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Meal plan. Write what you're cooking for the week, buy only ingredients for that.
Anything uncooked goes in the freezer, you can defrost and cook/reheat a lot of food, stop throwing stuff away.
Problem is that some of us have freezers the size of matchboxes, so it is very limited what leftovers we can put in the freezer. It's something I have attempted to tell my parents who have big freezers and lots of good ideas to how you can buy this and that in bulk and just freeze it for later and save so much money!! Cool. But my freezer is still the size of a matchbox.
Protip: Save up, buy a dedicated freezer. Like a "redneck hunter's garage" style one. Nothing fancy, just a white box with a dial on the front for how cold you want it. Cheaper than the fancy flashy fridge freezer combos, and much more usable space (although you have to stack stuff inside). A lot cheaper than you'd expect. They also come in a variety of sizes, from small to "I need space for three bodies".
Awesome. Where should I put it? I live in a small apartment. My kitchen is the size of a shoebox.
If you have space for like a bedside table, or a coffee table, or even a table table, you have space for a small chest freezer. It doesn't necessarily have to be in the kitchen.
Looks like the average small ones are only about 3.5 cubic feet. I've rarely seen 1.2 cubic feet ones as well.
That said, if all you have is one of those small kitchenettes with barely enough space for a microwave, you're kind of kneecapped in terms of food prep in other ways as well.
Pro tip
Move to a bigger house
Can't afford it atm. Not everybody is rolling in money xD
Pro tip: earn more money
What a wonderful community this is.
Drawback, you'll likely have to defrost those regularly.
Defrosting isn't a big deal. I decide what I want to eat tomorrow, I take it out the freezer and put it in the fridge, by the time I want to eat its defrosted and good to reheat.
Edit: ignore me, I was thinking of defrosting food not defrosting the ice build-up in the freezer
Pretty sure they mean in terms of scraping out ice that can build up on the walls of the inside.
Oh of course! Now I feel dumb.
I'm lucky my freezer has some anti-frost thing built in so I haven't had to yet, but yeah my old freezer was a pain for it.
That doesn't stop you from Meal Planning ahead and only buying what you need for that week.
And leftovers can often make great soups, stews, and curries. They can last in the fridge for about a week.
Sure, but I just wanted to point out that some of us do not have freezers that can store a lot of food. Whenever I see people being like "just freeze the leftovers" I look at my freezer like "how?". If I put a bag of beans, a bag of ice and some springrolls in there, it is filled to the brim.
People shouldn't assume that everybody have tons of space to store perishable foods. That's all.
In my household we usually go for small packs of food when we shop groceries. Meats and vegetables etc. We go for small sizes because we don't want to end up throwing out food. It's not cheaper, but it is less wasteful in the long run.
I have a reasonable sized freezer, not a huge one, but I feel like if I put a bag of ice in it I'd have very little space. Ice cube trays will leave you with more room.
Very true! It does feel like playing tetris with that little box sometimes, haha.
This is valid and identifiable!
I gave multiple ways to reduce food waste. You only responded about the freezer and clung to it, you're still talking about it. If you have your own method to not waste food then this post and my comment aren't about you, stop playing the victim.
I'm not playing victim. I'm just pointing out that some people have tiny freezers.
Then use any other of the methods suggested, stop going on about freezers!
You really do not have to be this aggressive, my dude. I don't have meal planning issues, I just wanted to bring up one aspect of meal planning that doesn't always work for everybody.
People work with what they have, I just wanted to mention the thing about freezers because people tend to always assume that everybody has a lot of freezer space, which isn't the case. That is all. No need to get all bent out of shape over it.
Oh my god youre still going on about freezers, just stop it. No one cares. Multiple methods were said, go do one of those and ignore the bit on freezers, how many times? Are you just trying to be a troll or something? Stop replying.
I did talk about how we do things in my household but you completely ignored that part and went hysterical about the freezer part. I then tried to explain to you why I brought up the freezers and now you're having a conniption. Maybe you're just having a bad day or something or maybe we are talking past one another, but I was not trying to troll you. I guess that it doesn't matter what I say though, but I hope our paths will cross another time where we don't talk past each other like this.
No one went hysterical, you're just being obsessive and weird and still continuing to go on about something I dont care about, in fact no one cares about, yes we're past talking, I asked you to stop replying and yet you're still here, moaning. Just leave me alone, I couldn't give a fuck anymore, just go away and live without a big freezer in peace. I hope our paths never cross again, you're weird and annoying.