Saving money on groceries not only means finding the best bargains in the store, but learning ways to reuse and recycle leftover food scraps helps too. Here are some ways to cut down food wastage and save money!

1. Ground Coffee

Those leftover ground coffee can be put to good use, and a great way is to use them as fertilizers for your house plants. Ground coffee is great for adjusting the pH levels of the soil, but you can also mix some ground coffee up in a spray bottle of warm water to water your plants, so they get a boost of caffeine to help them grow.

2. Celery & Carrots

If you keep vegetables such as celery and carrots for too long, they turn limp easily. But don’t throw them out; you can revive them by soaking in a glass of cold water for about half an hour. Alternatively, limp vegetables can also be used in pureed soups or boiled in a broth – there really is not much of a difference from using fresh versions.

3. Meat Bones

Every good chef knows how meat and fish bones give you flavourful stock for soups and broths. So when you prepare your meats, don’t throw these out. Keep them for the weekend’s beef broth or boiled pork soup.

4. Prawn Shells & Tails

As with meat bones, prawn shells and tails are great for tossing into a pot of seafood soup stock to make it more delicious, or you can also use them to make prawn bisque or prawn soup for accompanying rice or noodles.

5. Orange Peels

Dried orange peels can be used as anti-deodorants for the house. Put a few into your dustbin to ward off unpleasant odours, or place some into your cupboards to dull any musty smells. You can also use orange peels in old potpourris to give them a new lease of life.

6. Bread

If your kids did not finish their sandwiches or if you have bread which is a few days old (not good enough to make sandwiches yet not stale enough to throw away), you can keep them to make bread crumbs for use later in other dishes. Simply tear the bread into small pieces and process in a food processor.

7. Used Tea Bags

There are many uses for used teabags. You can save them for neutralising odours at home (much like orange peels), soothing stressed or irritated skin by placing them over affected areas for half an hour, or throwing some into your bathtub or foot bath to inject antioxidants into the water.

8. Rice

Leftover rice is very common especially in bigger families. Don’t let them go to waste; follow what many of our grandparents love to do and save them for a hearty dish of fried rice the next day. In fact, it’s highly recommended by many pro cooks that you should always use leftover rice to make fried rice, as it gives a better flavour when stir-fried in a wok. Make sure to store leftover rice in a sealed container in the fridge.

This story was originally published on The Singapore Women's Weekly.