There must be some ways to cut back the amount of money we spend on food

On waste, budget advice and banana bread

Approximately a third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted

Renée and I have been having a lot of fun over the last few months creating a household budget. Fun, that is, if your definition includes the kind of hilarious tension requiring a visit to the social worker at our family Doc’s office to help us negotiate, among other line items, the cost of playing tennis vs. the cost of making art.

I now understand why very few couples engage in this activity so righteously lauded by Canada’s top debt-hater, Gail Vaz-Oxlade, on Til Debt Do Us Part, or through one her many budgeting bibles available on a bookshelf near you. Imagine how many are being purchased right now by well-meaning partners to assist the other leader of their domestic unit in this non-merry-making mission (hopefully not non-marrymaking), should they choose to accept it.

As arduous as the task is, I think more of us will need to undertake household budgeting in 2017 with the cost of food expected to rise by as much as $420 next year for a family of four. Apparently it’s hard to say whether it will be $10 cantaloupes or cauliflowers but it seems one of the high impact areas will be fruits and veggies.

(And for those who are keeping track of all that’s going south because of the election south of the border, there is an argument to be made that these rising prices are partially the fault of the U.S. president-elect and his intent to expel undocumented workers leaving the labour force short by two million lowpaid people.)

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I am prepared to make drastic cuts to all parts of our household spreadsheet to ensure enough dough for me to hit the courts at Rosedale six times a week and for Renée to access what she needs to create her art. With that in mind I checked out the results of the 2016 Nutritious Food Basket survey from Hamilton Public Health to see how much local experts think we should be spending on our three squares.

Apparently the cost of feeding two women in our youthful age category of 51-70 years, is a minimum of $362 a month. I know we spend a lot more than that so there must be some ways to cut back the amount of money we put out in the checkout line.

Yet it could be the amount of food we throw out in our various coloured bins that is impacting our budget just as negatively according to a recent report from the Value Chain Management Centre. In 2014, Canada scrapped or tossed $31 billion worth of food into compost bins or landfill sites.

Worldwide, we know from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, approximately a third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted and that includes 45 per cent of all fruit and vegetables produced globally being thrown or rotting away.

Now rightfully, we rail against all the waste we hear about coming from the big grocery stores especially when CBC’s Marketplace just unveiled a terrible story about products not even past their best before dates (BBD) being regularly tossed into the garbage bins of Walmart and other large chains.

Yet it turns out almost half of the waste really comes right out of our own homes, including products we purchase with good intent to use and then find it near or at its BBD and decide to purge. Or maybe you were going to make something with that spinach but ran out of time and now it’s getting a little limp for you.

Turns out, there are people out there less fussy or more in need than you who will take it off your hands at a reduced rate. Creative apps are increasingly available in urban centres to connect shoppers seeking discount food that might be headed for the curb or the garbage chute down the hall. I’m hoping to see one in Hamilton soon.

My money advice? Take your overly ripe bananas, throw them in the freezer and later bake a nice loaf to soften your budget deliberations.