No angela the items you have listed are not trivial at all. Or rather, each on their own may be a trifling, but taken together they do add up to a considerable amount at the end of the year.

I think your idea is excellent, because by the mere presence of this list, each member of the family will think now before discarding anything. Take the rotting pear. I bet half of it can still be eaten - ok, perhaps this is really scraping the bottom of the barrel, but just think about it.

Oh this is really great! I live on my own and I'm careful about waste, but I'm sure many here with families will benefit from your idea!

Well I did use up the rest of the contents of the fruitbowl also as a result. 2 plums and a pear. I made fruit cobbler for desert-added a few sultanas also. By noticing one item I saved 3 more from the bin.I am going to try and take out half a loaf of bread at a time now from the freezer so that the bread is alwas fresh and therefore gets eaten. Now the other pear really was past anything-I cut it up to check though. My list also brought up a discussion regarding wasting water and I brought up the subject of water meters to dd now 13-we don't have one so this was a new idea to her.

I think a water meter is a good idea because I heard that you generally pay a bit less than a fixed water rate. Every little help, so look for everyway to keep more of your money in your pocket. Amazing how it all adds up week by week, year by year. And without making changes to one's lifestyle.

this is a great idea ang, I'll be starting one!

Hello everybody

I didn't realise how wasteful we'd become but recently I've become increasingly aware of my waste. Our bin gets collected fortnightly with weekly recycling collections, our bin would be overflowing each fortnight. Now as a result of meal planning and buying only what we need our bin is now half full!!!
Other things I have done is to return my carrier bags to Tesco's and recycle them, but I am going to invest in the bags for life so that I can earn extra points, when I buy a loaf of bread I split it in half and freeze it and any that doesn't get used we use to feed the birds/ducks.
I've become more aware of the packaging and try as much as possible to use packaging that can be recycled by our local authority (there are certain things that they can't recycle at the moment.)
I'm would like to try and get this reduced some more so if you have any more ideas let me know!!

LMS xx

Great idea. I did this on my own (list in kitchen but only me who flings anything) and it shocked me into changing my ways completely. I threw out over £20 worth of food in just one week. I seem to have thrown a few silly items out lately, like chicken I forgot to freeze etc so going to start a list again.

To save on paper waste I make a template for lists and laminate them then wipe clean each week/month.

What great idea! I'm going to try this too.

I heard Margurite Patten on R4 t'other week talking about how during WW2, the government encouraged thrift by saying that if every family in the country wasted 1 slice of bread, this was the equivalent of 2 shiploads of wheat!

(She recommended turning stale slices to crumbs and freezing them.)

Very good idea Angel

Fabulous idea! I'm in - since coming on to this site I have changed my habits SO much - sometimes with rather odd results re mealtimes, but hey!
Well done you...

Living alone certainly makes you realise how much stuff could potentially be saved as there is only yourself that causes or prevents it. I think I have just about got the food/household side of it sorted now and can go about 6 weeks before the wheelie bin needs to be emptied, that is mainly due to having a multifuel stove and the ash produced is very heavy. I have stopped buying newspapers so that is another source of waste gone. The "food" waste is generally packing as I quickly realised that a lot of my freezer space was fresh air due to boxes that were part empty, now stuff gets clingfilmed or foiled and this has given me loads of room in my ikkle freezers. (Note to self - Start labeling things!!!)

Last month I had both Economy 7 and a water meter fitted. They reckon that low water usage for a single household is about 40 - 50 cubic meters a year, that is a LOT of water - 40 to 50 thousand litres or around 10 thousand gallons a year - ridiculous! Mine was fitted on the 10 of March and so far I have used 1 cubic meter and a few thousanths of another meter. That means that I will hopefully get the water usage down to about 15 cubic meters a year. Also in a few weeks the bath will end up in the garden (chav style) as a nice new shower cubicle is going in and the waste will be going into a butt for recycling.

The electric usage is a doing well too, my usage is almost 50/50 low/high rate. All this has taken is the clever use of timers for dishy and sploshy and being bothered to get out of my pit in the morning and having a shower whilst the lower rate is still on. It is easier now as mine runs from 0105 to 0805 but in winter it is all an hour earlier and sometimes I missed the morning !!. The kitchen hot water is made in an undersink heater that is timed so in the morning it is a case of running a bowl of hot water for the clean down etc and letting it reheat before the timer goes off, this lasts me all day. When the bath goes the copper cylinder will get weighed in too! as the basin in the bathroom is getting an undersink instantaneous heater so I will not have to store any heated water at all and also will waste less as there will be almost no pipe losses.

I need to work on the freezers next - Does anyone know if a freezer will last all day turned off and be on all night to recover???

I think there are some special energysaving plugs you can buy but I wouldn't risk turning it off in case you forgot to put it back on. Depends if you are opening the freezer often and letting in warm air I suspect. Also depends on age of freezer and how energyefficient it is.

Wastage today was just 5p. One portion of carrots.

Oh No, I should have done that! I threw some slices out today [wrist slapped], will turn them into crumbs next time...
Apart form the bread we don't throw much out nowadays (thanks to this site) but I will keep track too just to see if I'm right.

I found that homemade bread was going off as I forgot to halve it and freeze half. (We don't eat much at the moment) I now make rolls and freeze them. The defrost quickly in the micro when needed. I have a big bag of breadcrumbs in the freezer which I don't use much. Note to self. check site for breadcrumb usage. No more wasted bread now though!

I can't answer your question, but I can show you this page - http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html

Fab ideas, thanks everyone! My neighbours are mystified about why I only need to put my wheelie bin out once every 2 months!!

I've found that having a couple of cloth bags to take shopping has made a massive difference - and not buying fuit and veg at the supermarket as it's SO over-packaged.

Planning meals has also dramatically cut down on wastage for me too.

I turn any stale bread into crumbs, I chuck it in the foodprocessor along with any oddments of cheese, this makes a nice topping for shepherds pie or fish pie when browned under the grill.
I did consider having a water meter fitted, but am now glad I didn't as my lodger turns all the taps on in the bathroom when she gets up at 6:30 & seems to leave them running for an hour or more.
Hester

The list is a great idea! I often make bread pudding out of old bread as it keeps forever (and saves me having to make other cake too, so i save two ways!). We don't have a freezer at the moment, I find most stuff keeps fairly well but we could be better I'm sure.

My goldfish tend to be the recipents of the ends of cucumbers, for some reason they really like cucumber and it stops them shredding the aquarium plants.

I remember when I first went to uni and coming from a large family really wasn't aware of things spoiling; bread and cake didn't get cold, let alone stale. I remember making going to make omelette with eggs that were beyond nasty...and it still makes me shudder! Learnt alot since then though!

great idea !

If I find any bread in the bread bin that has gone stale, I pop it in the freezer even if it is only one slice. After a while, I have enough to make a bread pudding.