Does anyone else do this, or is it only me?

phoenix I do exactly the same. My daughter is always going through my fridge when she visits and says "Mother, are you really going to eat this?"

I do make the strangest mixtures of foods for my suppers sometimes or take it into work for lunch.

Both my daughters have a phobia relating to 'sell by dates' They regularly go through my fridge and cupboards and say things are out of date. At the moment I'm eating up over a week out of date Munch Bunch yonghurts left from when my daughter and grandsons were staying with me. Nothing wrong with them!!

I used to keep most things except rice which I chucked immediately as it can give you very nasty problems; since developing 'something' on holiday in July (told it's gastritis), I don't keep anything even if it smells/looks ok. This is quite good as I now buy small and often instead of lots 1x a week and it seems to be saving money too. My Mum was a great horder and I used to find an inch of gravy in a jug at the back of the fridge covered in green stuff - but then she was a young housewife during the war and had to make use of everything, but the habit continued until the day she died!

Oh dear yes, I recall with some horror the enamel plates that were regularly to be found on the larder shelves containing anything from half a shrivelled tomato and a limp bit of celery to a lttle bit of mouldy cheese and some cold potato and beans. My parents, bless them, never threw leftovers away, (not only food . . ) but didn't keep leftover food in the fridge. I suspect they thought that would have been a bit wasteful of electricity when they had a perfectly good larder . . .

Anything that can't be recycled in the dog gets made into fridge soup or stock.

Carol Whatever sort of dog have you got? The only things mine wouldn't eat were extra strong mints, jellied eels and worm pills.

yes ...I keep left over bits and bobs ...but always use for instant stir fries ...including left over rice ...make sure it's very hot ...touch wood ...never had any problems. often tastier than the originals

Wasn't there a news item recently about stopping use buy dates as unnecessary?

Yes I heard that item on the radio, and instantly stopped feeling anxious about use by dates. I fear I have slipped back a bit now though, and view things like yogurt with suspicion. How do you know it's alright? The taste doesn't change enough to notice, and the first you know is when you are distinctly nauseous . . . followed by ...... oh, excuse me . . . . . .

Easy to tell when yogurt is past its best - the top gets a dome shape on the foil lid and it feels fizzy on your tongue. After all - yogurt is fermented milk to begin with so it's always a little "past its best"

Thank you all so much, firstly for responding, and secondly for the reassurance (in the main) that I'm not the only one!

Zephrine, totally get the post war thing, although I feel I that I should point out that I turned 53 earlier this month, but I was brought up initially by my grandmother, who did have to feed 3 children during tough times, so perhaps that's where it comes from.

I did smile at the comment "shall we throw it away now, or put in the fridge to throw away later?" It just seemed to sum up my attitude!

Also apologies for the delay in getting back here, have been in London today to meet with a client, just thought I'd pop on to see if anyone had replied, and was quite chuffed to see all the posts.

PS Update on the rice and sweetcorn, DH did indeed incorporate it into his lunch!

Thanks yogagran. I had forgotten about the dome-shaped top.

I am the opposite. Unless I know we will eat it the next day I throw it out. Normally I only cook what we are going to eat, but it is tricky when people are coming round. You have to cook extra in case they don't like something or are particularly hungry! In my experience though, leftovers always seem to smell out my fridge overnight however well I wrap them , and I never fancy them the next day anyway.

Good with Food*is currently an annoying phrase (simply due to the pronunciation!) I could be labelled *Scrooge with food My DH cooks during the week and I do weekends. He is very keen on using up the leftovers - even more than myself because he suffered much more during the war with food shortages. This has made him the fanatic he is!! The majority is bagged up in the freezer until suitable miserable or cold weather arrives. I then regenerate it with a veggi stock cube into a delicious soup.

During our working years we owned restaurants and hotels. Throwing leftovers away meant reduced profit. If at all possible leftovers were put to good use.

Don't bellow at me - chicken carscasses make good stock - but only if made with uncooked ones. Bones from a roast of cooked chicken give off very little flavour - also think of the cost of the fuel to do this. I was always taught that stock was made from raw bones with the addition of vegetables and maybe a bouquet garni. After having been strained the resultant liquid was reduced to at least 25% of the original to ensure it had a rich flavour.

I have to admit that I'm fussy with stock cubes etc. but I use them. Making stock at home is a waste of time and money. I use only vegetable stock cubes and ensure that they contain no MSG. If I wanted to splash out I'd use Marigold Swiss Bouillon or Kallo.

