{"id":56121,"date":"2017-04-03T16:51:39","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T20:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/?p=56121"},"modified":"2017-04-04T17:09:24","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T21:09:24","slug":"5-ways-to-stop-throwing-money-down-the-drain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/5-ways-to-stop-throwing-money-down-the-drain","title":{"rendered":"*5* Ways to Stop Throwing Money Down the Drain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"56130\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/5-ways-to-stop-throwing-money-down-the-drain\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?fit=650%2C328&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"650,328\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?fit=300%2C151&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?fit=650%2C328&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-56130\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png\" alt=\"\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?w=650&amp;ssl=1 650w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?resize=300%2C151&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?resize=145%2C73&amp;ssl=1 145w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?resize=59%2C30&amp;ssl=1 59w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?resize=167%2C84&amp;ssl=1 167w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>According to USDA studies, <strong>10% to 40% of a family\u2019s grocery spending is wasted<\/strong> by having to throw away unused food.\u00a0 Avoid throwing your money down the drain by working to reduce waste to zero. \u00a0 It&#8217;s easier than you think with these strategies:<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Serve reasonable portions to children.<\/strong>\u00a0 Serving small portions to young children is often the best way for them to learn to eat only until satisfied, instead of overeating. Start kids off with less and encourage them to ask for more if they&#8217;re still hungry.<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Serve leftovers one night a week<\/strong>-It&#8217;s a free meal! \u00a0Everyone doesn&#8217;t have to have the same thing, and you don&#8217;t have to call it &#8220;leftovers.&#8221; \u00a0When my children were \u00a0young we called it &#8220;crazy dinner&#8221; and they loved it.<\/p>\n<p>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Designate one refrigerator shelf with clear containers of leftovers. \u00a0<\/strong>Good food won&#8217;t get lost in the back of the frig.<\/p>\n<p>4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Eat last night\u2019s dinner for lunch<\/strong>.\u00a0 If you regularly brown bag your lunch, you probably get tired of sandwiches. Why not bring your leftovers from dinner for lunch? Watch your coworkers drool as they eat their bologna sandwiches.<\/p>\n<p>5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong> Think creatively when reusing leftovers, and create menu plans with leftovers and perishables\u00a0in mind<\/strong>.\u00a0 Leftover veggies become a healthy salad.\u00a0 Leftover chicken or beef has a second life in soup.\u00a0 Make sure you plan to eat your perishable foods before they go bad, don&#8217;t let them go to waste!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><i>Stephanie Nelson is the Coupon Mom. With more than 7 million members, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Coupon Mom<\/a> gives members access to thousands of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/printable-coupons-242\" target=\"_blank\">printable coupons<\/a> for groceries, restaurants and more. As the nation\u2019s top expert in couponing across the country, Stephanie has been on every major national television talk show and taught millions how to save money for the past 16\u00a0years. She has been called \u2018\u201dthe rock star of the recession\u201d by the Washington Post and her book,\u00a0The Coupon Mom\u2019s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half, is a New York Times best seller.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; According to USDA studies, 10% to 40% of a family\u2019s grocery spending is wasted by having to throw away unused food.\u00a0 Avoid throwing your money down the drain by working to reduce waste to zero. \u00a0 It&#8217;s easier than you think with these strategies: 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Serve reasonable portions to children.\u00a0 Serving small portions to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-savings-topics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5waystostopthrowingmoneydownthedrain.png?fit=650%2C328&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8FFMs-eBb","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56121"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56131,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56121\/revisions\/56131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}