Saving Money by Eating More?

I know it sounds odd right? Perhaps I should rephrase my entry title to Saving Money by Wasting less because that is really what my goal is for this month. The very nice thing is that the hubby (S) is on board as well.It is so embarrassing because it feels like every time we get ready to go grocery shopping (we do a big trip usually once a month or so) we end up filling up almost a garbage bag of expired food from the fridge and this time after organizing our pantry...almost another garbage bag of expired products. I was even horrified to find some packaged things from 2012 unopened. Eek! Part of the problem I think is that our pantry/closet has 5 shelves but they are VERY deep and things just get pushed to the back and lost. I mean four 1/4 bags of taco chips-what the heck! Why wasn't one bag finished before opening/buying  a new one? I blame S for that one. However, I'm just as guilty as well.

Anyway, in order to combat this we bought some containers from Walmart and organized things into bins like (pasta-huge container for this one), side dishes, snacks, seasonings, baking supplies, etc. Hopefully this will help us to really start to eat what we have first. My goal is to take a weekly inventory and see what we have that can be used for meals and to really keep track of expiration dates. We bought a chest freezer from my coworker over the weekend for $60.00 so I think that will also help a lot for perishable foods.

Ok, that's great you are thinking but what does any of this have to do with your post title? Part of the reason that I think we waste so much food is that I pretty much only eat dinner during the week and meals/snacks on the weekend at home..that is when we don't eat out on the weekend. I'm very notorious for taking a cup of coffee to work and being able to have that sustain me until dinner. Horrible, I know. My body is kind of weird though unlike people who wake up in the morning and the first thing on their mind is food or eating, I honestly do not get hungry until I actually put something into my body to jumpstart my metabolism for the day. I can pretty much go all day without eating. HOWEVER, I DO know how bad that is for my body and also for my mind (brain functioning at its fullest) so I do make an effort to at least eat Lunch and Dinner every day unless I get bogged down at work and simply do not have time. On Sunday I told myself that if I don't eat breakfast then I at least need to start eating more balanced meals instead of just bringing a microwavable side of Stouffer's macaroni and cheese or lasagna, or just the main part of the meal from last night's dinner. For instance- yesterday for lunch I had a sandwich, a nectarine, and 1 part of a snack cake. I also brought yogurt but was way too full to eat it. Today I had a leftover stuffed pepper (I'll have to post the recipe-I use roast beef, provolone cheese, and mushrooms) and I brought a butterscotch pudding to eat but remembered I still had the yogurt from yesterday so I wanted to eat that first instead of it sitting in the fridge forever. I feel by making balanced lunches and taking them to work I'll be using more of our food and wasting less. I am so determined to do this. I don't want to waste a single thing that we bought from Sunday's shopping trip. Tonight my husband's unit has a meeting at 6pm and I have to be at it. Usually we would probably just go out and grab something after since it will be late by then. However, we already planned on hotdogs for tonight (something quick) and I'm determined to actually stick to that and not spend money doing dinner out. Hopefully we don't cave! :)
As for spending- yesterday was a no spend day and if I have my way- today will be one as well. :)