Learn how to keep food fresh and make it last longer with these essential tips. If you are like me, you hate to throw away food that has gone bad.

We found 13 kitchen hacks to save money and avoid grocery waste. Take a look and let us know if you have any tips to keep your food fresh longer.

Does this cycle sound familiar?

Buy what you think your family will eat that week. Plans change. Meals aren’t prepared as planned. Food ends up thrown away because it spoiled and went bad before you had a chance to eat it.

If it does, you are not alone. In fact, these stats from the National Resource Defense Council are pretty alarming:

- About 40 percent of all food in the U.S. goes to waste.

– The average American wastes about $28 to $43 in food each month, roughly 20 pounds of food.

How do you keep your food fresh and your groceries last longer? Here are 14 tips that will help you save the food you buy from going bad.

When you get home from the grocery store, keep the fresh herbs in the thin plastic bag they came in. They will last longer in the vegetable crisper section of your fridge too.

Make Fresh Herbs Last Longer in a Plastic Bag

I actually learned this trick from my mother. Stored this way, the onions have more room to breathe and last a month or more.

How to Make Onions Last Longer – In Pantyhose

Add four to ten grains of dry rice to the bottle and shake it. With the rice inside the bottle, you will be able to keep your seasonings on the shelf for at least 6 months.

How to Make Seasonings Last Longer – With Rice Inside

What makes food stale? Air. Keep cereal, chips, crackers, oatmeal, rice, and other grains in airtight containers to prevent them from going bad too early.

Invest in high-quality airtight containers

Do not store your bread in the fridge, it will dry out and go stale. Keep the air off your bread by keeping it in the plastic bag with a twist tie.

Store bread in the breadbox