Are you a "user up" or a "thrower out"

User-upper certainly! My OT is a thow-er away so I have to catch him before valuable ingredients disappear. My mother was the same as me, even worse in fact. When I was first married, my OT got quite a shock at how far I'd push things!

Actually, I remember a local nurse laughing that her aged mother had in her freezer (rediscovered when said very old freezer packed in) a joint of meat from the sixties..

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!" was the mantra of a very old Canadian relative. He lived by it constantly. Don't think I'd want to.

food is definitely judged by the "look at it, smell it, taste it"& if it's ok use it. garments past their best are stripped of buttons & zips etc, anything clothes wise that I have gone off or doesn't fit - Charity Shop. Recycle where possible. Had to have a clear out 5 years ago when we downsized & again when I moved last year into an even smaller property (have cut down on sentimental items as well as things I look at & wonder will I ever need that). I am a natural hoarder & collector so parting with anything is so difficult but living on my own now at least I know there is no-one else throwing out (late husband was a nightmare with hoarding clothes)

My children (all grown-ups and with families of their own) have told me that we now live in a throwaway society. I see them throwing out half-filled bottles of suce, because they have bought a new one. How sad.

User-up here, too. Any cooked veg left that isn't used up by the next day is put into a bag and stuck in the freezer. I use it to put into soups. Same for chicken carcases - they just get bagged and flung in the freezer, too.
I also (someone else does this?)cut off the ribbon hanging loops that are inside clothes and tie them together to tart up present wrapping. Rubber bands (usually dropped by the postie!)are kept in an old tin and are used for sealing opened freezer bags etc.
When an old chest of drawers gave up the ghost, we removed the handles and castors and sold them on eBay.
I also cut off the green bits from cheese, even though I was trained not to do this on numerous Food Hygiene courses at work (working with people whose health was rather vulnerable, therefore I obviously followed the correct practices). My mother, grandmother and many generations have scraped off the green bits from cheese and furry tops from jam and have lived to tell the tale, and maybe have been all the stronger for it.

Im a user upper too, I often make a salad from whatever veggies there are in the fridge or soups in the same way. Cant afford not to these days.

Regarding " sell by" dates, the Bodach used to visit various firms, and the fellows at United Biscuits and Nestle told him that Marks & Spencer's " sell by" or "best before" dates were at least two weeks earlier than other supermarkets who had been supplied with exactly the same product.
I thought that was to ensure that the product was in tip top condition, but it was probably to make us buy more of the product.

Cynical, or what?

I was just thinking about how many of us have been lucky as far as cutting the green bits off cheese goes. I certainly remember my mum doing it when I was little and assume her mum did it as well. We are both still going strong (she's 94 in August). I think most people did it when money was tight so an awful lot of GNs must have been lucky as well!

Since I've retired unexpectedly through ill health and taken a massive drop in income, I've become very good at using up and planning meals from left overs. I enjoy the challenge and we are eating as well as before, if not better. Any bashed fruit becomes fresh fruit salad or crumble or banana loaf or anything I can conjure up. I've even managed to lose weight, as I have time to cook more healthily. I'm now an expert "user upper" I used to waste a lot of food when I was working, as I never had time to check fridge and husband did shopping.

Newquay according to my Google research, you should never, ever remove mould from soft cheese because the mould sends strands into the whole cheese, so it must all be thrown away. But mould doesn't penetrate very far into hard or even semi-hard cheeses, like Cheddar, Parmesan and so on. The Mayo Clinic website advise to cut away at least an inch surrounding the mould, and be sure not to let the knife come into contact with the mould. Then it's safe to eat the rest.
article here if anyone's interested

Apparently sell by dates are very very conservative, as they need to ensure that nothing will go bad before the date on the packaging, if that makes sense. Basically the date will always err on the side of caution, by months in many cases. The sell by date is the date up until which the supermarket/shop can have it on the shelves, it doesn't mean the product automatically goes bad.
I tend to use everything which i possibly can out of the fridge, but there are times when i throw stuff.

User-up - deffo - I will use stuff that has passed its SBD by several years if it is a condiment or other kind of preservative - it's in the name for goodness sake!! Preserve!! I have a jar of molasses which has gone sugary but is beyond describable in its deliciousness!! My husband even scraped off the penicillin on some cream cheese and added it to his indescribably wonderfully healthful breakfast: spinach, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, feta - et al. We are of the old school, we use our common sense!!

