There’s nothing worse than spending good money on food, only to see that food spoil or otherwise go to waste. Hard earned money simply thrown out with the trash.

I’ve recently experienced this problem with baby carrots. Yes, its true you save money by buying and peeling whole carrots, but I like the small snack like proportions of baby carrots. 

The problem is that the outside of my baby carrots have a habit of developing a white film on the surface a couple of days after I open them, so I throw them out. 

While reading this month’s edition of Oprah’s O magazine I discovered that this white film is actually quite normal.  According to Dr. Trevor V. Suslow, as quoted in the article, the white covering is actually dried out cells on the carrot’s surface!  Rinse the carrots in water and the white covering will disappear as the dried out carrot cells are rehydrated. 

Wish I had known this before I’d thrown out my carrots. 

Here are some other cool food tips that’ll help reduce waste and make your food last longer. 

Use Your Ice Cube Trays to Prevent Waste

Ice cube trays are a great way to store bits and pieces of ingredients that you might otherwise discard. If you use a lot of freshly squeezed lemon juice, don’t throw out the excess juice or lemons. Just squeeze them into an ice cube tray. Once the lemon juice freezes, place the lemon juice ice cubes into a freezer bag for later use. 

You can use the same concept with a wide range of left over kitchen ingredients including wine, milk, and sauces. Have a recipe that calls just for egg yolks, place the egg whites into an ice cube tray and freeze for later use. 

Cover Your Ice Cream

If you’re an ice cream lover you’ve probably run across ice cream that’s been ruined from the formation of ice crystals. These crystals destroy the smooth, silky texture of the icecream.

According to the Breyer’s ice cream website, to reduce ice crystal formation simply cover the top surface of the ice cream with wax paper or plastic wrap before closing the top of the container. 

Keeping the ice cream from continually melting and re-freezing also helps. This may mean instead of letting your ice cream sit on the counter to soften, you may need to use a warm ice cream scoop to remove the ice cream from the container while its still hard. 

Don’t Use The Refrigerator Door to Store Eggs or Milk

Bacteria like Listeria monocytogenes multiply rapidly when the temperature of food rises above 40F, resulting in food spoilage, or worse – food poisoning. Consequently, the US Department of Agriculture suggests that your refrigerator be set below 40F.  

The problem is that studies have shown that the refrigerator door is frequently several degrees higher than the rest of the refrigerator putting anything stored there at risk.

Keep your eggs, milk and other perishables safe by storing them on your refrigerator shelf instead of on the door.

It does make you wonder why manufactures build egg holders right into the refrigerator door.

Use These Tricks to Get the Most From Your Left Overs

Many people throw left overs in the refrigerator where they may be forgotten. Others store left overs in a freezer bag or freezer container. When the bag is full they use the collected meat and vegetables to make delicious homemade soups.

Jackie Blue at eHow has an effective way to use left overs. She creates ready to go dinner plates by placing left-overs into partitioned microwave ready dinner plates. When a family member needs a quick “TV” dinner, she just takes out one of these plates and puts in the microwave for a quick meal.

Don’t Wash Your Berries Before Putting Them in the Refrigerator

As a neat freak, I always like to wash my produce before placing it in the refrigerator. That’s why I was surprised to find that some fruits shouldn’t be washed before placing in the fridge.

Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, and grapes should be refrigerated unwashed in a container or plastic bag.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, washing produce like strawberries will actually cause the food to spoil faster. Of course you should wash the items in cold water right before eating.

Using these tips you can help reduce the spoilage and waste that robs you of your hard earned money. Do you have any great food storage tricks? We’d like to hear them. Leave a comment below.

Perhaps you’ve seen them on the Home Shopping Network or in your local grocery store. Debbie Meyers green produce bags claim to prolong the life of your fruits and vegetables helping you save money. But are the claims true?  Can these green storage bags really keep your produce fresh longer?

How they work. The manufacturers of the Debbie Meyers Green Produce bags claim that the bags work by absorbing the ethylene glycol that is released by fruits and vegetables.

This ethylene glycol speeds up the ripening, aging, and rotting of produce. By removing the released ethylene glycol, they claim the bags dramatically slow the aging of fruits and vegetables.

The reviews. The concept sounds good but how well do these bags work in the real world? Consumer Reports tested Debbie Meyer Green bags against Ziploc bags and the free plastic bags found in your store’s produce section.

After two weeks of storing apples, asparagus, bananas, basal, berries, broccoli, carrots, grapes, lettuce, and tomatoes, Consumer Reports noted that out of all these foods tested only bananas fared significantly better in the Green bags.

It appears that the other fruits and vegetables did no better or actually did worse in the Green bags than in the free store produce bags or the Ziploc bags. According to Consumer Reports:

“Everything else stored in the two types of regular plastic bags had less mold or none at all compared with food stored in the Green bags”.

