A Low Cost Weekly Menu Plan

Do you have to recycle your Food Waste??

I came home last week to find a little brown plastic box sitting on the door step labeled ‘Food Waste’. Having studiously ignored it for the last week or so, I finally gave in yesterday and read the instructions. Apparently we are supposed to put ALL our leftover food in it – compost, stale bread, plate scrapings, leftover cooked food etc etc.

Now I am an avid supporter of recycling. We make sure that our recycling bin is bulging every fortnight when it’s emptied. We have an enormous compost heap for fruit and veg scraps, which is threatening to spread beyond its boundaries.

But somehow, I just don’t like the idea of someone collecting up all our plate scrapings and half-eaten chewed bones.

Or maybe – time to be honest – it’s because I’ll finally realise just how much we throw away – no more pretending that when people talk about the appalling amounts of food and drink we throw away uneaten a year, that certainly doesn’t include us. Silly I know.

And yes it is. Apparently we throw away around 24 meals a month, or about £60 a month of uneaten food and drink – stuff that we could have eaten but don’t. That’s £720 a year – now that would be nice!

Whatever the reason, my response to the brown plastic bin is to make VERY sure that nothing goes in it, if I can help it (maybe that’s their intention…)

So this month I’ve menu planned in detail – making sure I know (for example) how to use up the half packet of feta that will be left over from Tuesday. And I’ll weigh out the rice / pasta / potatoes before cooking to ensure I don’t get any of those bowls of leftovers that sit in the fridge for a few days waiting ‘to be used up’ before being chucked into the bin (does that sound familiar?)

And as our cost-cutting efforts continue, this week’s menu is again a budget meal plan – £20 for 5 weekday meals. I’ll publish the recipes as we go along.

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