Most of the time, I think that I have pretty normal behaviours when it comes to surface level food and money things. I go out to restaurants, I buy a mix of things that are on sale and aren’t, I throw (way too much, unfortunately) food out because it goes bad, etc. When I’m at a restaurant, I will take leftovers home with me, if there are any, unless there is a reason I can’t – i.e. driving across the border, going straight to a club for the rest of the night, walking around for 8 more hours.
Once, not too long ago, I was away for a girls weekend. There were quite a few of us, maybe 15. Someone had organized Subway catering trays for us to eat for lunch one day. When we were done, there was 8-10 sandwiches left. I thought absolutely nothing of it, until MULTIPLE people were suggesting to just throw them in the garbage! I couldn’t believe it. There was probably $20 of food there, perfectly good, and they wanted to chuck it out! I thought it was odd when the first person suggested it, but to have people second and third the idea just blew me away.
More facts:
We were in a room IN our hotel’s building.
The 2 suites we were in had bar fridges.
We were going out clubbing that night. (HELLOOOO drunk food)
There was a variety of sandwiches left, it wasn’t like no one wanted the poor pizza sub or anything.
We were all chipping in to cover the costs of the weekend, it wasn’t one person deciding to toss money that they had spent themselves.
So, I insisted, and had to insist pretty strongly, that I would take them back to our room and that I wanted them. Low and behold, before dinner some of them had been eaten. We didn’t head out to dinner until 7 or 7:30. Fast forward to 2:30 am and with dozens of drunk girls around, there were no sandwiches left. Not a one. People even purposefully DIDN’T stop to buy drunk food on the way home, because they knew that there were sandwiches, in adding to the chips and water, waiting for them back at the hotel. Keeping those sandwiches probably saved six people (myself included, I chowed down when I got home!) $5-15 each. Keeping $20 worth of food turned into saving $50 or so. (Ahem, and not supporting the local economy by that, I’ll concede.)
So tell me, am I the weird one here? Have you ever had to defend leftovers in such a way? When I worked in a catering facility it pained ALL of us to have to throw everything away at the end of the night, but that was what the health rules stated we had to do.
Yup, I would totally have done the same thing, ESPECIALLY if there was to be alcohol involved later on that night!! Nothing worse than doing the booze tour and nothing to eat when you return to your room!
Most likely, it sounds almost like some people didn’t want the “hassle” of packing up and putting away? It’s just easier to toss the stuff, you know? 🙂 Not that I would have been tossing!
jan recently posted…Frugal Activities #34
I serve meals at my place with big portions so people are happy, but never in a plate, so they can get the quantity they want in their plate, and if something is left over, I can eat it as it is still in the serving dish.
But the cleaner thinks I am a millionaire so at the beginning she just threw everything away!
She would get five meals out of it if that was her food, or worst case feed her animals, so I didn’t get why she would throw it, she just imagined that’s how we live.
Pauline @ Reach Financial Independence recently posted…Ways to Save Up for Christmas Shopping
Not weird at all. It’s pretty shocking how quick some people are to throw food away
Mario recently posted…Six tips to vacation in New York WITHOUT looking like a tourist
You’re not alone. I also hate throwing out leftover food. As much as possible, I just buy enough that I need..This saves me money and also forces me to diet (a little bit :)))
How to Save Money recently posted…Saving Money at Home
My son always seems to make snacks, and then leave some…..as part of that whole “responsibility” thing we want him to clean his plate off and put it in the dishwasher…but seeing how he always seems to have *something* left I tell him to bring it to me. No need for him to throw perfectly good food away. 🙂
You are not weird – I would have done the same thing. Those were totally worth saving in my opinion. Those catering trays are not cheap!
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