Consumer reviews of the Debbie Meyers Green bags on Amazon.com were equally harsh. The product received only 2.5 stars out of 5 stars by consumers who had used it. While some people said that their Green bags worked well, several others reported that the Green bags actually worked worse than regular storage methods by speeding up the aging and rotting of produce.

Part of the problem may have been the moisture that continually collects on the inside of the bags. People who noted a more positive experience with the bags often reported to wiping the inside of the bags with a paper towel daily in order to remove water that builds up inside. Others left  a paper towel inside the bags to absorb water.

Reviews of the Green bags at the website infomercialratings.com were no better. This website allows users to rate and comment on products sold on infomercials. Here again the Green bags received a disappointing  2.5 out of 5 stars. As with the Consumer Reports tests and Amazon.com reviews, it appears that the Green bags may have actually sped up the ripening and rotting of many fruits and vegetables.

Our take. Debbie Meyers Green Bags cost $9.95 plus $6.95 for shipping and handling for 20 bags. This works out to well over 50 cents per bag. Based on the disappointing Consumer Reports testing and user ratings at both Amazon.com and infomecialratings.com, I think we’ll have to pass on buying Debbie Meyers Produce Bags.

We’d like to hear from you. What do you think? If you have experience using this product let us know by leaving a comment below.

The cost of basics like milk, eggs, and butter has risen rapidly in the past year. Unfortunately, prices are expected to rise even higher next year.

That’s why its more important than ever to save on such staples. Here are a few quick ways to save on milk.

Stock up when milk is cheap. The best way to save on milk is to stock up when the price is low. Watch for sales at your local supermarket and buy several gallons of milk when you see it on sale.

In addition, places other than grocery stores frequently offer milk as a loss leader (an extremely low priced product designed to lure you into the store). Stores like Walmart, Target, and Walgreens often feature great sales on milk.  The trick is to buy the milk without buying a cart full of unintended purchases.

Make sure to check the expiration dates. The milk with the best expiration date is often located near the back of the refrigerated display case.

Freeze what you don’t need. If you buy more milk than you’ll use over a few weeks time, consider freezing some. Milk actually freezes well and will last frozen between 1-3 months. Skim milk and 1% milk will freeze better, but whole milk can be frozen as well.

Just remember to remove about 10% of the milk to allow for the expansion that occurs when milk freezes.  When you need a new jug of milk, just place a frozen one in the refrigerator where it can thaw. You’ll generally want to do this a day or two before you actually need it.

Some components of the milk may have separated, so you’ll need to vigorously shake the milk once its thawed to return it to its normal consistency.

Consider powdered milk for baking. Powered milk is much cheaper than conventional milk.  You can easily save money by substituting powdered milk in your recipes. A four pound box can create 5 gallons of milk at about one third to one half the cost of regular milk.  It can also be kept in an air-tight container for several months at a time.

With grocery prices rising rapidly, these simple tips can help you get the most out of your shopping dollar.

In today’s economy its more important than ever to save money. Groceries represent one of our largest monthly expenses, so it only makes sense that people try to save money when buying food. Clipping coupons, buying store brands, and searching for the best sales have all become commonplace.

We fail to realize, however, that we can save money not only by making cheaper purchases, but also by wasting less of what we do buy!

This can be accomplished by conducting your own food audit. A food audit is accomplished simply by taking a quick look into your trash can, refrigerator, freezer, and cupboard to see what you’re consistently throwing away, allowing to mildew, or leaving forgotten and unused. We lose money when we don’t use or when we throw away food that never gets eaten.

Check your garbage. See what foods you are consistently tossing out. If you routinely throw out old brown bananas, then you may want to consider cutting back on them, even when they’re on sale! If your trash is full of stale bread, focus on buying fewer or smaller loafs.

Too many left-overs in the garbage? Consider making additional meals from the original course. Leftover chicken, for example, can be mixed with spaghetti sauce or tossed onto tacos to make additional meals. Alternatively, you can make twice as much of the original course and freeze half to reduce the amount of left-overs.

Take a look inside your freezer/refrigerator. Check closely for perishables that have lingered beyond their prime. Do you consistently find spoiled milk in the back of the fridge? Perhaps you should buy the half-gallon jug instead of the one gallon jug, even though the per unit cost may be more.

Alternatively, consider freezing some of the milk you buy when you see a sale too good to pass up. Are you discovering large containers of yogurt gone bad or salad consistently wilted? Again consider cutting back on the amount or portion sizes you purchase.

Examine the back of your cupboards. Cupboards are great places where purchase go to die. Often you’ll find cans or packages purchased months ago, and which may never be used again. Once again, use what’s left in your cupboard to guide future purchase decisions. Unlike the refrigerator or trash can, abandoned items in your cupboard are generally non-perishable and can easily be donated to local food shelters or holiday food drives.

By taking account of how we let food go unused or wasted, we can better plan future purchases, saving valuable cash in the process.