Save Money – Organize Your Refrigerator

Save Money Organizing Your Refrigerator!

Here is an excerpt from our Groceries On A Dime ebooks about organizing your refrigerator:

Organize your fridge.

There is a difference between cleaning and organizing. When you clean, you get rid of the “nasties” and wipe down the shelves. When you organize you place things in a certain order to make it easier to use them.

For example, I always keep my milk, my cheese and lunch meats in the same spots in the refrigerator. The eggs go on one side.The fruits go in the fruit bin and the vegetables go in the veggie bin. If I have room, I try to keep all the leftovers on the same shelf or in the same area in the refrigerator.

Why is any of this important and how can it save me money? Because we can save huge amounts of money by not wasting food. Food is wasted because we didn’t know we had it and it spoiled or we didn’t know we had it so we bought more of it and then it spoiled.

By having things organized, I can see at a glance if I need milk or cheese.If someone comes home for a quick lunch and I’m not there, they can look on the leftover shelf and know they can eat any of those leftovers for lunch instead of having to paw through the fridge to find something to eat. Keeping my refrigerator organized also helps me know if I need to have an extra “leftover” dinner that week because leftovers are piling up.

All of these same principles apply to your freezer, but you also want to be sure to label, label and label items in your freezer.

This all looks good on paper but what do you do when you have four kids and a husband digging through the fridge all the time?

Once a refrigerator is cleaned, most families try to keep it that way. When something gets moved out of place it is usually so obvious most people automatically put it back where it belongs. If that doesn’t happen, keep a small bank by the fridge and start fining everyone if something isn’t put back in the right place.

When money is involved, people change their habits quickly and will learn fast. Instead of fines, you could require that the person does a chore or something extra for mom as a “fine”.

Things will get messy no matter how careful you are but that is why you need to straighten your refrigerator each week before you go get groceries. I automatically straighten it throughout the week when I get in the fridge. It only takes five seconds or so to do this if you keep up with it.

Think on the positive side. Is there a “cooler” way to spend your summer!! HA! HA!

      -Jill

 

photo by: mr_t_in_dc