Grocery Budget Waste

Like many moms, I spend a lot of time and energy working on the grocery budget for my family. It's one of the few flexible areas in our family finances where I can cut back. So I clip coupons, study grocery store fliers, plan the menu, and frequently search the web for tips on how other mothers save money in this area.
In the August issue of "All You" magazine, I read an interesting tidbit. They said that the average family throws away $72 of food a month! Now I believe that my family is more frugal than that, but it did make me think about how helpful it can be to notice what is being wasted. By monitoring wastefulness, you can know when you need to give smaller portions, buy in a smaller quantity, or not buy something at all if your family just won't eat it. When you see which leftovers got eaten, then you know which meals are a hit and which are a miss.
The magazine suggested that you should go through your fridge once a week, and pull the leftovers or expiring goods to a designated leftovers area. What a great idea! That way, you can know what you need to work into the menu and what you can suggest for snacking.

For accountability, I thought I'd list what my family wasted this week:
*2 bananas (thought I'd get around to making banana nut muffins but didn't happen)
* partial head of romaine (can't believe this didn't get used)
* many hot cross buns (total baking disaster-think I made hot cross rocks instead)

Honestly, I really didn't watch too close during the week so there may have been other items. This is just what I threw out today when I cleaned my fridge. I now have the official leftover/expiring goods area, so hopefully next week we will waste less!