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Teralyn Pilgrim is an author and a mother who was inspired to write a new book about cutting down on household food waste. To her surprise, it also became a book about helping families save money.
Pilgrim lives in Beavercreek, Oregon, with her husband and their three children. She began writing “No Scrap Left Behind: My Life Without Food Waste” because she felt guilty about having so much while others had so little.
Soon, though, she came to realize her efforts were not just about cutting down on food waste – she was also saving her family money.
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“I actually didn’t know how much money I was wasting on groceries when I first started this,” Pilgrim told Digital.
“I think a lot of people really care about how much money they spend at the grocery store, but as soon as they take things out of their car, they completely forget the price tag.”
Teralyn Pilgrim, left, said she stopped wasting household food and wound up saving her family $100 a month. It’s improved the quality of her life, she said, and her children have benefited. Her daughter is shown at right. (Teralyn Pilgrim)
In her book, Pilgrim reveals tips and tricks to help readers tailor their shopping lists, upcycle leftovers and preserve foods longer – strategies that helped her family save $100 a month.
“After I stopped wasting, I had more money,” Pilgrim said. “I had a lot more time. I had to be more organized in order to not waste food. That benefited my family a lot. And it came as a surprise to me that it actually improved my life a lot.”
“You really have to start with not buying too much.”
Pilgrim created a zero-food waste kitchen in her house.
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“We all have this kind of packrat mentality of wanting to have enough so that we feel secure, especially with food,” she said. “But people end up buying so much, and then it’s going bad faster than they can eat it. So, you really have to start with not buying too much.”
That means planning ahead before going grocery shopping.
Pilgrim advises making a shopping list before going to the grocery store. (iStock)
“Bring a list of the things you’re going to eat that week,” Pilgrim said. “But think to yourself, ‘How much am I really going to eat of this meal? How many leftovers is this going to make?’ And you might realize, looking at your shopping cart, that this is way more than I’m going to eat in the time that it’s going to take before the food goes bad.”
‘Creativity gets to shine’
A waste-free kitchen can also inspire creative ways to make new meals, she said.
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“It’s the most fun because that’s the part when your creativity gets to shine,” Pilgrim said.
“And it’s always so satisfying to have come up with something and used the resources that you have and saved money by not throwing away [food] and having made this great dish off of things that you would have lost otherwise.”
Teralyn Pilgrim’s children have fun with food in their zero-waste household. (Teralyn Pilgrim)
Food waste is often associated with big industry — but Pilgrim said it’s “really in the hands of the consumers.”
She said, “Our actions do matter, and we can make a difference.”
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But if the cause isn’t enough, she hopes that the money families can save will inspire others to ditch the waste.
“I read all these articles and books giving me advice on how to save money. And none of them said to waste less food,” she said.
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“It’s something that people just don’t really put a lot of thought into and don’t think of as a money-saving technique. But when I started doing this, it was more effective than anything else I had tried,” she said.
“And it was easier than anything else I had tried.”