Leftovers, what leftovers? - we nearly always manage to eat everything because it all goes on the plate and leaving food on the plate is "not allowed". Although I wasn't around during the war, my parents certainly were and still have a strong ethic around waste.

It may sound a bit prissy, but it isn't just about saving money by not buying and cooking more than needed, it's also about there not being enough food in the world to feed everyone. The demand for food in the west is high and we are prepared to pay for it, even if we throw much away. If we bought less, the prices would go down and people in poorer countries would stand a better chance of affording it......

A word of caution, stored cooked rice can cause health problems, even if refrigerated. It can contain bacillus cereus, not often seen nowadays, but can still be a problem.

Tho I am Mrs Frugal when it comes to leftovers, my 92 year old Mum (The Boss) is quite the opposite, yet she was brought up dirt poor in Cornwall, where they recycled the very stones for tea! She waits at the fridge door till exactly midnight (I am sure of this) and then pounces on anything which has just gone over its sell-by date and bins it. She NEVER has leftovers, even after a family meal, but throws everything out 'for the fox' (no wonder she has a 'poo' problem on her lawn - tread with care!). ....And she always cooks too much for her own meals, and throws out the residue - Mum, cook less.

On the upside she has most of her mobility, all of her marbles (plus a few of mine) and her lack of frugality is probably due to the fact that she had nothing to eat as a child long ago!!

Go Mum!

Latest saying from The Boss: I tried some of that origami in my stew, but it tasted funny. Well it would, wouldn't it?

gangy5 I don't see why making stock at home is a waste of time and money. Properly made, it is always much better than cubes, powder or ready-made stock and is a useful stand-by in the freezer if frozen in sensible quantities.

I agree, absent. I've tried all the 'better' kinds of buyable stock and every single one of them is too salty for my taste as well as not as good as what I make at home with either raw or cooked bones, depending what I have. I use large yogurt pots to store reasonable quantities in the freezer and nearly always cook rice in stock. Tastes great. Worth the fuel and the huge amount of time plonking a carcass in a pan, with or without a few veg scraps, covering it with water and leaving it to use up the last heat in the Rayburn hotplate.

I clean pans like that too — squirt of washing-up liquid, fill with water, use cooling down heat to warm it up and then all even a sticky pan needs is a bit of a wipe and a rinse. You can put your cooking utensils in too. And it's 'doing' while you're eating your meal. A Slacker's washing-up style!

I agree about the stock but Kallo and Knorr are both making reduced salt cubes now. Bought some this week but haven't tried them yet.

Everything goes in square Lakeland boxes after dinner. The new ones are opaque, so its a real adventure about five days later, to see what bits and pieces are still alive!
Will remember your recipe Baggy! Thanks you. Maybe we can share some interesting ideas?

Oooh Lakeland - my favourite shop (how sad is that!) I wish I had one nearer to me so that I didn't have to wait till my order was up to £50 to get free postage. Does anyone else feel that the have to spend more money on buying more items just to get the free postage?

Have done in the past but now they have opened a branch near me

Tip on the Lakeland free postage thing, get together with a few like minded others (we do it in the office at work) if you have enough people it's usually not hard to get to £50!

There is often a "free" offer with orders over that amount, we usually put all the names of those that have ordered into a hat, draw one out and that person gets the feebie!

That's a good idea phoenix - I'll ask a few friends over the next week or so. Especially like the idea of one person getting the freebie "out of the hat", thanks

My MIL (deceased now, was 97 when she popped off) would not throw any food away. An effect of being brought up during the hard times of WW1 and being a lone mother for 6 years during WW2. She would eat food which was well out of date, fruit which had started to decompose, milk which came out of the bottle in lumps and bread which was wearing a green furry coat. Yet she never suffered from stomach upsets etc.Perhaps she had built up her own immunity. The worst case was when she had to go into care and we had to clear out her house. The fridge and freezer obviously had to be emptied and when I opened one of the freezer drawers, to my horror I found what I thought to be a shrunken human head!! My Hub sussed it straight away. We had bought her a cabbage several weeks earlier and rather than have it go off she put it in the freezer and pulled a leaf off whenever she fancied it. When we told her what we had done she told me to keep any of the food which I wanted!!! Perhaps not.I don't keep leftovers from meals, we eat it all!!! The answer is portion control, we eat less as we get older!!

Wonderful story gma - what a lovely lady! My Grandpa used to say that a bit of mould was good for you "a dose of penicillin" was his phrase. And he was a doctor who lived into his 90s too!