It’s no surprise that we live in an extremely wasteful society. When we tire of something, it either goes straight into the bin, or “donated” – which usually also ends up in a bin somewhere. We’ve become a take and trash society where no one reduces, reuses or recycles anymore because it’s become “inconvienient”. As a frugal person, I discovered very quickly that it didn’t matter how much I was saving on my groceries if I was throwing half of it away, it didn’t matter if I bought toys at a discount, if my daughter was never playing with them. I had to drastically change the way I looked at items coming into my home, and how I could make the best use of their life.
Honestly as a cheap person, I never really considered grocery delivery. I had my list, and I went to the store and it never failed I would somehow end up with 10+ items that were never on my list to begin with and subsequently, my meal plans would be out of whack and I would end up wasting food. Every week when I did our grocery shop I was extremely ashamed of all of the produce and fruit I was composting, how had so much of it gone to waste?
Recently, Spud.ca contacted me to share their #LetsNotWaste initiative and to test out their delivery service. I buy organic when I can – when it’s available at my local supermarket and the quality is there, but honestly a lot of times it isn’t. Most supermarkets just care about having their shelves stocked by the “best available at the time”. Often times this means the quality is poor, fruit and vegetables are close to being past expiry and you eventually toss it all away! Spud offers an amazing online store stocked full of the absolute best locally sourced, sustainable products and food. Your fruit and vegetables are hand picked by a Spud staff member who takes pride in what they are sending to your door – enough so that they include a note with your delivery. I like knowing that someone is picking the absolute best for me, when I’m not able to myself.
Most grocery shops and eating out consist of a lot of packaging. From processed food boxes, Styrofoam containers, plastic bags, the list is endless. I was so impressed that with my first order from Spud, all of the packaging within the box is reused. They simply ask that you leave ice packs, freezer bags, cardboard boxes and literature in the box to be reused. How wonderful is that? I opened up our box to find an ammmmazing array of fruits. In fact, within 5 minutes of opening our box both Ry and Alivia had run off with their favourite fruits before I could even grab a picture (there’s 7 missing from this photo!). As soon as they had grabbed their faves I was able to unpack the fruit straight into the kitchen, toss everything back into the bin and set it outside. Spud picks it up with my next delivery, or you can schedule a bin pick up. I kinda loved that. No excuse for not recycling when everything stays in the container.
I quickly discovered that by having delicious fruit on hand, it was being eaten a lot more. We have another delivery set for this week and ordered the “Fruit for the Week” box and it lasted a family of 3 just over 8 days. I didn’t need to go to the grocery store at all during the week for fruit for lunches, which in turn not only saved me money in the long run, but also saved me time.
So, up front on this… with me being a frugal person – did I actually find value in the box? Yes, I absolutely did. Ry and I usually buy our produce and fruit at our local warehouse store and while it may be about 5-10% cheaper, when I factor in that I don’t just buy what I went for, the commute and the time shopping in the end, it doesn’t end up being cheaper for me. Spud also offers a lot of incentives, $10 off your first order of $50, free delivery days and follow up promotions (ours was $20 off a $40 order, win!). Time using these promotions with sales on their website and you can easily grab good quality organic foods within your budget.
So will you join me and take the #LetsNotWaste challenge? Here’s my top 5 tips for lowering your grocery waste;
- Mealplan Mealplan, Mealplan! I cannot stress this enough. Before you even write your grocery list, plan what you want to have for dinners next week. Keep a flyer close by and match up sales/deals to what you’d like to make.
- Try not to stray from your list. Spend 10 minutes before you leave to go shopping to check your cupboards, do you really need Ketchup, or do you have another bottle hiding somewhere? I allow myself a bit of wiggle room if there is an unadvertised sale, but mostly I am a stickler for my list.
- Shop local. Another thing I cannot stress enough. Spud sources a lot of their fruit and produce locally when able, lowering the cost for the consumer in the long run. I also visit a lot of farmers markets when fruit is in season and stock up.
- Take advantage of your freezer – if you aren’t going to make it through a batch of bananas, or a bag of peppers. Chunk them up and freeze them for smoothies, or slice them up and use them in stirfry. Most fruit and veggies freeze super well and can really assist in your meal planning.
- Learn how to properly store your fruit and vegetables. A lot of root vegetables shouldn’t be washed until you are about to use it and are best stored in a dark, cool place. Apples last forever in the fridge, some fruit should be washed beforehand, and others not. Learning how to properly store your produce can maximize the life expectancy and give you a chance to enjoy it!
Did you know?
– You will spend 5 years of your life waiting in line ups? (The average time it takes to shop at SPUD.ca is 12 minutes)
– Canadians waste $31,000,000,000 of food each year (SPUD.ca has the lowest food waste in the grocery industry)
– Not eating enough vegetables and fruit is a major risk factors for heart disease and stroke, yet only 45% of children aged 12 to 19 eat at least 5 servings (the minimum recommended) of fruits and vegetables daily
– For anyone and everyone, share via social media using the hashtag #letsnotwaste how you plan to not waste the year and earn a chance to WIN a full year of groceries for free.
Would you like to try out Spud with me? You can use my referral code CRVAN-JENTAC and receive $20 off your first order of $50 or more, time this with a free delivery day and you’re saving 50% right from the start! I encourage you to try their weekly fruit box and let us know how it is. Over our 2 weeks, we literally didn’t throw away a SINGLE piece of fruit, every bit was eaten!
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Have a question for me about Spud? Drop it in the comments, I’m happy to answer.
{Disclosure: Spud provided us with a shopping credit to test out their service, we have since then ordered additionally without further compensation because we truly enjoyed the convienience and product we received. All opinions are our own and not influenced at all by Spud.}
