Avocados Or 5 Dollar Bill?

I was cleaning up the kitchen the other day when I saw three avocados sitting on the counter, drying up before my very eyes.

As I glanced down, I didn’t think of them as avocados anymore. Instead, I saw them as a five dollar bill that was going to be thrown out.

That image really frustrated me. So many times I have cleaned out the fridge and thrown out old cucumbers and expired yogurt. However, I never really thought about the food in terms of an exact dollar amount. In this case, I remembered that those avocados were purchased at the price of 3 for 5 dollars. Therefore, it was easy to visualize tossing money literally into the garbage when I saw the fruit was no longer usable.

Money Saving Tip:

Calculate the amount of money wasted next time you clean out the refrigerator. I am not telling you to deduct a fraction of the price of leftover sour cream sitting at the bottom of the container. However, if a bag of apples goes bad, don’t just toss it. Visualize reaching into your wallet, taking out three dollars, and tossing that money right into the trash. Perhaps if you truly associate money with what you are throwing out, it will teach you to go through the refrigerator every day or so and try using up what may soon spoil or expire. This exercise may also make you think twice before you spend on an item in the first place.

What is the most expensive item you have had to throw out because it was no longer edible? Do you end up throwing out much food each week?