I buy the smaller heads and eat it all. We're older and eat less too now so the adjustments must be made.
No, we do not freeze food. The only content of our freezer is frozen treats like ice cream aside from ice. And like @Krissttina Isobe, we just cook less that is enough for our consumption. And when we erred in estimating the volume of food, the leftover shall be eaten on the next meal. Last night we had kfc chicken, I bought the promo of 6 pieces. We consumed only 4 so the 2 pieces leftover would serve as lunch of our housemaid for today.
This post is driving me crazy. I didn't know there was so much food wasted. The only way to get really fresh food is to grow it yourself and when you do you will have an abundance when crops get ripe. Some things are harvested all at once while others are picked over and over during the season. Some foods will last for months without refrigeration while others need to be canned or frozen. throwing food away is not an option. Going shopping every few days is also wasteful. Time and gasoline are both wasted by extra trips. Judging by other posts on this forum I'd guess we're better off financially than many of you and could afford to throw food away but that just isn't what we do.
I don't throw food out. I do shop almost everyday but stores are very close so I barely use any gas. I go a whole month on a tank and that includes a round trip to my daughter's house. I have too much time so it's not a time waster for me and gets me out.
@Sheldon Scott Good example for the reason I'm trying to grow our own dates. They are nutritious, delicious, require no preparation (unless included in cakes, etc.), and last forever if refrigerated. Frank
We seldom throw food out either. Since Bobby and I were both used to preparing food in restaurant -sized quantities, it has been a hard transition for us to learn to only cook enough for what we two people will eat. I live fairly close to the store, and we buy mainly fresh foods, or things that we can use for sandwich food. If we cook one meal a day, we are doing good, and we only do that if one or the other of us feels like making something. Bobby eats whatever he wants and I eat what I want, and often, we eat at different times, and we are both comfortable with that. As an example, last night, he wanted an egg over top of oatmeal, and that is what he made for himself. I had salmon salad with cucumber slices. When we do want to make something, then we usually share the meal together though. When there is something left over, usually we feed it to the dogs; and they are always happy with that arrangement. I totally agree with @Sheldon Scott , food is not to be wasted. Like @Chrissy Page , I enjoy going shopping to the store, and since it is close, we do not use much gas either. We do not get great gas mileage; but we do not drive very far, and we usually gas up when we do our monthly shopping trip at Sam's Club.
We throw a lot of food out. Well, it gets composted actually, but I have never been able to eat leftovers, with few exceptions, such as turkey or ham, but even then only for a day or so, and we don't plan our meals well so we tend to buy stuff that expires or goes bad. Oh well, it's worm food.