How to Calculate the True Cost of Food Waste

If you throw away half a $6 package of food, the financial loss is not automatically $6.

It is approximately:

That simple idea is the starting point for calculating household food waste.

For one food:

If you know the weight:

For a cooked recipe:

These calculations let you replace:

“We waste too much food.”

with something measurable:

“We discarded about $18 of edible food this week.”

That number is much easier to act on.

EPA’s latest consumer cost analysis estimates that food waste costs the average U.S. consumer $728 per year. For a household of four, EPA estimates $2,913 annually, or about $56 per week.

Those are national estimates, however.

Your household’s true number should come from what you actually buy and discard.

Start by defining what you are measuring

For household budgeting, I recommend measuring:

edible food purchased for people that ultimately does not get eaten

Examples include:

• Spoiled vegetables
• Moldy bread
• Uneaten leftovers
• Half-used dairy products
• Fruit discarded after becoming unusable
• Cooked food left on plates
• Forgotten freezer food eventually discarded
• Unused parts of packages that could reasonably have been eaten

This is different from automatically counting every:

• Banana peel
• Eggshell
• Bone
• Pit
• Other normally inedible part

as wasted grocery value.

USDA notes that definitions of food loss and waste can vary. Its food-loss definition focuses on edible food available for human consumption that is not consumed, while some waste-management statistics may also include inedible parts such as bones, peels, and eggshells.

For personal grocery budgeting, separating edible waste from normal inedible scraps usually gives you a more useful number.

Use the simplest formula when you know the percentage wasted

Suppose a bag of salad costs:

$5

You use approximately:

60%

and discard:

40%

Food-waste cost:

You lost approximately:

$2

of purchased food value.

Use weight for greater accuracy

Suppose a cheese package costs:

$8

Package weight:

500 g

Unit cost:

You discard:

125 g

Waste cost:

Same answer:

$2

This method is particularly useful for:

• Produce
• Meat
• Cheese
• Yogurt
• Rice
• Pasta
• Prepared food sold by weight

Use this general formula

Where:

So:

Example:

Purchased:

750 g

Price:

$6

Discarded:

150 g

Calculation:

Food-waste cost:

$1.20

Do not count usable food left at the end of the week as waste

This is one of the most important distinctions.

Suppose you buy:

1 kg rice for $5

and use:

400 g

You have:

600 g remaining

If that rice is appropriately stored and available for future meals, you have not wasted:

$3

You still own the food.

Classify it as:

carry-forward inventory

not:

food waste

Only count the value as lost if the food is eventually discarded or otherwise becomes unusable for its intended household purpose.

Use three categories

At the end of the week, classify food as:

Eaten

Actually consumed.

Carry forward

Still usable and intended for future meals.

Wasted

Edible food that is discarded and no longer provides future meals.

This distinction prevents food-waste calculations from exaggerating the loss.

Example

You buy:

$10 of chicken

During the week:

$6 worth is eaten.

$2 worth is safely frozen for next week.

$2 worth is discarded.

Your food waste is:

$2

not:

$4

The freezer portion still has future household value.

Do not count food simply because it moved to the freezer

Freezing food is not the same as wasting it.

EPA specifically recommends freezing suitable bread, fruit, meat, and leftovers when they will not be eaten in time.

You should only classify frozen food as lost if it ultimately becomes unusable or is discarded.

Calculate waste from partial packages

Partial packages are one of the easiest household losses to measure.

Suppose:

Yogurt tub:

$6

Total:

750 g

Discarded:

200 g

Unit cost:

Waste:

The tub did not create a:

$6 loss

because most of it was eaten.

Actual measurable food loss:

$1.60

Calculate food waste from produce

Suppose a bag of spinach costs:

$4

Weight:

250 g

You use:

150 g

Discard:

100 g

Waste percentage:

Waste cost:

Now you know two useful facts:

40% of the package was wasted

and:

that waste cost $1.60

Both can help you change the next purchase.

Waste percentage formula

Use:

Example:

Bought:

500 g

Discarded:

75 g

Calculation:

The household wasted:

15%

of that purchased quantity.

Cost percentage follows the quantity percentage when unit value is uniform

If the entire package costs the same amount per gram, then wasting:

15% of the package

also wastes approximately:

15% of the purchase price

Example:

Package price:

$8

Waste:

15%

Financial loss:

This shortcut works well for a single uniform product.

