The Marilyn Devonish #FridgeChallenge – It’s so easy & ecological – Are you in?

I played a game this past week where I had to eat everything in the fridge before going shopping again.

I know that sounds crazy, I mean, what else am I gonna do with the food in the fridge? Right?

Well actually ‘no’ it’s not so crazy, because I noticed that I sometimes do this thing where I might buy something that I fancy on that particular day regardless of what is in the fridge, and then come the end of the week there would be some items that get thrown out because they were past their sell by date or had started to go off.

It was a little weird at first and I had to talk myself into eating what was there rather than just having what I wanted to have in that moment if I didn’t have it in stock. Of course I got over myself and enjoyed whatever I had available.

The Marilyn Devonish #FridgeChallenge
The Marilyn Devonish #FridgeChallenge – Are you in?


This week I am pleased to report that aside from a few withered grapes, and the melon that I just wasn’t in the mood for, there shouldn’t be any wasted food going out.

Why Did I Do It?

I just got kind of upset with myself whenever I was throwing out food that I clearly could have and should have eaten had it not for me being a bit picky or driven by my moods.

I also had the realisation that it was like throwing money away because the supermarkets weren’t giving me this stuff for free, so every piece of food had an equivalent cash value that had come out of my bank account the week before, and there it was, going straight in the trash.  With that analogy I may have well just taken those notes and put them straight in the bin.

The Unexpected Win-Wins

Aside from the cash value of the food that I was sometimes throwing away, any of my close friends will tell you that spending time in the kitchen is not my forte and I tend to lack both creativity and patience in the kitchen department.  I just want to eat and go so that I can get on with doing something far more creative like designing a new Workshop or creating a cool client process.

This little challenge has however made me be a bit more creative;  This week for instance as initially stared at the box of eggs and a few old bananas, I had banana omelettes, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, and egg on toast.  I even threw a banana sandwich in (a childhood favourite) for good measure.   There were also various salad combinations, and some pretty good fruit salads, and a couple of smoothie drinks with the older fruit and veg which I wouldn’t usually get around to doing.

It also made me more conscious about my food choices.

The other upside for me was consolidating my food shopping as it isn’t one of my most favourite activities.

Are You In?

I initially said I would play the game for a week however it has been so much fun, and so satisfying in terms of reducing my food wastage that I’ve decided to play it again.  I have of course varied the items in my shopping basket so that I have some built in variety as I attempted to plan ahead for what my taste buds might fancy in 3 days time.


It’s a fun game, and if you find yourself sometimes throwing food away because you didn’t get round to eating it in time, I highly recommend it.

If you want to play the game feel free to send my your ‘before and after’ fridge photos, updates on any interesting or cool recipes that you discover, and what you notice in terms of a reduction in both your food waste and your weekly grocery shopping bill.

How Do You Play the #FridgeChallenge?

It’s really simple.  You just decide, maybe after your next grocery shop if your fridge is looking a little scary at the moment, that you will finish the perishable goods that are in the fridge before you do another big shop.

You don’t have to scoff down bags of flax seed, bottles of Udo’s oil, or a jar of olives; I consider those the be non-perishables.  I am talking about things such as fruit, vegetables, meat, salsa dips, yoghurt, etc.

That’s it.  It really is that simple.

Do Like & Share

If you like the idea, and whether you want to play or not, please do share this with others that might want to participate.

And if you’re in let’s play with #FridgeChallenge or #FridgeFoodChallenge and see how we go!

Marilyn Devonish ♥

Website: www.tranceformationsTM.com 

E-mail: marilyn@tranceformationsTM.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marilyn.devonish

 

Addendum 

A friend of mine, Christopher Millbank had another great idea as a result of me sharing this first as a post on Facebook.  He suggested that people might donate the savings that they make to a charity of their choice, seeing as how you would have been spending that money anyway.  He also suggested that any food that you are not going to use gets given to a food bank.

I was editing some video footage for a new online Workshop today and I was talking about my advice to people who are giving up smoking.  My suggestion is to always take half of any money saved and physically put it in a jar.  The reason being, if you don’t, it eventually just gets swallowed up into your day to day expenses and you eventually don’t notice the extra savings.  If however a proportion of it goes into a jar, and eventually into a bank account if you choose, it starts to accumulate.  You could do the same with this and put a proportion of your food bill savings, even if it starts out as cents and pence, into a jar.

Do keep the wonderful ideas coming!

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