From my childhood, I remember (who knows if it happened once or regularly) that we would clean out our fridge of spoiled food. I didn’t think about throwing away week-old, uneaten spaghetti. When I lived on my own it continued. When I lived with girlfriends it would happen because we would lose track of things sharing a fridge.

And then… my in laws were in the kitchen one day silently watching me, commenting in a language I could only partially understand. What? Is something weird about throwing away 4 moldy nectarines and wilted lettuce? Ahhh I was carelessly throwing away food. I lived in abundance. How had a never noticed?

Within days of that experience, I was at Margaret’s house. On her kitchen counter was a small notecard with tiny writing in different directions. She explained that she and Jim sit together on Sunday to plan out their meals for the week. Not every single meal, but enough to make dinners and lunches for the work week. They were able to save money and have less food waste.

It sounds so simple. I have the problem that I want to solve it for the long term. Adding on was my non-rhythmic nature and work schedule. (Or at least that was part of my lame justification.)

I am still learning this as I go through phases of doing this. Margaret taught me that I can solve it one week at a time. I don’t have to solve it for the year or even the month. When I plan my meals my shopping bill is LESS expensive and we are actually eating healthy home cooked meals. My track record is only 7 weeks. Then I get busy or distracted or lazy, whatever you want to call it. And then the visual of Margaret’s notecard gets me back in motion.

Thank you, Margaret and Jim Murphy!