Mixed recipes need a different calculation

Suppose you cook a pot of chili.

Total ingredient cost:

$15

It produces:

6 equal household portions

Cost per portion:

Four portions are eaten.

One is frozen.

One is eventually discarded.

Food-waste cost:

Do not count the frozen portion as waste.

Recipe waste formula

Use:

Then:

Example:

Recipe:

$18

Actual yield:

6 portions

Cost per portion:

$3

Discarded:

2 portions

Waste:

Use actual recipe yield, not an unreliable serving claim

Suppose a recipe says:

Serves 8

but your household actually gets:

6 useful portions

Recipe cost:

$18

Your actual portion cost:

If one household portion is discarded:

Waste:

$3

Using the stated eight-serving yield would give:

and understate the value of the portion your household actually lost.

For household budgeting, use the yield you actually observe.

Calculate plate waste when useful

Suppose dinner costs:

$12

and creates:

4 equal portions

Each portion costs:

$3

One person leaves roughly:

one-third

of their portion uneaten and it is discarded.

Approximate waste:

You do not need laboratory-level precision.

A reasonable estimate is enough to identify repeated problems.

Do not weigh every crumb forever

The purpose of a household food-waste audit is to reveal patterns.

You could track for:

1 to 4 weeks

and record meaningful discarded food.

For example:

Monday:

Half cucumber, $0.60

Tuesday:

One leftover serving, $2.20

Thursday:

Quarter yogurt tub, $1.10

Saturday:

Two spoiled bananas, $0.70

Weekly waste:

$4.60

The point is to find:

why that $4.60 happened

not to spend months weighing onion fragments.

Separate avoidable waste from normal preparation loss

Suppose you buy whole carrots.

You peel them.

Some peel is removed during normal preparation.

That is different from:

leaving three whole carrots in the refrigerator until they are discarded

The second is the more actionable household food-waste problem.

USDA notes that food-waste measurements sometimes treat inedible parts differently depending on the purpose of the measurement.

For a household cost audit, consistency matters more than choosing the broadest possible definition.

Use an “avoidable cost” category

I recommend tracking:

Avoidable food-waste cost

This means the purchase value of edible food that reasonably could have become a meal or snack but did not.

Examples:

• Unused spinach
• Forgotten leftovers
• Spoiled yogurt
• Extra rice thrown away
• Fruit bought but never eaten
• Food prepared in quantities nobody needed

This gives you a practical number you can actually reduce.

The direct financial cost is only the first layer

The clearest household cost is:

the grocery money represented by the discarded food

But wasting food also means the resources used to produce, process, transport, store, and prepare that food were used without producing an eaten meal. EPA specifically identifies those upstream resource losses when explaining the impacts of wasted food.

For everyday household budgeting, however, I would keep those wider environmental costs separate from the main grocery calculation.

Otherwise you can quickly create estimates that look precise but are difficult to verify.

Use two versions of “true cost”

Core household cost

The purchase value of edible food discarded.

This is the number I recommend tracking weekly.

Expanded cost

Optional additional costs associated with food that was prepared or disposed of but never eaten.

These could include some portion of:

• Cooking energy
• Delivery charges
• Preparation ingredients
• Disposal costs
• Time

These costs can be real, but they are harder to allocate accurately to individual food waste.

Use them only when they materially matter.

Do not automatically charge your entire electricity bill to leftovers

Suppose you cooked a casserole and discarded one serving.

The oven also cooked the five portions you ate.

You should not treat the entire cooking-energy cost as food-waste cost.

If you want a detailed expanded calculation, allocate only the portion reasonably associated with the discarded food.

For most households, that precision is unnecessary.

Track:

the food value

first.

Delivery fees can complicate the calculation

Suppose groceries cost:

$80

Delivery fee:

$8

You later waste:

10% of the food by purchase value

You could choose to calculate:

Food-only waste cost

$8

or allocate part of the delivery fee:

Expanded loss:

$8.80

But this is optional.

The delivery would probably have occurred even if one cucumber had not been purchased.

So avoid pretending that every overhead cost can be allocated perfectly.

Focus first on costs that disappear when you buy less

This is a useful test.

Ask:

If I stopped overbuying this food, which costs would actually disappear?

If you reduce spinach purchasing from:

$8 per week

to:

$5

because $3 was repeatedly discarded, the grocery saving is direct and measurable.

