How to Reduce Food Waste and Save Money This Holiday Season

Between family gatherings and a steady stream of holiday parties, we’re heading into a season of bountiful feasts, endless appetizers, and a mountain of desserts. Festive food and drink are such an important part of how we celebrate — they bring people together, create memories, and fill our homes with warmth.

But all that abundance can come with a hidden cost. As plates pile up and fridges fill to bursting, a surprising amount of that food (and all the money we spent on it) quietly goes to waste.

This year, let’s keep the joy and connection that food brings to the holidays, while being a little more thoughtful and focus on how to reduce food waste during the holidays. Because with a few small shifts, we can waste less, save more, and celebrate what really matters.

Prefer to listen instead? In this episode of the Sustainable in the Suburbs podcast, I’m sharing simple, sustainable ways to reduce food waste, save money, and plan mindful, eco-friendly holiday meals.

The Scale of the Problem

It can be hard to wrap our heads around what all that extra food really means beyond our own kitchens. When you zoom out a little, you can see just how staggering holiday food waste really is — and how much more it includes than what’s left on our plates.

Across the U.S., ReFED estimates that more than 316 million pounds of food will be wasted on Thanksgiving alone. That’s about $556 million worth of groceries, tossed in a single day. Producing that wasted food uses around 105 billion gallons of water and releases nearly 800,000 metric tons of carbon emissions — roughly the same as driving 190,000 cars for a year.

Here in Canada, FoodMesh and Too Good To Go report that we waste 25 to 45 percent more food during the holidays than at any other time of year. And according to Canadian Geographic, about 58 percent of all food in Canada ends up wasted at some point — much of it right in our homes.

When we throw food away, we’re not just wasting what’s on the plate. We’re wasting the land that grew it, the water that nourished it, and the work that went into getting it to us.

And all of that food? It used to be money.

But the good news is, there’s a lot we can do to change that — and most of it starts right at the kitchen table.

Plan Ahead — and Plan for Enough

Planning ahead is the key to avoiding waste in most areas of our daily lives, but especially when it comes to food.

Start by taking stock of what you already have. Look through your fridge, freezer, and pantry before heading to the store. You might be surprised at how many ingredients are waiting to be used. My workbook, A Simple Kitchen Audit, is a great way to get organized before the chaos of the season hits!

Be deliberate about planning your menus, right down to the last cookie. Choose simple but hearty dishes, versatile appetizers, and a few special treats. Think ahead to what your leftovers might turn into — soups, casseroles, and curries are great ways to give holiday food a second life. Recipes with flexible ingredients, like squash, potatoes, or rice, make this even easier.

If you’re hosting a larger meal, portion planning tools from Love Food Hate Waste or FoodMesh can help you see how much food you actually need. It sounds small, but it’s a real mindset shift — you are not going to run out of food. You just aren’t.

Buying in bulk can also help you cut down on packaging and stretch your budget. Bring your own containers if your local store allows it, and stock up on pantry staples that can carry you through the season.

And while you’re planning for your own table, consider your community, too. Food banks often need items like cooking oil, baby formula, and shelf-stable proteins — not just canned goods. Picking up a few extras when you shop is an easy way to extend that sense of abundance and care.

The holidays have always been about generosity, but sometimes the most generous thing we can do is to make sure nothing goes to waste — not food, not money, not effort.

Smarter Hosting: Potlucks, Portions, and Real Dishes

Even with the best planning, once the cooking starts and the guests arrive, things tend to take on a life of their own. And that’s part of the fun. But it’s also where the waste can start to creep back in.

Hosting mindfully doesn’t mean giving up your traditions or stressing over every serving. It just means hosting with intention — a few small shifts that make gatherings a little lighter on your wallet and the planet.

There’s this idea that hosting means doing everything yourself — the food, the drinks, the décor, the ambience — but a potluck changes that. It spreads the cost, the work, and honestly, the joy. When everyone contributes something, the meal becomes a reflection of the people around the table. It’s one of the simplest ways to cut back on surplus food and makes it easy to include a few plant-based mains, which are more inclusive and often easier to reinvent as leftovers.

For the main meal, try serving family-style. Everyone takes what they actually want, and you can always refill platters if needed. Serving this way helps you cut down on waste and creates a more relaxed, communal meal — which is what this season is all about anyway.

And when it comes to the setup, skip the disposable plates and trays if you can. Use your own dishes, glassware, and serving utensils. It looks nicer, feels better, and keeps a surprising amount of waste out of the bin.

