Smart Savings

Week 5: Smart Savings, Eat What You Buy

Like boarding an airplane there is an order to using up items in the refrigerator. Make sure you are aware of what food needs to be eaten first to avoid having it go bad—wasting money and resources.

A good practice to make sure you’re eating the food you’ve purchased is to make a list each week of what needs to be used up first. Then use this list to meal plan and/or create a leftover list to post on the refrigerator, letting your family know what foods to eat up first. You can also designate a section of your refrigerator for leftover storage.

Resources

Leftover List: Tape this list to the outside of your fridge and write a note each time you put leftovers in there. Use it as a reference so that you don't forget to eat it up!

Eat Me First Sign: Tape these signs to items in your frigde when you know they need to be eaten up! They will catch your eye so that you don't forget to eat it up!

El Burrito Mercado Video (Spanish): Check out these cooking tips for using up leftover Pico de Gallo

El Burrito Mercado Video (English): Check out these cooking tips for using up leftover Pico de Gallo

Guestimator: Use this tool to plan how much food you will need to feed your guests without having a ton of leftovers. 

Recipes for Leftovers

We’ve put together some of our Public Works Team’s favorite recipes for using up leftovers. Follow the links to access recipes:

Smart Savings Translations

Last Edited: October 31, 2023