Use It First: a free fridge tracker app to cut food waste

Use It First is a free fridge tracker app that keeps a running list of the food that tends to go bad, puts whatever needs eating soonest at the top and shows you how much you're saving versus tossing. You add the leftovers, the chicken and the berries when they go in the fridge, and the app does the remembering. There's no account and no barcode scanning marathon. You open Use It First in your phone's browser, add it to your home screen and it's ready before the groceries are put away.

Here's what the app does, how to get it on your phone and the small habits that make it pay off in real money.

What Use It First does

Every item you add gets a name, a spot (fridge, freezer or pantry) and a use-by date. The main screen sorts everything by that date, so the stuff on its last legs sits right at the top with a red or amber badge, and the things with weeks to go sit at the bottom in green.

When you eat something, you tap the check mark. If it went bad, you tap the trash can. Either way it comes off the list, and the app keeps a tally of what you used versus what you threw out. The Saved tab turns that into a percentage for the month and a short list of the foods you toss most often.

I think that last list is the real eye-opener. Most of us have one or two repeat offenders, the bag of spinach that turns to slime every single week or the tub of sour cream bought for one recipe, and seeing them in black and white is what finally gets you to buy a smaller bag.

Why food waste is worth a few taps

Ever done the math on what goes in the trash? It's a bigger deal than it feels like while you're scraping a container into the bin. A study out of Penn State found that American households throw out close to a third of the food they buy. That's money, and it's also all the water, fuel and farmland that went into growing and shipping it.

Most of that waste isn't dramatic, and I think that's exactly why it's so easy to ignore. It's leftovers that got shoved behind the milk, fruit that got forgotten in the crisper drawer and meat that sat a day too long. Our guide to reducing food waste at home covers the bigger picture, and this app goes after the "out of sight, out of mind" part.

How to get Use It First on your phone

It's a web app, so there's no App Store or Google Play download. It installs straight from our site to your home screen.

On an iPhone:

1. Open 8dofwellness.com/apps/use-it-first in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button (the square with the arrow pointing up).
3. Tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

On Android:

1. Open the same page in Chrome.
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the corner.
3. Tap Install app or Add to Home screen.

The blue leaf icon shows up with your other apps. It opens full screen and works offline, which comes in handy in a grocery store with one bar of signal.

How to use it, screen by screen

Adding food

Tap Add food and a sheet slides up with a row of quick picks: leftovers, raw chicken, ground meat, fresh fish, opened deli meat, opened milk, yogurt, eggs, berries, salad greens, cooked rice and bread. Tap one and the app fills in the name, the spot and a rough use-by time for you.

Those times come from the low end of the USDA's FoodKeeper ranges, so they lean toward caution. Leftovers get 3 days, raw chicken and ground meat get 1, eggs get 3 weeks. If the package has a date on it, use the date picker underneath and go by the label instead.

For anything else, just type a name ("chili", "half an onion", "tortillas") and pick how long it has, from today to a month. The whole thing takes about five seconds an item.

The Fridge screen

At the top there's a card that either says you're looking good or lists what to use first, along with a few ideas for using things up (a stir-fry, an omelet, soup, fried rice, a smoothie or the freezer). Below that, a switch lets you look at everything at once or just the fridge, freezer or pantry.

Each item shows how many days it has left, and the two buttons on the right do the rest. Check mark if you ate it, trash can if you didn't.

The Saved tab

This shows the percentage of tracked food you ate this month versus tossed, with a green bar, plus your all-time count of items saved. Underneath is the list of what gets tossed most, with how many times. If something shows up there twice in a month, I'd take that as a sign to buy less of it, freeze half the pack as soon as you get home or swap it for a frozen version.

What to track (and what to skip)

You don't need to log every can of beans and jar of mustard. That way lies madness, and you'll quit inside a week. Track the stuff that actually goes bad fast and costs real money. Leftovers are number one, since they're the easiest to forget. Then raw meat and fish, opened dairy, berries, salad greens and fresh herbs.

Shelf-stable pantry staples can stay off the list. So can anything you go through in a day or two anyway, like the morning milk in a house full of cereal eaters.

Your data stays on your phone

There's no account and no cloud. Your list lives on your phone and nowhere else. Tap the gear icon now and then and hit Save backup to keep a copy, since clearing your browser data or deleting the app would wipe it. Restore brings everything back.

Tips to waste less with it

Add things as you unpack the groceries. Who wants a second chore later? It's the one moment when everything's in your hands anyway, and it takes a minute.

Log leftovers the minute they go in the fridge. Waiting until you stumble on them three days later defeats the whole point, and a quick tap of the Leftovers button while the lid's still off is all it needs.

Check the top of the list before you plan dinner. Ask yourself one question: what's red or amber, and can tonight's meal use it up? This single habit probably saves more food than everything else put together.

Freeze before it's too late. Bread, cooked rice, meat and even bananas freeze well. If something's showing one day left and you know you won't get to it, move it to the freezer section with a new date.

Compost what you can't save. Some waste is unavoidable, and peels, cores and coffee grounds make great garden food. Our guide to composting for beginners makes it a lot less intimidating than it sounds.

Watch the money side. Less waste means a smaller grocery bill, and that extra wiggle room fits nicely into a simple 50/30/20 budget if you're trying to get on top of spending.

A word on food safety

The use-by suggestions in the app are a rough guide and not a guarantee. Always check the label, go by smell and look, and when in doubt, throw it out. Raw chicken, ground meat and fish are the ones to be strict about, and nobody should taste-test something to see if it's still good.

Frequently asked questions about Use It First

Is Use It First free?

Yes. No price, no ads and no sign-up. It's one of eight free wellness apps on this site, one for each dimension.

Does it scan barcodes?

No. We kept it to a quick tap or a typed name. Barcode apps tend to get tedious, and most of what goes bad (leftovers, produce, meat from the counter) doesn't have a useful barcode anyway.

How does it know when food expires?

It doesn't, exactly. The quick picks use cautious fridge times based on USDA FoodKeeper guidance, and you can always set the date from the label instead.

Can my family share one list?

Not yet. The list is stored on one phone. One person can be the keeper of the list, or you can each track your own food.

Does it work for the freezer and pantry?

Yes. Every item gets a spot, and you can filter the list by fridge, freezer or pantry.

Your home and the planet are one spoke of the wellness wheel, and the free wellness wheel quiz shows how the other seven are doing.