Your rent does not change.

Your refrigerator probably still runs.

So:

$3

is the most defensible immediate saving.

Calculate repeated weekly waste

A small weekly number becomes meaningful over a year.

Use:

Example:

Average:

$12 per week

Annual:

Another:

$25 per week

Annual:

This is one reason it is useful to convert waste into money rather than thinking only in bags or kilograms.

EPA’s current national estimate puts average consumer food-waste cost at $728 per person annually.

Your household may be lower or higher.

Measure your own waste rather than assuming the national average applies directly.

Calculate monthly cost from a weekly audit

A rough monthly estimate can use:

Average weekly waste × 52 ÷ 12

Example:

Weekly:

$15

Annual:

$780

Average monthly:

This is more accurate over a year than simply multiplying every month by four weeks.

For a quick estimate, however, four weeks is often sufficient.

Use several weeks instead of one unusual week

Suppose:

Week 1:

$8 waste

Week 2:

$15

Week 3:

$5

Week 4:

$12

Average:

Annualized:

That is more useful than treating the worst week as your normal behavior.

Track wasted food by category

Instead of only recording total dollars, categorize the loss.

For example:

Total:

$14.40

Now you know:

produce and leftovers

deserve the most attention.

You do not need to overhaul the entire grocery system.

Track the reason too

The most valuable column may be:

Why was this wasted?

Examples:

Now each loss suggests a different fix.

Turn each reason into an action

Package too large

Choose smaller package or add another planned use.

Made too much

Reduce recipe yield.

Bought too many

Lower grocery quantity.

Forgot it

Create a use-first section.

Meal canceled

Move the ingredient, freeze it when appropriate, or use a more flexible meal.

Duplicate purchase

Check inventory before shopping.

EPA recommends inventory checks, meal planning, quantity-based shopping lists, and buying only what you expect to use.

Calculate waste from overbuying

Suppose you repeatedly buy:

6 yogurts for $1 each

but usually eat:

4

Weekly purchase:

$6

Weekly waste:

Annualized:

Potential adjustment:

Buy:

4

If your actual behavior remains the same, you could theoretically prevent close to:

$104 per year

of that specific recurring loss.

Calculate produce overbuying

Suppose every week you purchase:

$10 of fresh produce

and discard approximately:

20% by value

Weekly waste:

Annual:

$104

Now imagine several grocery categories have similar patterns.

Small recurring losses add up quickly.

Calculate leftovers waste

Suppose you cook:

4 dinners per week

Average recipe cost:

$12

Each creates:

4 portions

Cost per portion:

$3

On average, one leftover portion from two of those meals is discarded.

Weekly leftover waste:

Annualized:

This suggests a quantity or leftover-planning problem rather than a produce-storage problem.

Calculate plate waste separately from forgotten leftovers

These problems often need different solutions.

Plate waste

Food served but not eaten.

Possible cause:

Portions too large.

Forgotten leftovers

Food safely stored but never returned to the meal plan.

Possible cause:

Visibility or planning.

EPA recommends serving appropriate portions and storing leftovers in clear, labeled containers with dates.

If you track both losses separately, you can solve the correct problem.

The most expensive wasted food may not be the most frequently wasted

Suppose you waste:

Bananas

$0.50 per week

Fresh meat

$8 once each month

Monthly banana waste:

About:

$2

Meat:

$8

You may physically throw away bananas more often, but the meat has a much larger financial impact.

Rank waste by:

dollars lost

as well as:

frequency

Use a Pareto-style waste list

After a month, sort foods by cost wasted.

Example:

1. Takeout leftovers: $18
2. Meat: $15
3. Salad greens: $12
4. Yogurt: $5
5. Fruit: $4
6. Bread: $2

Focus on the top two or three categories first.

This can recover more money with less effort than trying to eliminate every tiny scrap.

Calculate the cost of an unused bulk purchase

Suppose you buy:

2 kg of food for $12

because the package has a good unit price.

You eventually use:

1.5 kg

and discard:

500 g

Waste percentage:

Waste cost:

Actual food used:

$9 worth by proportional purchase value.

The bulk purchase’s advertised unit price may have looked excellent, but:

$3 of the package produced no meal

for the household.

That should influence your next bulk-buy decision.

Calculate effective cost of food actually eaten

This is a useful companion metric.

