Knew I had some sweet potatoes in the freezer. Looked for them to have with dinner...found another set I had frozen a different time. It was like buying more but not having to pay for them - obviously need to figure out how to track freezer portions better than have been!!!

Turns out I am the driver of eating leftovers. I was unexpectedly away the last couple of days, and in spite of TELLING people what they should eat, they did not...compost bin saw a lot more content than I was hoping today.

Always the black beans. We make nachos and then I use the remaining beans in my rice lunches, however, there are often a few that go bad before I can finish them....How do they multiply in the container every night?

Fair food is better with friends!!

We attend a small fair every year and have our set menu. This year due to a variety of reasons, we had different people attending on different days. This made our eating a bit more challenging, having fewer people to share certain things with meant we bought less (good and bad). I had way more nacho chips than I wanted, and some ate more ice cream than they needed (thank heavens for lactose pills ;) )!

I appreciated how our bigger group was aware of waste and we all chose responsible buying over having everything we wanted.

Went to Target and stuck to the list completely (where is my reward???).

Oddly enough I am finding the more you say no the easier it gets. We also went to an estate sale today and there was some good stuff!!! Like with food deals - if there is no plan/time/room we don't need it. I actually didn't feel guilty after either event so am quite pleased for the day!!

Today my kids learned that if you drop bread on the ground and try to wash it off, it just gets soggy and there are no family members willing to eat it....so it ends up in compost.

Tomorrow is city compost pickup...will see what comes out of the fridge to be added...We will log it and feel guilty ;)

Yesterday one of the kids pulled out the compost and looked at the list we have been keeping: Someone is not writing down what they put in here, let's look at what is in here!

One of those moments of hope...

I talked to several people about the food waste challenge that I would normally not have. Some had no interest, but one wanted to learn more. I take that as a WIN!!

Part of this reaching out was just to fulfill a challenge, but as I step out of my comfort zone I am realizing that a lot of people do not really think about waste the way I do.

For most people I am finding that the waste is money you throw away concept really hits home!