To be clear: We’re not talking literal garbage. Dumpster-diving “freegans” sometimes rescue perfectly good food that’s been thrown out, but that tactic isn’t for everyone. The “garbage” we’re talking about is food scraps that get thrown away before their time. For example, simmering a rotisserie chicken carcass in a few cups of water creates soup stock for free. Why buy the canned stuff when you can make your own? (Yes, “carcass” is a gross word – but the soup sure tastes great.) The fact is, food prices continue to rise, and our salaries don’t always keep pace. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food prices are expected to go up 3.2% overall in 2025, and anywhere from 5.2% to 57.6% in certain food categories. Your hard work pays for those groceries. Why not get the most out of every food dollar?
Finding You the Best Advice
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As a diehard frugalist, I have personally used all the thrifty hacks in this piece. They’ve saved our household a ton of money and improved the quality of our meals. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Sites that specialize in food and frugality also sing the praises of food waste prevention. Incorporate one or two ideas at a time, and soon this no-waste ethos will become second nature. Your wallet will thank you. So will your palate!
1. Easy Soup Stock
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Chefs who are serious about their soups know that the best stock comes from scraps. Keep a bag or container in your freezer to save things like pea pods, celery leaves, herb stems, carrot tops, apple cores, mushroom stems, green bean ends, and onion and garlic skins. (The carnivores among us also save the bones from pork chops, chicken, and the like.) “(Some) of the most nutritious and flavorful components of your vegetables reside in these scraps. Instead of discarding them, transform your vegetable scraps into a delicious, nutritious broth,” notes Natalie LaVolpe of The Old Farmers Almanac. Once the bag is full, add water and salt and simmer for an hour or so on the stove or all day in the slow cooker, then strain it through a sieve or a cloth-lined colander. It’s simple to turn the stock into soup by adding vegetables, meat (if you like), and seasonings. You could opt to freeze it for some other night when you don’t feel like cooking. Incidentally, the best water to use for making stock is…
2. Vegetable Cooking Water
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Don’t discard the liquid left over from cooking vegetables. The trace nutrients in this water will benefit future dishes, according to Melanie Young of Livestrong.com. Sure, it’s a great addition to that homemade soup stock. But don’t stop there! Use this “pot liquor” in other ways, such as:
- Cooking rice, pasta, or dumplings
- Braising or roasting meat
- Flavoring cocktails
- Making smoothies
“Saving your vegetable water and repurposing adds a fun, creative dimension to the old adage, ‘Eat your vegetables’,” notes Young, a certified holistic health coach. Freeze the veggie water until you feel like making soup (or cocktails). Pro tip: “Vegetable” water can also mean the last bits of salsa or ketchup in the jar or bottle. Pour in a little water, shake it well, and add it to the vegetable water container in the freezer.
3. Old or Stale Bread
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Not old or stale as in “covered with spots of blue mold.” No, we’re talking bread whose texture no longer works in a sandwich. The obvious solution is to toast the bread or turn it into French toast. That’s just a start, though. Andrea Karim takes things further in her “17 Uses for Stale Bread” article on a personal finance site called Wise Bread. (Not kidding!) She shares options like breadcrumbs, obviously, to coat your fried chicken or to crunchify the top of your next mac’ n’ cheese bake. Karim also suggests mixing crumbs with cocoa, cinnamon, coconut flakes, and brown sugar for a tasty ice cream topping. Roughly torn stale bread mixed with tomatoes, dressing, and goodies like artichoke hearts becomes “panzanella,” the Italian word for that pricey “bread salad” at the local bistro. Crumble some old bread into your next meatloaf to make it go a little further – and to make it more tender since the bread “keeps the protein separated.” Want to make leftover soup seem better than it is? Cut stale bread into cubes, toss them with olive oil and your favorite herbs, and then brown them in the oven. Or do it my way: Dip one side of the bread cubes in olive oil, sprinkle them with seasoned salt, and bake; my partner eats these the way some people snack on chips or pretzels.
4. Mealtime Scraps
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That quarter-cup of gravy or spoonful of quinoa might seem too small to save. But over time, these little bits can mean significant grocery savings. Jessica Fisher of Good Cheap Eats makes this soup every few days with leftovers like noodles, grains, gravy, other sauces, vegetables, and cooked meat. “When combined with broth and other soup ingredients, these leftovers add amazing flavor to your soup pot,” says Fisher, a cookbook author and mom of six. Start another bag in your freezer for these odds and ends. When the bag is full, make your own potage de garbage with your favorite seasonings and, maybe, one of those homemade vegetable stocks from your boiling bag. It becomes a light, nourishing meal when paired with bread and/or a small salad. Bonus: It’s never the same meal twice, since you’ll be working with different kinds of leftovers every time.
5. Celery and Onion Ends
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Don’t toss out the end of the celery– turn it into a houseplant! In an article on AllRecipes.com, Vanessa Greaves calls the process “just so satisfying.” Here’s how to do it: Cut off about two inches of the end of the celery. Put in four toothpicks, about 1½ inches from the bottom. Suspend the celery on the toothpicks into a shallow bowl, and add water until it covers the bottom inch of the root end. Set it near a window that provides at least a few hours a day of light, and keep the water level high enough to cover the root end. Small roots will start to emerge from the bottom; when they’re about an inch long, plant the celery end in a pot of soil. As the plant grows, keep the dirt moist (not soggy!) and keep it from extreme heat because celery thrives in cooler weather. Greaves uses the same technique to re-grow green onions. If your produce with seeds has gone bad, try growing a whole new plant of out too (like tomatoes, blueberries, etc.).
