Need to save money, tell me how to waste less

Hi, I have some questions;
1. Anyone else out there with a small family. Its just Dd and I at the moment and our fridge keeps piling up with leftovers, which sometime get eaten but often after the first day they just get left. (Im not the greatest cook) How do you cook for just two.. or 1 1/2? Our freezer has leftovers too!
2. We buy all our fruit n veg at the markets once a week, and by halfway through the week the fruit is soft and the veg wilted. Can I chop it up and put it in the freezer at the start of the week? Will it kill the vitamins? Do I have to par-cook it first?
3.How do you work leftovers into your meal plan?
Thanks v much for your help,
xx

I would have a tupperware party hun. Honestly, stuff does keep for longer when it is stored properly so maybe look into that. I have had tomatoes in my fridge for 2 weeks and they are still fresh!! And if you have it at your place you can get a fair bit for free.

As for making smaller meals, try halving the amount of each ingredient that you use, or make a rule that you don't cook until the leftovers are gone. Sure that means the same meal 2 nights in a row, but it will save you money.

Monday we had chilli. I made a MASSIVE pot of chilli and just enough rice for the 3 of us (DP, DD and me). After we'd eaten i put the left over chilli into tupperware pots that hold enough for 1 (or 1.5 if DD is hungry, i just make extra rice/pitta) and stuck it in the freezer. The next night i made a chicken thai curried-type dish. I used chicken thighs and drumsticks which were free range, and once i'd cut the meat off the bones i tossed the bones into a pot with water, salt, pepper and hebs and boiled them up to make a stock. Once it'd hissed for a while (i use the pressure cooker) i took the bones out. I made rice to go with the thai curry, then chopped a half swede and some carrots and tossed them in with the chicken stock and added some pearl barley to make a soup.

We ate dinner, there was a teeny bit of curry left so it went in the fridge. The next day DP took soup to work for lunch, and DD had a bowl for dinner. Today i had the tiny bit of curry and the half cup of soup that was left for lunch.

If i were you i'd work out a week or two of meal plans. THEN buy what you need for those meals, rather than buying things then trying to use them up. If you're making a meal like bolognese, chilli, curry, lasagne, cottage pie, anything that can freeze, buy ingredients in bulk, make a lot extra, put it into storage containers (plastic takeaway tubs, any tupperware you have, plastic containers from sauces or soups you buy) and freeze it. if you PLAN what you're eating you will always know what you're doing with your leftovers and won't be left with masses of them in the fridge and no hope of eating them before they go off. With accompanyments (pasta, rice etc.): experiment. I have a cup i KNOW holds enough pasta for 1, and a cup i KNOW half full is enough rice for one, and i am careful about how much i make (neither being good to keep/reheat). You can weigh out what the packet suggests, then put it into a container you own to see how full it is (so you can visually assess next time, without having to weigh) then cook it and decide if you thought it was enough, not enough or too much.

Bx

buy in bulk and plan to freeze full meals. as the girls mentioned, making up a big serve of spag bol is better than a small lot that you eat some and freeze. plan to make alternative meals with it. for us, spag bol mix is made into spag bol for that meal, spag bol (frozen), pasta bake (next night) and pasta bake (frozen meals). we usually cook up a kilo of mince into spag, so HEAPS given there are only two of us. we have found cheap containers that are perfect size for us for a meal. for DH, it's a meal, for me, it's about a meal and a half. if i can't eat the extra half meal for lunch or whatever, it goes to the dogs (one advantage of fur babies). we also get the disposable metal trays with lids for freezing pasta bake (spag bol topped with white sauce) in individual meals.

we put MASSES of veg in everything. if veg is starting to look a bit wilted, we'll do spag bol or a braise, and put all the veg in it. dice it up small and throw it in. it's not unusual for us to have 7 or more vegies in spag bol...

in the end, when we have leftover veg, i'll grab a piece of pumpkin, chop up all the veg, throw it in a pot with some chicken stock, and make soup. we do this at least once a fortnight. the amount of soup depends on how much veg is starting to get beyond it's best.

in your situation, it might be better to shop weekly rather than fortnightly, or twice a week rather than once. only buy what you KNOW you will use so that you don't waste stuff. with fruit, google cake/muffin recipes that use the fruit (banana, apple, peach etc) - they are freezable so you can have a mixture of things sitting there, take them out early in the day for arvo tea or whatever...

The biggest saving for us has been from buying a deep freezer and buying all our meat in bulk.

We were buying it as we needed it from the supermarket (disorganisation mainly lol) and it was costing us a fortune. I was seriously starting to cut back the amount of meat we were eating.

Bit the bullet a couple of weeks ago and went and bought bulk again - for $130 we got:

A whole rump - sliced free by lovely butcher (about 6kg) - $8.99 kg...sure beats paying $21/kg at the supermarket for a few slices.
A side of lamb
2kg of mince
2kg chicken breasts
1kg chicken thighs
1kg bacon.

This will last us for a couple of months.
Seriously it's the only way to do it. The initial outlay is higher but you just save bucketloads.
And we're eating much better too.