How to use up what’s in your fridge before shopping day

Every household has a crisper drawer that gets away from it. Ours once held a cucumber I’d rather not describe.

It’s not just us. Australia wastes around 7.6 million tonnes of food a year, and estimates of what the average household throws away range from about $2,500 (End Food Waste Australia) to $3,800 (Foodbank) a year, depending on who’s counting. Either way, that’s a holiday.

The good news: you don’t need a new lifestyle. You need a small habit, done once a week, right before you shop.

The fridge-first routine (15 minutes, once a week)

Do this the day before your big shop.

1. Pull everything to the front. Open the fridge and move anything that’s been hiding at the back to the front. The yoghurt behind the jam. The half-tub of ricotta. You know the ones.

2. Sort into three groups.

• Use this week: anything close to its use-by or best-before date, open jars, the last of the veg
• Freeze now: anything you won’t get to in time (bread, cooked meat, ripe bananas, grated cheese)
• Fine for now: everything else

3. Plan the “use this week” pile into meals. Before you plan anything new, give each at-risk ingredient a job. Half a bag of spinach? It’s in Tuesday’s pasta. Three sad carrots? Soup, or grated into the bolognese.

4. Then write the shopping list. Only now do you plan the rest of the week and write the list, minus what you already have.

Use-by vs best-before (it matters)

• Use-by is about safety. Don’t eat food after its use-by date.
• Best-before is about quality. Food can still be fine after its best-before date if it’s been stored properly and looks and smells okay, though it may not be at its best.

When in doubt, check Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s guidance, and throw it out. No dinner is worth a bad night.

Five fridge clean-out dinners

These are forgiving, flexible meals that happily swallow whatever you’ve got:

1. Fried rice: leftover rice (it’s better day-old), any veg, an egg or two, soy sauce
2. Frittata: eggs plus any veg, cheese or cooked meat. Oven, 20 minutes, done
3. Loaded toasties: the last of the cheese, ham, tomato or leftover roast
4. Soup: most veg can go in a soup. My rule: if it’s soft, it’s soup
5. Pasta bake: pasta, a jar of sauce, and whatever needs using up, under a blanket of cheese

Freezer tricks that save the most

• Bread: freeze it sliced, and toast straight from frozen
• Ripe bananas: peel and freeze for banana bread or smoothies
• Grated cheese: freeze in a zip-lock bag and use straight from frozen
• Herbs: chop and freeze in a little oil in an ice-cube tray
• Leftovers: freeze in single portions, labelled with the date (you won’t remember, I promise)

Shop smarter, waste less

Most food waste starts at the shops:

• Shop from a list, and write the list after checking the fridge
• Buy the pack size you’ll actually use. The big bag isn’t a bargain if half goes in the bin
• Plan leftovers on purpose (see our family meal planning guide)

Where My Tomte helps

My Tomte keeps track of what’s in your fridge, freezer and pantry, plans food that’s close to its use-by date into the week first, and writes the shopping list from the plan, minus what you already have, rounded to pack sizes you can actually buy. Snap your receipt and the new shopping goes straight into the kitchen.

Sources: End Food Waste Australia, Fact Library; Foodbank Australia, Food Waste Facts (July 2026); DCCEEW, Reducing Australia’s food waste; Food Standards Australia New Zealand, date marking. [verify figures and dates before publishing]