6. Pan Juices
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Never throw away the liquid in the frying/roasting pan. “Those ‘leftover’ juices contain major savory flavoring power,” notes Jessica Goldman Foung of TheKitchn.com. That liquid can be turned into gravy on the spot. You can also pour the pan juices into a bowl or measuring cup, chill until solid, then remove the congealed fat from the top. Foung suggests using this fat to:
- Saute leafy greens or other vegetables
- Add a super-crisp texture to roasted potatoes.
- Season beans, lentils, or polenta
- Make a really savory popcorn
And the jellied juices left underneath the fat layer? Freeze them later when you want to add extra flavor to a soup or stew.
7. “Expired” Milk
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The so-called expiration date on milk cartons is just “an educated guess from the manufacturer,” according to Li Goldstein of Bon Appetit. Milk can last days beyond that arbitrary date, so don’t automatically toss the moo once its best-by date is here: “If your milk doesn’t smell or look funky after the stamped expiration date has passed, it’s likely safe to consume.” Afraid you won’t be able to finish the milk in time? Cook with it! Temperatures that reach 165 degrees or higher will kill any bacteria that may have started to grow, Goldstein notes. “Put (it) toward a cake, a creamy soup, or perhaps a tray of muffins for Sunday brunch. Make dulce de leche from scratch. Live a little and braise some pork in it! If you can’t find an immediate use, freeze it in portions to call upon for soups or baking projects to come.” To keep milk fresh, don’t let it sit out during meals. Pour what you need and put the milk back in the fridge – and not in those fridge-door shelves that seem like the perfect size for milk jugs or cartons. “While it may be a bit inconvenient, store your milk in the back of your fridge where it’s coldest,” notes the United Dairy Industry Association website. Incidentally, my household uses “old” milk for waffles, gravy, or cakes. Do an online search for “sour milk cake recipes.”
8. Jam or Jelly Jars
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There’s usually some jam left stuck to the jar. I like to pour in some cold milk, give it a good shake, and then drink the result. You could add flavored milk to a cake or cookie recipe for a subtle flavor boost. Another option is to add vinegar, oil, and your favorite seasonings to the “empty” jar. Shaken together, they become a fruity vinaigrette that brightens up a salad of greens, grains, or beans. If neither of those ideas appeals, shake it with water and add it to your freezer’s vegetable cooking water container. This tactic also applies to…
9. Ketchup or Salsa Containers
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That empty ketchup bottle still has flavor to share, and so does the salsa jar. Why throw it away? Instead, shake with some water and add to soup, spaghetti sauce, or whatever you’re simmering on the stove. Pro tip: Use the salsa mixture instead of plain water when making tacos. Note: Either type of water can improve your vegetable cooking water container. The more kinds of flavors you add, the more interesting your future soups will be. I have been known to shake “empty” jars of applesauce or home-canned rhubarb compote.
10. Stale Crackers or Salty Snacks
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The price of potato chips increased by 41% in the last five years, according to government research. If you paid $7.99 a bag, you should enjoy every last chip – even if you forgot to close the bag and they went stale. Reviving stale crackers, pretzels, tortilla chips, popcorn, and other crispy treats is a snap (so to speak) if you have an air fryer. Typically, it takes three to four minutes at 350 degrees; do an online search for your specific snack. This tactic also works on breakfast cereal, taco shells, and just about any once-crunchy food (including fried chicken) that has gone soft. And if you don’t have an air fryer? Use an oven or toaster oven on low heat until your food makes noise when you eat it.
12. Broccoli and/or Cauliflower Rescue
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Some people eat only the florets from broccoli or cauliflower and throw the rest away. What a waste of these healthy veggies! “There is a lot more to these cruciferous beauties than just their florets,” writes Sherri Brooks Vinton of FoodPrint.com. She suggests that she mixes the stems and cores in a hot oven with olive oil or uses stems and leaves for stir-fries, pickles, pureed soups, and other dishes. In her book, “An Everlasting Meal: Cooking With Economy and Grace,” chef Tamar Adler suggests another use: a simple, no-basil pesto:
- Simmer the chopped stems, leaves, and cores from either (or both) vegetables with garlic, olive oil, and salt. (I like to add some carrots for a bit of color.)
- When tender, mash to the consistency you want.
- Serve with crackers or over pasta or rice.
13. Pickle Brine
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Don’t throw away the juice once the pickles are gone! My partner and I save the liquid until we have an almost empty mustard bottle. Pour brine into the bottle, give it a good shake, and you have a zingy mustard vinegar that adds pizzazz to soups, lentils, or beans. Over at RuralSprout.com, blogger Tracey Besemer shares two dozen ways to use leftover pickle brine. Among them:
- Make more pickles. Add thinly sliced cucumbers, carrots, green beans, or whatever you like, and refrigerate for a few days.
- Create a superior Bloody Mary. “This brunch staple is easily improved with by adding pickle juice,” the blogger notes.
- Marinate meat or poultry. Vinegar is a natural tenderizer, and the pickle spices add flavor. In particular, a 24-hour bath in pickle juice makes “the most incredible fried chicken you’ve ever tasted,” Besemer writes.
Use It Up
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A little creativity lets you save money, avoid food waste, and – bonus! – helps the Earth. According to the USDA, food is the largest category of material put into municipal landfills each year. That rotting food results in an estimated 58% of methane emissions from landfills. Food waste can have a profound impact on your wallet as well as the world. Do your part to reduce that impact by getting inventive about the way you eat or even starting a compost. You won’t believe the satisfaction of getting extra meals from things you used to throw away.
