Yesterday, the high temp barely reached 80. I took advantage of that to use of some of the many frozen bananas I’ve been collecting and make banana bread. It turned out good, although the bottom stuck to the pan.

Besides the bananas, I cleared some other stuff out of the fridge and freezer. Here is Winning! (And Losing), food waste edition:

Saved:

6 frozen bananas

Half a can of corn that I froze a while back. Used it as a side at dinner.

Wasted (mostly because we left it here while in Maryland):

Four russet potatoes

Quarter-pound of American cheese

Some celery

A can of whipped cream that a kid dropped and broke the spout off of

Half a pound of bacon

2 frozen bananas

The bottom sixth of several bags of pretzels, Tostitos, and pita chips

About to be wasted if not used soon:

Hamburger rolls and hot dog rolls from Maryland trip

Half a pack of hot dogs from that trip

Organic deli turkey breast from Monday, a little less than half a pound

Some deli roast beef, from Monday, just a little

A head of iceberg lettuce

I’m beginning to see the meat-and-cheese drawer in the refrigerator as a culprit. It’s like I always forget to look in there.

Does wasting food bother you as much as it bothers me??

Here’s an interesting article that appeared in our local paper recently on food waste. Read the whole thing if you can, but interviewee chef Todd Fuller gave these quick tips for reducing food waste:

“1. Shop more often and buy far less

2. Plan your meals ahead of time, based on what’s fresh and available

3. Use more of what you purchase quickly

4. Look beyond imperfections in fresh produce

5. Visit farmers markets and farm stands and use more of what you buy there.”

In other news, I started an offshoot of our main savings account (Capital One 360 lets you do this), to account for yard sale money and other little dribs and drabs saved. I just put $100 in there to start, since I earned at least that much but my husband ended up taking some and the rest just got used up for I don’t even know what. Future eBates checks will go there, for example.

I cut the boys’ hair on Tuesday. Um. Not the best job. But at least it’s shorter! It occurs to me that I could always sell the clippers and get at least some of my money back should I conclude that haircutting is not for me.

I spent a while yesterday shopping around for shoes to wear in my sister’s wedding. My wide feet make shoe shopping problematic, but I found a pair for $57 at Zappos, after looking at macys.com and dsw.com.

I also added up the total spent on our Maryland trip: $775 for the house; $150 at Target pre-trip (goggles, snacks; some of this might not have been for the trip); $200 on groceries in MD; $30 at McDonald’s on the road; $65 at various Wawas; $8 at the general store; $100 on a restaurant dinner; $50 at the movies. (This was a fully husband-sponsored trip.) Adds up to $1378 total, $344.50 a day, $68.90 per person per day.

I could live with all that except for the fact that we left so much of the perishable food at the house.

Last night I closed out the June budget. I did well in my categories, but there is still a deficit that dates back to April, that has to do with me making a big payment on a credit card and our taxes. If we had ever had the financial pow-wow with my husband that I wanted, we could have figured that out, but the whole thing is starting to fade into the mists of history. Looking ahead, I created the budgets for July and August, and I think I’ll do the whole rest of the year, so I can anticipate things like the two weddings coming up, the payments for my daughter’s pre-K, and the dentist visits in October and November that we have to pay out of pocket for.

Now, what to do today? Since we stayed home all day yesterday, I feel like busting out of here. And the sun is out.