memes

Planning.

It comes down to planning meals and a certain amount of acceptance that what you've got in the house is what you eat, period, even if the specific food isn't what you're in the mood for at the moment. Fast food, doordash etc are difficult habits to break. They reward your desire to have what you want when you want it, which is a big reward, and can make living on your own food feel like a punishment by comparison. But that feeling is just part of the habit. Eventually it goes away.

This is actually a real issue for a lot of people. The solution that I found is that you should sit down and write out a meal plan for the upcoming week. Like actually sit down and plan out your every meal and include snacks as well. Then write down the things you need to buy for those meals and snacks. Make sure you only put down things that you actually like eating.

When you go shopping take that list with you, and only buy the things you wrote on there and only buy amounts for the meals you're planning for. If by the end of the week, you bought too much, then that means there are meals in your planner that you don't really like. From there, you can refine your list and make improvements every week.

Only buy stuff you're excited to eat

This is probably intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but meal planning is the answer. Block off some time (Sunday evenings are popular), to figure out all your meals for the week, make a list of everything you need to make all the dishes on the menu, go to the store and buy all that stuff and nothing else, make ahead and freeze any meals that you can and do any prep work ahead of time that you can.

Viola: intentional eating, less waste, and always something on hand to eat.

It changed my life in a lot of positive ways.

A slow cooker helps. You can use random ingredients before they go bad easily enough, and you will have left overs so cooking one time results in not having to cook for multiple meals.

I live walking distance from 2 small super markets, I walk to those near every day and just get a few things and I also get hello fresh and I always cook those. So generally my fridge is pretty empty but I always eat well. Just in Time Home Economics you could say.

1. Consider therapy or medication.

2. Buy nonperishables in a higher ratio, such as canned, pickled, or dry goods.

3. If you're not concerned about your health enough to cook your own food every day, then just don't buy food that has to be cooked every day.

4. Remind yourself why you're doing it, set a timer, and get it done. "This is for me. I love good food, I love my body."

I just hunt and eat the homeless. I work for the municipality so I just leave what I don't eat around park benches, bus stops and the front of stores to scare the rest away.

This happens to us - if I cook dinner for everyone, two of us eat, if I cook dinner for two of us, everyone wants to eat. If I make enough for leftovers, nobody takes them to lunch. If I don't make enough, they ask why there is not enough for lunch.

Things that help on your question though -

Canned beans, canned tomatoes, canned coconut milk, canned pumpkin, jarred spaghetti sauce, spices - a lot of our staples are not perishable.

Do you live where you can stop by the store on the way home? Then don't buy perishables for the week, buy them for the meal you are making.

Some foods and meals freeze pretty well, freeze them and keep a list of what's in the freezer so you remember to eat it.

I hate meal planning but it helps a lot. I sometimes put a note on the fridge "we have food for dal with spinach, chicken & cabbage, sheet pan gnocchi with sausage and broccoli, eggs and potatoes" or whatever we have the food to make, and cross them off as they are made.

Some foods make other foods. So if I make a hunk of pork, it's pork, rice and beans then enchiladas then burritos, and so on.

Buy empty deli containers and food prep at least half the meals for the week.

Clean up fridge on day off, note overstock and old stock

Plan meals for the week using the over/old stock.

Use the pickup service at the market instead of shopping so you don't buy stupid things.

When you buy raw meat, cook it within two days, even if you're just going put it back into containers, it'll last far longer.

Buy stuff you don't have to cook. It's crap nutritionally, but at least it isn't wasted!

Perishables take more planning. Get just enough and have a plan to use it. Use canned and frozen food to account for uncertainty. Be aware of expiration dates of your food and plan accordingly.

Freeze stuff

Walk yo and from the grocery store

Buy stuff that will last a while

Grow your own produce

Buy food that has a long shelf life - lentil, rice, beans, canned vegetables, salsa jars. As a bonus it also doesn't have to be refridgerated.

Freeze your fresh bread and only defrost the amount that you're going to eat.

Cook in bulk for the week. Grocery shopping on Saturday, cooking on Sunday. Then all you have to do is heat things up at meal time.

*I should clarify that you only need to refrigerate, not freeze, the type of stuff I'm talking about. Works better if you're vegetarian

Use a software/app to meal plane. (Mealie/Tandoor) You pick the recipes you fancy for the days/week/whatever period. It generates a grocery list containing exactly what is needed for the meals you chose, nothing else.

I haven't thrown away anything in a couple years now. Oh and freeze leftovers if needed.

Meal plan. Write what you're cooking for the week, buy only ingredients for that.

Anything uncooked goes in the freezer, you can defrost and cook/reheat a lot of food, stop throwing stuff away.

If you don't have a good sized freezer, buy one. There are small ones that fit in any home.

Too many veggies? Chop them up and put them in quart sized containers. You can add them to any soup or stew.

I have a five quart pot; make chili/stew/soup and freeze in pint size containers.

My house has a good freezer, here's the first i searched out as an example.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Magic-Chef-3-5-cu-ft-Manual-Defrost-Chest-Freezer-in-White-HMCF35W5/313922431

Why are you buying perishable food items in bulk? Are you an inarticulate fopdoodle?

I found that visitng shop frequently and buying a little each time helps with this. Also, knowing what you have and planning what to cook with stock in mind. Also, one might find better to buy at small grocery stores (turkish in my area). These have ability to buy as an example 10 or less potatoes instead of fixed 2.5kg of potatoes. That way you're not bound to swiftly eat potatoes before they rot.

Meal planning is overwhelming to me, so I made a habit of rotating a selection of staple meals with fewer, more stable ingredients. PB or eggs scrambled with cheese on toast for a breakfast. A salad of chickpeas, carrot, broccoli and avocado with a whole-wheat roll, or a lentil/rice bowl, for lunch. Precook larger batches of freezer-friendly staples like chickpeas, lentils, rice, turkey burgers, meatloaf, tomato gravy - reserve 2-3 days' supply and freeze portioned batches of the rest. Allow yourself less experimental ingredient buys per grocery run - so if it turns out they don't synergize with your staples, you're not accumuating a lot of dead-end ingredients.