Poll

Is you fridge (not freezer) emptier than other fridges of comparable size owned by you non-mustachian friends and family?

Much emptier (at least 40% more available volume)
62 (37.3%)
Slightly emptier (10-40% more space)
50 (30.1%)
About the same
31 (18.7%)
Even more full... if that's possible
22 (13.3%)
Fridges are for consumer suckas
1 (0.6%)

Total Members Voted: 159

Author Topic: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?  (Read 17131 times)

KBlynx

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #50 on: September 22, 2014, 12:39:54 PM »
Ours is probably half-full. It varies, sometimes I'll make a huge crockpot of soup or stew to last us lunches all week and it can get a little crowded. We are moving though so it's being paired down, the less food to move the better!

I house sit occasionally for a couple with a giant home. They have..get ready for it...a supersize fridge/freezer combo and a wine/beer cooler in the kitchen, and in the garage they have a full size fridge for the horse (he eats better than I do), and a full size fridge for just beer. There are 2 people that live there. They tend to have lots of dinner parties but holy CRAP! It blows my mind. 4 fridges for 2 people :O



Gone Fishing

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #51 on: September 22, 2014, 01:46:42 PM »
We go from 100% (110% if I screw up and buy too much) on Monday (grocery day) to about 50% or so on Sunday.  3 gallons of milk for the 4 of us take up quite a bit of space.  We cook a lot, so there are lots of semi-perishable ingredients/condiments.   We keep an ice cream pail for food scraps to feed the chickens which takes up a fair amount of space, 6 dozen eggs or so at any given time, a drawer full of garden seeds, and at the moment, a drawer full of jars of home rendered lard. We vary rarely throw away any leftovers/veg/etc.   

dorothyc

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #52 on: September 22, 2014, 01:48:26 PM »
I did once have a friend complain that I didn't have any "fun" food like ready-to-eat sweets or other snacks like that, which I thought was silly.  I always have fruit and nuts on hand if I need to eat IMMEDIATELY, and I have ingredients to make pretty much anything else I might be craving, so why bother keeping a stash of oreos?

This reminds me of Erica from nwedible.com and her great post on the eat from the larder challenge:

http://www.nwedible.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Screen-Shot-2014-04-13-at-9.19.56-PM-1024x639.png

also link here
http://www.nwedible.com/2014/04/eat-from-the-larder-challenge-week-two-wrap-up.html

My fridge is usually pretty full - we shop at different stores depending on who has the best price on stuff like our favorite eggless mayo, and I get a CSA veg box every other week. Also living in Southern California I put several things in the fridge that I used to keep in the cabinet when I lived in London - stuff like jam (usually home made), ketchup, chutneys, barbecue sauce, pickles.

I do however keep a fruit bowl on the counter and don't refrigerate potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, onions or sweet potatoes as they keep better in a cool dark place.

CommonCents

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #53 on: September 22, 2014, 02:13:58 PM »
Some see the fridge as half empty;
Others see it as half full.

I'm an engineer; I saw it as an opportunity to buy a smaller fridge ;-)

lol

Ours varies based on when we went shopping in the last two weeks and whether we have any leftovers there.  Usually I try to eat up leftovers for work within a few days.  Our freezer is usually pretty full so I've been trying to work that down a bit. 

We always have a few cheeses in the cheese drawer (also doubles as veggie drawer).  Usually have plenty condiments and basics on hand (butter, eggs, pickles, mayo, a few types of homemade jams or jellies, peanut butter, lemon juice, squeeze butter (sorry), two dressing bottles, pesto, salsa, yellow mustard for DH and dijon for sauces/dips, ketchup, yeast, etc....).  Have some things we should use up and not get again like chili paste and a garlic jar thats been around forever (only use it for garlic bread).

