Jun 28, 2026
Americans are looking for unique ways to save money with inflation outpacing wages. Everything from cutting subscriptions to self-grooming and thrifting is fair game when you’re trying to make ends meet.
Groceries have painstakingly been a thorn in the side of every adult that is spending more on food than they were a year ago. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the cost of food at home and at restaurants increased 3.1% year-over-year in May. The cost of fruits and vegetables, alone, soared 6.1%, the labor department said.
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One of the easier ways to save on food is to maximize your leftovers and avoid ordering in or dining out every weeknight. This mindset can feel like a drag, but if you think about it like a creative exercise in how to maximize all of the food you’ve already paid for, it can actually become fun.
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“It ends up being this fun game where you are creating something from what seems like nothing and solving this puzzle, and then you get to eat it,” Margaret Li, chef and co-author of the cookbook Perfectly Good Food: A Totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking, told NPR.
Here are some tips on making your leftovers work for you.
Find your “hero” meals
As an adult, you have a good idea of the quick meals that you like and will eat by default. These can be homemade pizza (with store-bought dough), sandwiches, egg fried rice, tacos, or something else. Li calls these kinds of meals “hero recipes.”
NPR reporter Emily Siner tried LI’s “Make-It-Your-Own Stir-Fry” recipe from her cookbook. It required basic ingredients on any weekly grocery list: crispy vegetables, leafy greens, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and water.
Tamar Adler, chef and author of The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z also told NPR that “you could put anything in a frittata, and it’ll be great.”
The best part is you can make these things at home for a fraction of the price you would pay at a restaurant. Bonus: You’ll feel like Link in the Legend of Zelda making your own unique meals. Unfortunately, there’s nothing mood lifting about washing dirty dishes afterwards.
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Label your leftovers
Another tip is to label your leftovers. Doing so is a good idea because it gives you an idea of the shelf life of what you prepared when you meal planned for the week.
For example, salads can last up to four days, while cooked bacon or sausage can hold up for one week. Shellfish, on the other hand, can start to go bad after a day or two, depending on the fish.
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But you can also label your leftovers with a note on what you intend to use them for, Adler told NPR. Leftover blueberries can be labeled “muffins-to-be on Tuesday,” she said. “I really like doing that — assigning the destiny of the food.”
The same goes for bananas and nuts that can be used for banana bread or leftover cold cuts that can be baked into breakfast croissants.
Don’t force yourself to save everything
You can’t possibly save everything in your fridge. But what you do save can help curb food waste. In 2024, the U.S. let 29% of the 240 million tons of its food supply go unsold or uneaten, according to Refed.
As Li said: “I try not to be too obsessive about eating absolutely everything.”
The point of the exercise is to get your creative juices flowing. “If you’re too hard on yourself, you’re not going to enjoy it at all.”
You may also be able to freeze certain foods to give them a longer shelf life. This includes beaten eggs, soups, and even pizza.
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Danni Santana is a journalist based out of New York City with a decade of experience reporting and editing business stories about retail, restaurants, sports, and personal finance.
