waste audit / shop 12 · free workflow
Find the Pattern in What You Throw Away — Free
Log what you throw away for a week with the reason, and the audit groups them so the actual cause is a count rather than a resolution to shop better.
What this replaces
Food waste advice says plan your meals, which assumes the cause is planning. This groups what you actually threw away by the reason it went, so if the count says bulk offers rather than planning, the fix is at the shelf.
Tool note. This runs entirely in your browser — no account, no upload, no paid API key. Google NotebookLM is named as the free source-grounded reading path for the material you paste; its published free-tier terms were checked on 2026-09-13 and can change.
The four passes
Collect the smallest useful input
One item per line, with the reason it was thrown out.
Let the audit group them
Each reason gets a count and a sample item.
Fix the commonest reason first
Buying less at the shelf beats planning meals you will not cook.
Rerun for a second week
One week is a snapshot; two is a pattern.
Try it on the waste audit / shop 12
The board below runs in your browser. It opens with a worked sample so the result is visible before you paste anything; switch scenarios, edit the text, or reset to the sample.
running the sample…
first-load · sample values are illustrative, not verified facts
Everything you paste stays in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and no request leaves the page to generate the result; clearing site data removes anything saved locally.
What breaks, and what to do
Items with no reason noted
They land in Unsorted; write the reason while you can see it.
Two reasons on one item
Both counts rise; that is intentional.
Reasons outside the four
Rename the themes in a copy to match your kitchen.
Go deeper — Waste Audit
The free board above is the whole loop. The paid tier keeps the arranged output so you do not rebuild it.
- Printable audit with the top reason boxed for the shopping list — estimate: 12 minutes saved per week, basis: 4 reasons re-tallied at ~3 minutes each
- Saved local history across weeks — estimate: 8 minutes saved per week, basis: re-entering 8 items at ~60 seconds each
$4 one-time