Newquay, without giving your age away, how many years have you been cutting the green bits off. We have for at least 70 (ok it was my Mum at the start) and so far we have been lucky, I will risk it for the next few years until they have to cut green bits off me.

I used to cut the mouldy bits off cheese but my dear friend, an ex microbiologist says I've been v lucky so don't do it now.
There was a letter in the Times about someone clearing out an elderly aunt's home and found a tin marked "string-too small to save".
I think that sums up our generation, having it drilled into us not to waste.

no food ever thrown out here because some animal or other here will eat it. as for containers I wash & save them for use in growing seeds, cuttings etc or the ones without holes as bases for pots when watering, I am always accused of hoarding but it's strange how pleased the moaners are when they need something & I have it lol

Definitely a "user upper". Can't stand waste. Often make a meal using what needs to be used up and don't get any complaints. Also find that there is not much that can't be frozen, so will freeze something before it reaches that dreaded BBF and Sell By dates (which personally I think just wastes food).

Neither, just use commonsense

It would seem in the GN World the 'user upper ' has it by along chalk!
I'm also a user upper.
My soup can be made of most left over food.
I can relate to the peppa pig Yogurt Alima
And any amount of fish fingers , tuna even baked potato skins left on the GC plates heads in to my mouth before it even reaches the kitchen bin

Left over baby dinners and puds No problem!
Always scraped the baking bowl from young child

Just found out from a TV chef. (Brian Turner I think) that you can cook lettuce. Which I've be doing with peas mange tout, beans and any other greens in fridge. Lovely with fish.
DH is the chucker out!

User upper used some plums up that have gone a bit wrinkly cooked them and had them with some Greek yogurt. Have to admit I threw some carrots away that looked really yucky

Another user upper here. We don't usually buy more fresh food than we need for meals each week so very little is left to use up. (though I must confess to finding and chucking some very old leeks and asparagus in our 'overflow' fridge that I'd completely forgotten about ) I have no qualms about unopened tins or jars of stuff.

I did draw the line at feeding DP's very out of date yoghurt to my GS the other day; it never seems to affect DP but I would feel terrible if it affected GS.

Do you know that pasteurised cream stays fresh for weeks after its use by date if it is unopened?

We had a lentil based dustbin soup which my mother made every year with the Christmas leftovers. I was a bit startled to find her emptying the leftover custard into it one year but it tasted just fine.

I suspect that a lot of food manufacturers actually have no idea of the longevity or otherwise of their product; they just put a date on to comply with legal requirements.

I am a user upper. If there is veg about I make soup even cooked veg I would make soup. I would eat a yogurt well out of date as my mum used to say "it's sour milk" so always tastes fine. Always check dates in the fridge and and broken hearted if something is out of date and have missed it and have to through out.

I remember in the early 1950's my Granny and Grandad would send us a turkey or a goose from rural southern Ireland, it would arrive wrapped in brown paper (mostly ripped off) and string - goodness knows how long it had taken to arrive by boat!!
Nowadays, I live with my son and his partner and they drive me insane - anything even nearing a use by is thrown out weekly. We're vegetarians so there's no meat involved but I use my eyes and my nose and if something passes the test I eat it irrespective of sell bys.

I mean to be a user upper but usually end being a chucked outer and then feel guilty, for not being more organised.

Re using up, my mother used to make what she called 'dustbin' soup when she was very broke - basically anything soup-able that she had - inc. the odd sad old up carrot, the last dried up rasher of bacon, any leftover mash or other veggies, a bit of rice or whatever. But the soups were always v tasty, and when dh and I were exceedingly broke many years ago I resurrected the dustbin soups - we were in a country where the only cheap thing was the local veggies - and we practically lived on those soups for quite a while.
I still make them with whatever I happen to have, esp. in winter, and they are one of Dh's favourites - he'd eat it every night.

When dds were young I once made a 'dustbin' out of a load of veggies plus pasta and heaven knows what, for dds and friends who'd been out sledging in the snow. Dds told them it was 'dustbin' soup! One of the friends had a Spanish mother and a German father, and she asked me a few days later if I could give her mother the recipe for my 'garbage' soup since she'd enjoyed it so much!
Had to tell her there never was a recipe, different every time.