Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Are you the average American tossing $230,000 in food over the years??



The following is the result of a big refrigerator cleanout. The total came to $5.20, broken down as follows.

.77 = 1/5 of a container of Stonyfield yogert
2.80 = full container of salsa
.50 1/5 container of picante sauce
.13 1/3 of an apple
1.00 1/2 bag of carrots (these were estimates but should be pretty close to costs)
_______
Total tossed $5.20. This is added to an earlier cleanout of $6.69. So the total for the month is $11.89.

According to the 2009 Department of Labor's consumer expenditures reports, the average American spends $6133 on food each year. And according to several reports, the average American wastes 14 percent of their food purchases.

Broken down, this means the average American is tossing $858.62 each year. That's $71.55 per month. If that same amount was invested at 6.5% from age 20 to 65, that's $230,000 being tossed in the trash.

Hoping the next refrigerator cleanout is under $3.00. Baby steps, baby steps. Best wishes. Eileen

2 comments:

  1. Why would you throw away salsa and picante? We can't be without those in our refrigerator.

    Oh, and we have very little food waste at our house.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kudos for your lack of food waste! The food I threw away all had mold/far past use by date.

    ReplyDelete