Suppose:

Package costs:

$12

Quantity:

2 kg

Actually eaten:

1.5 kg

Effective cost per kilogram eaten:

Shelf unit price:

So overbuying increased the household’s effective cost from:

$6/kg purchased

to:

$8/kg actually eaten

This leads directly into the next article in this series, which focuses specifically on calculating the cost of food you actually eat.

Calculate the cost of an unused sale purchase

Suppose an item normally costs:

$5

Sale:

$3

You buy it because you “saved $2.”

Then the entire item is discarded.

Actual saving:

$0

Actual grocery loss:

$3

The useful comparison is not:

regular price minus sale price

It is:

amount spent on food actually used

A discount cannot save money when it creates a purchase you would not otherwise need.

Calculate buy-one-get-one waste

Suppose:

One package:

$5

Promotion:

Buy one, get one free.

You eat the first package.

The second is discarded.

You might say:

“The wasted package was free.”

But ask what would have happened without the promotion.

If you would normally have purchased one package for $5 anyway, then the extra package did not increase your cash cost.

Its direct incremental purchase cost may be zero.

But it still represents wasted food and the resources embodied in producing and handling it. EPA emphasizes that when food is wasted, the resources used across its production and supply chain are also wasted.

For household-budget analysis, be careful not to assign a fake $5 cash loss to something that genuinely cost no additional money.

Distinguish financial waste from physical food waste

This example shows why you may want two measures:

Physical edible food discarded

Example:

500 g

Direct household financial loss

Example:

$0 incremental purchase cost from a free promotional package

Both observations can be true.

If your goal is:

reduce grocery spending

track money.

If your goal is:

reduce edible food discarded

also track weight or portions.

Coupons work similarly

Suppose:

Regular price:

$6

Coupon:

$2 off

You pay:

$4

You discard half.

Your household financial waste:

not:

$3

Use the price you actually paid when measuring your personal grocery loss.

Loyalty points can complicate things

If you paid partly with points or store credit, decide what your audit is measuring.

For simple household cash flow:

Use:

actual money paid

For broader economic value:

You could include the value of points spent.

Consistency matters more than creating a perfect accounting system.

Calculate food waste inside a recipe by ingredient when portions are unequal

Suppose a recipe costs:

$20

It creates a large pan.

You discard approximately:

25% of the finished edible recipe

If ingredients are distributed fairly evenly:

Waste cost estimate:

You do not need to calculate each onion and spoonful of oil separately.

This proportional method is often sufficient.

But be careful when the discarded part contains unusually expensive ingredients

Suppose a meal contains:

• $8 salmon
• $1 rice
• $1 vegetables

Total:

$10

Someone eats the rice and vegetables but leaves most of the salmon.

Calling the discarded food:

30% of the plate = $3

may significantly understate the loss.

If practical, calculate the expensive component separately.

For important foods:

quantity wasted × ingredient unit cost

is more accurate.

Track preparation mistakes separately

Food can also be wasted because:

• Recipe failed
• Food burned
• Ingredient was spoiled before cooking
• Too much salt or another ingredient was added
• Food was improperly stored

Financially, edible ingredients lost this way still represent food-waste cost.

But recording the reason helps prevent repetition.

For example:

Burned rice, $1.20

suggests a different fix from:

Forgot rice leftovers, $1.20

Do not compromise food safety to avoid a financial loss

Once food is no longer safe to eat, the money is already spent.

Do not take additional risk simply to avoid recording it as waste.

The useful action happens earlier:

• Buy less
• Store correctly
• Use sooner
• Freeze appropriately
• Prepare suitable quantities

USDA states that preventing food waste in the first place is the preferred approach and identifies better storage, shopping, ordering, and cooking practices as prevention methods.

Disposal method does not erase the grocery loss

Suppose spoiled food is:

• Composted
• Sent to landfill
• Put down a disposal system

From the household grocery perspective, the edible food was still purchased and not eaten.

Composting may be preferable to some disposal routes for unavoidable scraps, but it does not turn the original grocery purchase back into an eaten meal.

EPA places prevention at the top of its Wasted Food Scale.

Measure prevention, not guilt

The purpose of assigning a dollar value is to find opportunities.

For example:

Monthly food-waste audit:

$80

Next month:

$55

Difference:

$25

That is useful evidence that your grocery planning improved.