Can almost always fit in something someone brought over, though maybe not a turkey/big cake (due to space of kitchen constraints we have a side by side fridge) without taking out the brita filter and/or the handful of beers we tend to keep in there.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #54 on: September 22, 2014, 02:20:46 PM »
My parents' fridge is always jam-packed full of stuff, but I don't think they waste much. My mom keeps a mental list of what's going to expire first. When I go back to visit, she scolds me if the thing I grabbed out of the fridge for lunch wasn't on the list. :-) For some reason they just keep a very large backlog of food in there. I don't really understand. I don't want to keep track of which foods to eat when, or play a game of Tetris anytime something needs to be inserted into the fridge. To each their own though.

RunningWithScissors

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #55 on: September 22, 2014, 04:10:19 PM »
We installed a 'European' style fridge that's only 700mm wide (about 27") but there's only two of us now so it's perfect.  I think the same theory applies to fridges and houses:  less room = less crap accumulated. 

However, I confess I love my deep freeze.  It's full of cheap meat from friends who hunt and Costco sales, as well as berries, veggies and soups/stews made with homegrown ingredients. 

Threshkin

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #56 on: September 22, 2014, 05:38:40 PM »
I selected fuller than normal.  We keep the fridge packed with veggies, fruit, leftovers, and staples.  Only a small percentage is consumed by manufactured products, mainly condiments.

For us keeping a full fridge is a cost saving buffer.  We buy in bulk on sale.  We consume what we have available in the house.  The fridge, deep freezer and pantry are the buffers in-between.

GardenFun

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #57 on: September 22, 2014, 05:57:58 PM »
Some see the fridge as half empty;
Others see it as half full.

I'm an engineer; I saw it as an opportunity to buy a smaller fridge ;-)

Haha, same here.  Bought our first and only fridge 12 years ago.  Didn't realize there was a pre-sized space in the cabinets for it.  Went to the store and got one that was big enough for us.  Yeah, there is at least 3 inches of space on each side of the fridge.  Obviously we were supposed to purchase a larger unit.  ;-)

Datastache

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #58 on: September 23, 2014, 12:33:02 AM »
As a young, low-income, partially mustachian bachelor with unusual eating habits, yes, I tend to keep a pretty empty fridge. I have nothing against keeping more food around, though, as long as it's obtained at low cost and consumed in its entirety.

Theadyn

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #59 on: September 23, 2014, 03:58:44 AM »
Quite a few water jugs in mine, which can be taken out if more room is needed.   I tend to shop only when absolutely needed (HATE shopping..  for anything, ugh!).  So when I must, I purchase a lot.  I stock up on fresh that is on sale that can be diced, flash frozen, and freezer bagged for easier cooking later.  Other fresh produce gets eaten before it goes bad, some will go into soups/stews, which then will be portioned up for the freezer.  After the fresh is gone I eat out of the freezer until it's time to once again face the dreaded grocery shopping.  Living alone I can do this cycle for a few months.     So, at the beginning of the shopping trip the fridge is pretty full, freezer about half... and towards the middle fridge fairly empty with water jugs taking up some room, freezer fairly full...  at the end both fridge and freezer pretty empty.

As a funny side note:  As stated above, I hate shopping.  I use to plan my shopping around sale day and had a detailed list laid out according to the layout of the store.  The mission: to get in and out as fast as possible getting everything on the list.  Even had the Mission Impossible theme going in my head to psyche me up.  So I was in the parking lot in the car, my daughter was with me.  I sat there for a bit, just willing myself to go in and get it over with.  Finally, out of frustration, my daughter deadpanned with 'Mom... the skinny people are starving over here!"    Lol.. love that kid!

alsoknownasDean

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Re: Do mustachinans keep emptier fridges than most people?
« Reply #60 on: September 24, 2014, 04:31:21 AM »
I tend to have mine between 25 and 75 percent full. Usually I'll have some beer, a bunch of condiments, ingredients for whatever I want to cook next, maybe a pot of food or a plastic container or two from the freezer, and a small bottle of milk. Oh and two water bottles in the side door which are usually full if I want some nice cold water. :)

With milk I've started using so little I buy the longlife stuff now.

Not much in the way of snacks really.

The freezer, however, is rather full.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2014, 05:27:04 AM by alsoknownasDean »