If your celery goes limp....shut up Jessie!!!
I cut the end off ands tick it in a glass of water or a 2 cup measure in the refrig....et voila! No more limp celery....firms right up!
Linda C

Green bags! There are only two here also, and the Debby Meyer bags do work. I like to stock up at the produce mart and have found that they come in very handy.

To keep breads fresh, split the loaves in half and freeze until you need more. Same works for rolls. Wrap tightly in foil first and for baguetts, place the defrosted loaves in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up the crust.

I've had excellent results with Greenbags. I was rather sceptical that they would keep stuff fresh longer, but I kept a head of boston lettuce fresh in a greenbag for over 2 weeks, and it was still crisp. They keep asparagus fresh for 2 weeks, and sweet peppers crisp for 3 weeks. I just turn them inside out and rinse after I use the item, then let them dry and fold them up until they are needed again. I bought a package of six two months ago and still haven't used two of them. I bought them when my son went off to college in the fall because I knew that the two of us would take longer to finish fresh food and did not want to waste anything. I think someone here on the forum recomended them.

Joanne

Something I learned on this forum was to put the lettuce in the door of the fridge, and not the bin! I've been doing it ever since i first read it, and use the idea with heads of lettuce as well as leftover lettuce already torn up for salad. I use the bottom shelf of the fridge door and am so glad I learned about it! Can't remember who posted the hint, but THANK YOU!

Smiles,
Sooz

If celery is dirty, I cut off the ends, wash and dry thoroughly and put in a good quality freeze zipper back - wrapping the celery in a couple pieces of white paper toweling - the celery will last for weeks this way.

Store your extra flours in the freezer
Store your cottage cheese, sour cream, ricotta cheese containers upside down
Store eggs in the carton, not in those handy egg holder thingies that come with the refrig.
Don't store onions & potatoes together

The very best thing we've ever done to both lower costs & to keep food fresher was replace our 17 year old refrigerator with an Energy Star. Our electric bill dropped $30/month & food last 3-4 times as long. I can easily keep fresh strawberries 10-12 days in the clam pack. I keep the deli drawer at 34-35 degrees & dairy last mucho longer. Our old refrigerator just wasn't doing the job & we didn't realize how inefficient it had become until the first month with the new one.

/tricia

Two adults here, as well. Wasted food is the most expensive food you purchase, so I do careful meal plans to help reduce that "forgotten" something-'er-other, especially in the crisper drawer.

I dehydrate, freeze, or vacuum seal with a FoodSaver for longer storage. Instead of waiting for the celery go go limp, I'll dehydrate a portion of it. Works great in soups, casseroles, etc. I also dry the celery leaves. Can't get all those mushrooms used? Slice and dehydrate them. I make entire soup mixes with a wide variety of dehydrated foods. We eat dehydrated zucchini as a substitute for potato chips. Hard cheese keeps longer in FoodSaver bags.

When grapes are on sale, I'll stock up and freeze them in FoodSaver bags.

I like the green bags for bananas, as well as freezing or dehydrating bananas when I can get a deal on them.

FoodSaver canisters are great for leaf lettuce and fruit in the refrigerator. They keep much longer when vacuum-sealed.

When potatoes are buy a 5# bag - get one free, I make them into mashed potatoes and freeze them in dollops and vacuum seal the dollops in FoodSaver bags. Otherwise, we'd never be able to use 5#, let alone 10#...

I also cook and mash sweet potatoes and dehydrate them on the fruit roll-up trays. When crispy-dry, I run them through the blender and make sweet potato powder. Reconstitutes to make mashed sweet potatoes by adding hot water. I do the same thing with tomatoes for tomato powder. Reconstitute it with water for making pizza sauce, etc. It's amazing how many tomatoes you can get in a quart jar when you dehydrate them, and even MORE when you make tomato powder.

Ripe fruit can be made into fruit roll-ups. You can dehyarate yogurt. I even dehydrate lean cooked meat cut into 1/2-inch cubes. After they are dry, I package it in FoodSaver bags and stick it in the freezer.

Make sure your refrigerator is 40°F, or colder, and your freezer is 0°F or colder. Food degrades faster when those temperatures are warmer.

-Grainlady

As an after lunch after thought...

When you need small amounts of infrequently used foods in recipes, salads, pizza toppings, casserole ingredients, etc.... utilize your grocery store salad bar.

Need small amounts of sweet bell peppers (especially in the winter when peppers cost a small fortune), sliced mushrooms, sliced olives, etc., buy what you need for the recipe, or what you will realistically use, rather than having half a pepper, celery, etc., dying of loneliness in your refrigerator.

-Grainlady

As I've mentioned in a couple of other threads, my latest is resealing the original food bags -- with the unused portion inside -- with the FoodSaver. Not only do the chips, noodles, etc stay nice, but I'm also conserving by reusing what would have been thrown away.