Welcome back to the grocery budget series I am almost finished writing.  In this series, I will share the top 20 ways that I can think of that our large family uses to keep the grocery budget from getting out of line.  To learn more, visit our introduction.  Here is tip 17:

Keep track of the food you need to use: Did you open a jar of tomato sauce and still have some left?  Did you only use half an onion?  Do you remember to use everything before it goes bad?  I certainly don’t.  But I find it helpful to keep track.  If I have half an onion, a bit of tomato sauce, and some other odds and ends to be used, I will try to put together the next main meal using all of them (bonus ingredients I wasn’t necessarily planning on using = money saved because I didn’t need to break into all new ingredients) before they go bad (money wasted).

I like to keep a list on my fridge, and when I create weekly meal plans, I like to include a section on the paper to keep a running list of ingredients that I need to remember to use.  If I can’t use it, I generally end up freezing it to use later .