If you’re heading to a family dinner, a school event, or an office party, it’s still worth having the conversation. Suggest a potluck or offer to bring a plant-based dish that stretches easily into leftovers. Ask how leftovers will be handled or volunteer to help pack them up at the end of the night. Sometimes those small, proactive nudges — at work or around the family table — make a bigger difference than any formal plan.

Hosting mindfully brings the focus back to what really matters: good food, shared generously, and enjoyed fully.

Leftovers Are the Best Part

There’s just something about a plate of leftovers the day after a big holiday meal, isn’t there? But even the best intentions can go sideways if you don’t have a plan for what’s left.

Before the party, tell your guests to bring containers! People will often say, “Oh no, you keep it,” but if you frame it as part of the plan, it becomes a natural, generous gesture. And if they forget, now is a great time to make use of all those takeout containers you’ve been saving. Sending everyone home with something delicious for tomorrow keeps food out of the fridge — and out of the landfill.

For anything that’s left after that, go back to your plan. Freeze it in labeled portions for easy weeknight meals — soups, lunches, future comfort food. And of course, don’t forget the scraps. Vegetable peels and ends can become liquid gold when turned into broth. Keep a freezer bag for odds and ends as you cook, then simmer them into stock later in the season. Compost what truly can’t be reused — and know that those scraps will come full circle in your garden soil come spring.

Because the real secret to reducing holiday food waste isn’t doing without — it’s using what we have to the fullest.

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Involve the Family

Preventing food waste works best when it’s something the whole household is part of. Cooking, planning, and storing food can be shared habits — ways to connect, learn, and take care of what we already have together.

Kids can help with meal planning, picking out produce, or washing and chopping veggies. They’re also far more likely to eat food they’ve helped make. When kids stir the soup or measure flour, suddenly it becomes their meal.

Give everyone an age-appropriate role: washing produce, mixing batter, labeling leftovers. It’s not about making it perfect — it’s about slowing down long enough to notice what’s happening, together.

Doing these things together creates those small moments to talk about where food comes from, why we store it the way we do, and how small choices at home connect to the bigger picture of sustainability. Let your kids see how you plan meals, shop, and decide what to do with what’s left.

You can also turn those moments into something creative — like baking cookies or making simple “gifts in a jar” mixes that can be shared with neighbours, teachers, or friends.

And through it all, keep gratitude at the centre. These shared meals, these conversations, this time spent cooking and laughing and learning together — that’s the real heart of it.

Because when we care for the food we have, we’re also caring for each other — and for the planet that made it possible in the first place. Cooking, eating, saving, sharing — it’s all connected.

These are the small, ordinary moments that add up to something much bigger. And honestly, they’re what the holidays are truly about.

Rethink Abundance

The holidays have always been about abundance — gathering, sharing, and celebrating what we have together.

At its best, that abundance comes from gratitude and connection, not from excess. But somewhere along the way, we started showing it through more. More gifts, more food, more decorations — all the ways we’re taught to prove love and generosity through stuff.

It’s not surprising. The holidays are full of emotion and expectation, and when you mix that with constant marketing and the pressure to make everything magical, it’s easy to get swept up in it. We end up trying to express care through quantity instead of through presence, attention, or thoughtfulness.

But abundance was never meant to look like that.

When we plan thoughtfully, cook with care, and leave room for rest and connection, that’s abundance of a different kind — one that nourishes us instead of draining us.

Being intentional and buying less isn’t about doing without — it’s about being content with enough.

Enough food to nourish us.
Enough time to slow down and enjoy it.
Enough energy to share with others in ways that matter.

And while we’re celebrating what we have, it’s a good time to remember those who have less. Food banks, mutual aid groups, and community programs often need extra help this time of year. Supporting them — with donations, volunteer time, or even just spreading the word — is one of the most direct ways we can share abundance where it’s needed most.

When we waste less, we make room — in our kitchens, in our budgets, and in our lives — for what truly sustains us.

So maybe this season, the goal isn’t to do more — it’s to do it more meaningfully. To cook, eat, and share with gratitude. To care for our neighbours in real, tangible ways.

To celebrate abundance in its truest sense — not as having everything, but as appreciating everything we already have. Because that’s what “enough” really feels like.

Resources to Help You Waste Less

If you’re ready to take what you’ve read here a step further, these simple, practical tools can help you get organized and make the most of what you already have.

A Simple Kitchen Audit — A quick, guided workbook to help you take stock of your fridge, freezer, and pantry so you can shop smarter, save money, and waste less.

A Beginner’s Guide to a Sustainable Kitchen — A deeper look at how to plan meals, store food properly, and build waste-free habits that last all year.

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Updated November 2025 to include new statistics and insights from the Sustainable in the Suburbs podcast episode.