It is Food Waste Friday and I’m pleased to say that being accountable for my waste is making a real difference.
I got asked a great question this week (thanks Pip): “Have you found that doing it in public has helped more than just giving yourself a stern talking to?”.
The answer is a big YES. Obviously, going public is highly motivating, but there is more to it than that. Before starting this project, I felt guilty about my waste, but harsh self-criticism and bad feelings weren’t making much of a difference. Now when I waste food, I don’t feel as bad about it. I know I’ve made a good effort to reduce my waste and I use it as a learning opportunity to improve my systems.
And it is working! This week I’m happy to report zero food waste – until this happened.
Broken jar of capsicums – #FoodWasteFriday 10 July 2015
I had my groceries delivered via online shopping this morning. Unfortunately a jar of roasted capsicums broke en-route to our place.
I seriously considered emptying the contents of the jar into a sieve and giving it a good rinse. However, I really don’t want to risk feeding my family glass. That might take my mission to reduce waste a bit too far. Maybe if the jar was just cracked, but it was actually smashed. So, unfortunately, it had to go in the bin.
I used to use online shopping for groceries regularly when my son was a newborn. Now, I only use it once every couple of months. Today, it was because we really needed food and my husband had the car all day for a meeting in an out-of-the-way location.
I have noticed that when I buy my groceries online I always spend less. This isn’t because it’s cheaper, but because I buy less. It is much less tempting to pop extras into my online shopping cart than my in-store one. It got me thinking that online shopping might be a good tool for people who regularly over-buy due to in-store temptation.
A final note, a big thank you to Love Food Hate Waste NZ who spread the word about #FoodWasteFriday last week.
How was your food waste situation this week? Do you buy groceries online? How do you find the experience compared to in-store shopping?
No Comments
MrsKirstyHoll
July 10, 2015 at 1:13 pmThat’s interesting. My husband and I were considering using our Local Tesco’s Click and Collect service for the same reason…. although their prices are going up slowly so I may have to learn to stick to my shopping list and shop in LIDL 🙁 Shame about the peppers :'(
bellacommonsense
July 10, 2015 at 9:51 pmI shop at Aldi, so online shopping is out for me 🙁 I find that the fact that Aldi has a smaller range of things means that I don’t toss extras into my trolley.
http://www.abyteofcommonsense.com/?p=367
Amy
July 10, 2015 at 9:55 pmI loved shopping at Aldi when I Iived in the UK. It hasn’t made it as far as New Zealand yet. I agree fewer options does help to make fewer purchases.
Fiona
July 17, 2015 at 7:36 amI have shopped online at various times in our life, and yes, one does buy less! But sometimes I needed to top it up with things from an actual shop, anyway. Due to my lack of planning, I guess! So annoying about your cracked jar. But I’m sure the savings canceled that out!
Chelsea
August 16, 2015 at 9:36 amThat’s funny because I decided the opposite- online grocery shopping costs me more! For some reason, I would end up spending about 1/3 more when shopping online (about $200 in shop and $300 online). Our online groceries come from a bigger city about 1 1/2 hours away (I know, it doesn’t make sense when we have that same grocery store in our town) but because its coming from a bigger shop, there’s more options so I think that increased my purchases, but also I think I found it easier to leisurely skim through specials etc when shopping online, whereas when shopping in store I’m much more focused, and have a list and generally stick to it. I guess it’s more of a chore shopping in store and more pleasureable online which = more spending for me!