I’m the kind of person who always has milk in her fridge that is several weeks past its expiration date.

It’s hard to cook for one person and it’s even harder to shop for one person. I’ll go to Don Quijote resolved to eat healthier and stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables that grow green and fuzzy two weeks later when I don’t eat them.

Finishing everything on your plate used to be a moral issue, but it’s quickly becoming an economic issue for many of us in Hawaii, where food is becoming more and more expensive. How much does a quart of milk cost now? $3.00?

According to one government study, Americans waste more than one quarter of food available for consumption. That amounts to about a pound of food per person each day. The New York Times also quoted an EPA study in March which estimated that Americans waste roughly 30 million tons of food each year — about 12 percent of the total waste stream.

I know I ought to eat at home more and eat out less, because it creates additional dilemmas. I always end up with several take-out containers I can’t finish because the restaurant portion was three sizes too large in the first place. Leftovers often go bad — the food is never as good as it was in the restaurant.

(Looking at the expanding American waistline, it’s not like we NEED portions that are three times too big!)

So, what if we could train ourselves to waste less food?

This from an NYT editorial last week:

[E]liminating food waste won’t solve the problems of world hunger and greenhouse-gas pollution. But it could make a dent in this country and wouldn’t require a huge amount of effort or money. The Department of Agriculture estimated that recovering just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people.

So, for our pocketbooks, and for those suffering because of food shortages in other regions of the world, here are some tips from The Guardian on how to “waste not” …

- Ignore two-for-one deals, which are often offered on items nearing their expiration date.
- Shop daily for perishables like vegetables, fish and meat to avoid these items going bad.
- Buy non-perishables in bulk. Hello Costco and Sam’s Club!
- Become savvy at storing food and making it last longer. Visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for more tips.
- Write out a meal plan for the week.
- Buy quality not quantity — you’re more likely to finish that quality loaf of bread before it goes bad than the cheap supermarket version.
- Rediscover packed lunches.
- Don’t be afraid of an empty fridge. Says the expert, having a full fridge is “an aspirational thing.”

Lovefoodhatewaste.com and wastedfood.com are good sites to check for more tips and information.

photo: Inside my fridge yesterday. Shield your eyes, Mom!

Could real estate ever define your relationship?

This article in the NYT on Monday caught my eye. It’s about couples whose relationships are tested when they have to make the big decision about whether to move in together.

Since apartments at reasonable prices are so hard to find in New York,

(s)ome couples move in together rather quickly just because a lease has run out. Some can’t decide who moves where because neither wants to give up a good deal on an apartment. Others make the leap and marry because they fear that a co-op board will reject them if they are just living together. And there are people who rule out potential partners simply because of where they live.

Fabulous apartments at equally fabulous prices are so hard to come by in New York that the possession of one, or lack thereof, can easily tip the balance in a relationship. While major life changes like marriage and children influence real estate decisions in all parts of the country, the scarcity of New York real estate bargains actually seems to cause life changes, or at least push them along.

After reading the article, I wondered if the same principle could apply in Hawaii with our high housing costs. Although, many young people here still live with their parents and are content to do so for a decade or more BECAUSE of the high cost of rent or buying a place. For some reason, there doesn’t seem to be the same mad rush among young Hawaii residents to find their own perfect little studio when the option of just living at home is still available.

How much should real estate be considered when you get into a relationship? If both of you are living in separate apartments, you might want to move in together, split the rent and save hundreds of dollars a month. But then the question is, who has to move?

And what if both of you are still living at home? Would you want to have a little more privacy and rent or buy a place of your own?

Then, the big question becomes: At what point should you move in with your significant other? You’d have to consider not only your financial situation, but whether the experience would make or break your relationship.

I’ve personally seen good and bad examples of couples moving in together. Some still have great relationships and are working through the little sources of friction that suddenly appear when you move in with someone. Other couples haven’t fared so well, and are left with a sticky housing situation when the relationship goes sour.

Anyone have experience? Thoughts? Fairy-tale endings? Horror stories?