How do you handle leftover groceries?

A departing guest left a perfectly good carton of eggs and juice cartons.

How do you guys handle this circumstance? Toss 'em or keep 'em?

Wahoo! Free food!
I’m on my way!

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Silly question! Get scramblin them eggs, toast a slice of sourdough and treat it like the thank-you brunch that it was meant as. Every little perk helps in this game. Enjoy :)!

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What the other said – eggs and juice are a good, free, start to your day! We’ve gotten some really good ā€œleftover foodā€.

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It always felt like treasure if guests left anything of use. Tin of beans? Put it on the shelf. Half a bottle of ketchup? Put it in the cupboard. Half a bottle of gin? Put it in my tummy.

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I draw the line at half eaten fruit though.

(if it’s already in the bin)

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I don’t have much of a sweet-tooth the way most folk do, so when cakes and biscuits are left, I can create the illusion of the perfect host by presenting them to my next guests … provided they behave themselves :nerd_face:!

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I had one guest demolish my basket of chocolates left on the kitchen table.
NB Help yourself doesn’t mean eat the lot.
Anyway karma meant he left behind a bottle of liquor he forgot to pack concealed under a cushion, boy he was sore about that and left a begrudgingly ’ have a drink on me’ in the review.

But back on track - lately, two young men left behind the most delicious two lt carton of their grannies home made raspberry jam - taste was supremely dynamite.

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There’s a lot to be said for guests who leave you tokens of gesture, however small or insignificant they may seem. I’d like to leave you with some examples from my last week of hosting alone :

The Japanese couple who annoyed me by checking in at 1am left a packet of Carrs cheese melts. Arigato! All is forgiven!

The Canadian couple who informed me they’d used my address to have football tickets delivered but (couldn’t give me an actual time) forcing me to hang around all day - left me a bottle of organic maple syrup :)! SLURP! Cancel that bad review!

And, last but not least ; the Taiwanese lady who called me up while I was on a night out, cutting it short because she said she wanted me to take her to hospital. So I picked her up in an uber and we went … turned out she just had indigestion from a dodgy Tesco pasta salad. She bought me a bottle of Anna Sui perfume :heart_eyes:!

Before you tell me I’m easily bought : thanks, I already knowšŸ™ˆ

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This is the best response I’ve ever read in this entire forum.

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@spkrause, which one?

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Eat them! I love when guests leave partial bottles of wine.

Single serve snacks or soda I just leave for the following guests.

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@Kittyp 's response. It appears I need a remedial course in using the reply button.

I love them. It’s bonus groceries!

I do end up with a lot of extra butter, which I leave for the other guests, along with cooking oil, some spices etc. I scored a bag of (unopened) organic quinoa last week! Lots of leftover shampoo/conditioners that I point out to other guests that they’re welcome to use.

Eggs get left all the time. I like to think it’s a perk for all of the hard work we do!

Now if only they’d leave bags of money in gratitude…:rofl:

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I eat or use everything that’s left short of half eaten fruit in the trash bin. Like @Barns my standards are low but I do have some.

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@spkrause Aw, that’s nice, thank you :blush:

Not food related, but one Guest moving out of the country left 2 green plastic garbage bags full of perfectly good clothese. With her approval, it was donated to the local church for a rummage sale…after my co-host and her tenant went through it, of course! :wink:

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My son was pretty happy to find a full unopened container of this in the freezer after the last guests left and a can of Coke. He promptly made an ice cream spider :spider: we do love our bugs in Aus EE7D78DC-7193-42A8-BBCE-F3AA6749135F

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Who ate all the muffin tops?

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Well, this is about MY leftover food – I provide continental breakfast items in the suite, so I end up with English muffins, bagels, croissants, biscuits, blueberry muffins, scones etc. that the guests don’t eat and that I can’t eat before they get stale. Always a variety cuz I buy whatever’s on sale that I can reasonably pass off as ā€œbreakfast food.ā€ I bag appropriate smaller servings from the store bags, and don’t want to re-serve those because the previous guest may have handled them. So toss em in the freezer and every couple months I make a delicious bourbon bread pudding with all the random bits.I figure the baking process kills any errant germs. Yum.

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