Throwing out food feels a lot like throwing out money. Save more of your dough — figuratively and literally — with this bread-saving hack.
The scoop
At the end of the week, a lot of us are left with old, stale bread that usually ends up in the garbage bin. Instagrammer and cook Suzanne Mulholland (@thebatchlady) shared a reel for how to prolong the life of your bread in a quick and delicious way by turning it into frozen garlic bread.
First, mix up some butter and freshly minced garlic. Spread the mixture on each slice of bread and top with a piece of parchment paper. This will keep the slices from sticking together.
Next, store the slices of bread in the freezer and take them out as needed. Suzanne wrote these are "great for hungry teenagers and a great way of bulking out meal times!"
You can heat up the bread quickly in an air fryer or oven. "This is a really easy way of reducing waste and making the most of stale bread," Suzanne said.
How it's helping
With the soaring prices of groceries these days, it can be frustrating to toss out food. Simple hacks like this bread-saving strategy help extend the life of your groceries and stretch every dollar.
Yahoo Finance reported a standard loaf of sliced white bread costs about $2.54 in 2024, with other types of bread costing even more. If you're throwing away several slices of bread every week, that can really add up. Freezing the leftover bread and using it instead as an addition to other meals also helps your wallet by reducing the need to buy another side dish, such as rice or dinner rolls.
According to Feeding America, the United States alone wastes $473 billion worth of food every year, which equals about 38% of all the food in the country. When food waste is sent to landfills, it releases toxic, planet-warming gases into the air as it decomposes.
By limiting food waste, you can save money and be part of the solution to this environmental issue. Cutting down on food waste also lowers the demand for the water and energy used in agricultural production and the greenhouse gas pollution associated with food transportation.
You can help yourself and the planet even more by checking out organizations like Too Good To Go, which are making a huge impact in reducing food waste and saving consumers money. Start-up company Martie offers shoppers the ability to order food online at discounted rates. Misfits Market saves perfectly good produce from being thrown into a landfill due to cosmetic reasons and sells it to customers at an affordable price.
What people are saying
Other Instagrammers were excited to try this stale bread hack. One user said, "I've done this today with 6 slices of bread that was going to go in the bin. Best garlic bread ever!"
Another user wrote, "Great idea, I make old bread into breadcrumbs and freeze too."
One Instagrammer commented, "So clever AND delicious!"
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