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How To Makeover Your Leftovers: 10 Ways To Reduce Waste And Save Cash

With the cost of living ever-increasing, we can no longer afford to waste food.

Currently, the UK wastes 6.7 million tonnes of food per year, a cost of £250-£400 per household. While you may think that most of this wastage comes from retailers and the hospitality industries, the statistics reveal a different story.

In fact, 70% of food waste comes from individual households, with manufacturers responsible for only 16%, and hospitality 12%.

The cost to the planet is significant too: it is estimated that food waste accounts for as much as 8% of climate change, as a result of methane and CO2 emissions. Mass food agriculture also has the effect of harming the natural world around us by wasting land and damaging natural biodiversity.

This waste is needless.

Not only can we use leftovers, but inedible products can be used to make beauty products, household cleaners, and more, saving us money and helping the planet in the process. Here’s how we can save money and reduce waste by reusing our leftovers.

1. Easy Work Lunches

Can’t be bothered to prepare your lunch for work? Simply pop your leftovers from last night’s meal in a takeaway box and you’re ready to go!

You can heat these up in your work microwave, or simply eat them cold. You could even get creative and experiment with different ways of eating the foods. For example, if you have a curry or chilli, why not put it in a lunch box with a tortilla wrap and some salad for a fresh taste? Or add some couscous and spices for punchy, middle-eastern flavour.

2. Simple Dinners

You can also reuse your leftovers later in the week by storing them and adding them to your dinner recipes. For a simple dinner, why not try adding some of your sauce, such as curry, chilli or pasta sauce, to a jacket potato?

Pasta sauce can also be used as an easy topping for a ready-made pizza base if you’re short on time or have small mouths to feed.

3. Reinvent Them

Simple staple foods can be easily transformed into brand new dishes that tantalise your tastebuds and reuse old meals. Leftover mashed potato, for example, can be used as a topping for dishes such as cottage pie, or made into fritters using onion and leftover greens.

And while rice is often considered to be unsafe to reheat, fast and hot frying methods – such as wok frying – kill off the bacteria, making fried rice a popular method for reusing rice in Asia. Stale bread is another wonderfully versatile ingredient that can be used for a wide variety of recipes, from bread pudding to coating goujons and French toast.

4. Make Beauty Products

If you’re short on cash and have old fruit and vegetables in the fridge, why not make some self-care products? Fruits and vegetables have a wide range of beauty benefits and can be used even when out of date.

For example, avocados are expensive to buy, release huge quantities of CO2 to transport, are known for turning quickly, and can be hard to tell when they’re most ripe for eating. But with the help of a little coconut or olive oil and a stick blender, you can make your old and brown avocados into a Vitamin E-rich mask that can be used to bring moisture and vibrancy to skin and hair.

Old bananas are also an excellent solution for dry skin and hair, while tomatoes may be used to balance oily skin and illuminate dullness.

Coffee grounds can be transformed into a brightening body scrub, buffing away flaky skin and brightening dull spots. And if you’re not blessed with a full head of hair, the caffeine in coffee is known for its ability to stimulate hair roots and encourage growth.

5. Clean Your Home

Almost every household has a fruit bowl containing a wrinkled old lemon or lime. Citrus fruits are often used for bringing sharpness or an aromatic flavour to dishes, but if not used quickly, they can go bad. The good news? The acidic properties of citrus fruits make them an effective household cleaner.

Simply combine your citrus fruits with some vinegar and any antibacterial herbs you may have lying around (such as rosemary or mint), and you have an effective household cleaner that is safe to use for people with allergies or breathing conditions, who may be affected by commercial cleaning fluids.

Using natural cleaning solutions is healthier for you and the environment, and eliminates the need for using plastic cleaning bottles. So why not try something new in your usual cleaning routine?