You do not need to reach:

$0

Some losses are difficult to prevent completely, and definitions vary.

The useful goal is to reduce avoidable edible food loss.

Calculate savings after an intervention

Suppose average weekly waste before changing your system:

$18

After using a grocery quantity plan:

$11

Weekly reduction:

Annualized potential:

If that pattern continues, the change could represent roughly:

$364 less food value discarded per year

That is much more meaningful than saying:

“We seem to waste less.”

Compare the saving with the effort required

Suppose your detailed tracking takes:

30 minutes per day

but saves:

$2 per month

You may decide the system is too complicated.

A better method could be:

• Track only meaningful waste
• Audit for one week each month
• Focus on top categories
• Keep a simple waste note

The tracking system should reduce friction, not become another household burden.

Use a one-minute food-waste log

Record only:

Food | Amount discarded | Approximate cost | Why

Example:

Spinach | half bag | $2.00 | bought too much Pasta leftovers | 1 portion | $1.40 | forgot Bananas | 2 | $0.80 | ripened together Chicken | 150 g | $1.75 | meal canceled

Daily total:

$5.95

That is enough data to identify several improvements.

Calculate cost when you do not know the exact amount

Estimate.

For example:

You discard approximately:

one-quarter

of a $4 product.

Waste:

about $1

You do not need to weigh it.

Simple categories can work:

• 25%
• 50%
• 75%
• 100%

This is especially convenient for open packages.

Quarter-package shortcut

If purchase price is:

P

Then:

25% waste:

P × 0.25

50%:

P × 0.50

75%:

P × 0.75

100%:

P

Example with $8 package:

Quarter:

$2

Half:

$4

Three quarters:

$6

Whole:

$8

Track leftovers by portions

For cooked food, portions are often easier than grams.

Recipe cost:

$16

Yield:

8 portions

Cost per portion:

$2

Discard:

3 portions

Waste:

$6

No kitchen scale needed.

Track produce by count when appropriate

Suppose a six-apple bag costs:

$6

Approximate apple cost:

$1 each

Two apples discarded:

$2 waste

This works when pieces are reasonably similar.

For products with large size differences, weight may be better.

Track eggs by count

12 eggs:

$4.80

Cost per egg:

Three discarded because they are no longer usable:

Again, simple.

A full weekly household example

Suppose this week’s discarded edible food is:

Spinach

Package:

$4

Half discarded:

$2

Yogurt

Package:

$6

One-quarter discarded:

$1.50

Chili

Recipe:

$15

5 portions

One discarded:

$3

Bananas

6 bananas for $3

2 discarded:

$1

Chicken

1 kg for $10

100 g discarded:

$1

Bread

$4 loaf

Approximately one-quarter discarded:

$1

Weekly waste:

Annualized at the same rate:

Now categorize.

Produce:

$3

Leftovers:

$3

Dairy:

$1.50

Meat:

$1

Bread:

$1

Largest targets:

produce and leftovers

That is where I would start.

Compare with EPA’s national estimate carefully

EPA estimates an average annual consumer food-waste cost of $728 per person, and about $2,913 for a four-person household.

Do not use this as your personal answer.

It is a national estimate.

Your household may have:

• Different grocery prices
• Different purchasing habits
• Different household size
• Different eating-out patterns
• Different levels of waste

Your own four-week audit is far more useful for changing your grocery budget.

A reusable food-waste cost worksheet

FOOD 1

Food:

Price paid:

Purchased quantity:

Discarded edible quantity:

Unit price:

Waste cost:

Reason:

—

FOOD 2

Food:

Waste cost:

Reason:

COOKED FOOD

Recipe:

Total recipe cost:

Actual portions:

Cost per portion:

Discarded portions:

Waste cost:

WEEK TOTAL

Produce waste:

Leftover waste:

Meat/fish waste:

Dairy waste:

Bread/grain waste:

Other:

ANNUAL ESTIMATE

Add a cause column

Use simple codes:

O = Overbought

P = Prepared too much

F = Forgot

S = Storage problem

C = Calendar changed

D = Duplicate purchase

L = Did not like it

R = Recipe problem

After a month, count them.

You may discover:

Most money is lost because of:

O + P

That means purchasing and portion planning deserve attention.

Another household might find:

F + S

which points toward refrigerator organization.

Use the “avoidable dollar” metric

For each wasted item, ask:

Could this purchase loss realistically have been prevented?

