Three tips for saving money and food in the kitchen

We are all guilty of throwing out food because it's "gone bad". What a wasteful society we are as a whole.

Here are three tips:

1. Cheese - softer cheeses seem to invite mold but you can remove the cheese from its plastic wrap and wrap it in foil instead. Cheese needs to breathe and it can't breathe in plastic - so it feeds on itself which creates the mold. Wrap it in foil, which will allow the air to circulate.

2. Wilted lettuce - If your lettuce leaves get limp on that head of lettuce, remove the core, immerse the head in a bowl of cold water with the juice of half a lemon and refrigerate for an hour. It will cause a chemical reaction that makes the little veins in the leaves re-absorb water and restore the crisp texture.

3. Hard Brown Sugar - Brown sugar that has turned hard doesn't need to be thrown out. There is nothing wrong with the sugar other than it's harder than a brick! Take a slice of an apple and seal it in an airtight container with the sugar. The apple gives off moisture and ethylene gas and makes the brown sugar soft again.