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Welcome to Save Food, Spend Less Challenge 2026!

Watch the short video below to learn the basics.
You'll be an Save Food, Spend Less Challenge 2026 expert in no time!

Hennepin County | Ramsey County | Washington County
Save Food, Spend Less Challenge 2026
October 1 - October 31, 2026
Evelyn Hendrycks 's avatar

Evelyn Hendrycks

Normandale Environmental Chemistry

Evelyn's points

  • 0 TODAY
  • 45 THIS WEEK
  • 206 TOTAL

participant impact

  • UP TO
    13
    pounds of CO2
    have been saved
  • UP TO
    8.8
    pounds
    food waste prevented

Evelyn's actions

Planning

Try a Food Tracking App

I will download and use an app that helps me track and manage my food.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Planning

Create a Weekly Meal Plan

I will reduce food waste and save money by planning a weekly menu of meals and ingredients for my household of 3.

COMPLETED 4
DAILY ACTIONS

Shopping

Stick to Your Grocery List

I will only purchase the items on my grocery list and avoid impulse purchases.

COMPLETED 4
DAILY ACTIONS

Cooking

Reimagine Leftovers

I will learn about how to repurpose my leftovers into new meals and then try it.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Planning

Create a Household Favorites List

I will create a cookbook or recipe collection of go-to meals for my household to make meal planning easier.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Planning

Find your meal planning personality

I will explore different meal plan techniques and choose one that works for my household.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Cooking
    How have you modified what you do with leftovers to make sure nothing goes to waste?
    Evelyn Hendrycks 's avatar
    Evelyn Hendrycks 10/09/2026 5:55 AM
    By leaving certain items separate in a dish, for example we had butternut squash in one of our dinners this week and instead if mixing it together all at once we only used what we needed so we could use the leftover butternut squash as a side for something else.
    Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Shopping
    What are some of the things you typically buy that you weren't on your list? How do you think you might limit some of those purchases?
    Evelyn Hendrycks 's avatar
    Evelyn Hendrycks 10/06/2026 7:13 AM
    Things I typically buy that wouldn't be on the list is when you just see something new when browsing the grocery store. It has helped me so far to limit those purchases by placing a pick up order instead so there is no temptation to buy more of what you see instead you have to stick to the list.
    Read More
  • REFLECTION QUESTION
    Planning
    An average American throws out about 240 lbs of food per year. The average family of four spends $1,500 a year on food that they throw out. Does this surprise you? Where would you rather use this money? How has meal planning helped you avoid waste?
    Evelyn Hendrycks 's avatar
    Evelyn Hendrycks 10/05/2026 5:12 AM
    The amount of money spent on food people throw out dose surprise me, I feel that is a big amount of wasted money that could go towards more valuable things. Logically speaking it would be nice to not waste that money on throwing out food and instead save it. Meal planning has helped avoid food waste because I planned on using all the ingredients and food in my household to make dishes and then plan it around the expiration to make sure the food doesn't get wasted.
    Read More