If yes:

Include it in:

avoidable dollars

Example:

Total discarded edible food:

$20

Clearly avoidable:

$16

Unusual/unpredictable loss:

$4

Your primary improvement target:

$16

This keeps the audit practical.

Do not automatically value home-grown or gifted food at zero

If the goal is purely:

cash wasted from my grocery budget

then food received for free has:

$0 direct purchase cost

But if you are measuring:

physical food wasted

it still belongs in your quantity audit.

You can maintain separate columns:

Money lost

and:

Food discarded

This prevents one metric from trying to answer two different questions.

Likewise, restaurant leftovers require their own cost logic

Suppose a $20 restaurant meal provides:

• Dinner eaten at restaurant
• Half meal taken home

The leftover is later discarded.

Calling the entire:

$20

food waste would be wrong because half the meal was eaten.

A simple proportional estimate:

50% discarded ≈ $10 food value

may be useful, although restaurant pricing also includes service, overhead, preparation, and other costs.

If precision matters, treat this as:

approximate value of unused restaurant purchase

rather than exact ingredient waste.

The highest purchase price is not always the biggest waste problem

Imagine:

Steak waste:

$8 once every three months

Spinach waste:

$2 every week

Annualized:

Steak:

Spinach:

The cheaper product causes more annual loss because the behavior repeats.

Always consider:

cost × frequency

Use annual loss by food

Formula:

Example:

Half spinach bag:

$2

Occurs:

40 weeks per year

Annual:

$80

This can make recurring low-dollar habits visible.

The real value of calculating food waste

The calculation is not mainly about discovering that throwing food away costs money.

You already know that.

The useful part is identifying:

what

how much

how often

and:

why

The dollar amount lets you prioritize.

If your audit shows:

$150 annual bread loss

but:

$600 produce and leftover loss

you know where to focus first.

Common mistakes

Counting all uneaten pantry stock as waste

Usable future inventory is not waste.

Counting the entire package when only part was discarded

Calculate the discarded share.

Ignoring recipe ingredient cost

Uneaten cooked food still contains purchased ingredients.

Using recipe serving claims instead of actual household yield

Calculate from the portions the recipe really produced.

Counting bones and peels exactly like discarded edible food

Decide whether your household audit is measuring edible avoidable waste or total waste material. USDA notes that definitions can differ.

Ignoring sale prices and coupons

Use the amount you actually paid for a household cash-loss calculation.

Treating a free promotional item as a full-price cash loss

Physical waste and incremental financial loss are separate concepts.

Counting frozen food as waste

Freezing can preserve food for future use. EPA recommends freezing suitable surplus food that will not be eaten in time.

Ignoring small losses because each costs only a dollar

Repeated weekly losses can become substantial annually.

Spending more time measuring waste than fixing it

Approximate meaningful losses and focus on patterns.

Ignoring why the food was wasted

A dollar amount without a cause does not tell you what to change.

Trying to save food after safety has become questionable

Prevention should happen through better purchasing, preparation, storage, and planning. USDA identifies these as major ways to prevent food loss and waste.

Measure the food that disappeared without becoming a meal

The simplest definition of household food-waste cost is:

money spent on edible food that never gets eaten

Calculate it using:

unit price × amount discarded

For partial packages:

package price × percentage discarded

For recipes:

cost per portion × portions discarded

Then keep usable pantry, refrigerator, and freezer food separate.

A half bag of rice that will be used next week is:

inventory

A half bag of spinach that is discarded is:

waste

That difference matters.

Next, record why each loss occurred.

Was it:

overbuying?

an oversized package?

too many cooked portions?

a forgotten leftover?

a canceled meal?

duplicate shopping?

The reason is more valuable than the trash-bin weight alone.

EPA’s latest analysis estimates a substantial financial burden from uneaten food, including $728 annually per U.S. consumer and $2,913 for a household of four. But your own number is the one that can change your grocery decisions.

Track meaningful edible waste for several weeks.

Calculate:

Average weekly waste × 52

Then focus on the two or three categories responsible for most of the loss.

If you discover you are wasting $10 per week, the goal is not simply to feel bad about:

$520 per year

The useful question is:

Which purchasing, portioning, storage, or meal-planning decisions are creating that $10?

Once you can answer that, food-waste cost becomes more than a statistic.

It becomes a grocery problem you can actually solve.