I'm Obsessed With Too Good To Go, The Food-Waste Eliminating App. Here's How I'm Making The Most Of It And Saving Money

What exactly was I spending too much on? It turned out to be food. Those boozy brunches, Friday night fancy dinners, and those "too good to pass up" deals in bulk at my neighborhood Grocery Outlet were gobbling up my monthly funds. Not to mention everything just costs more, thanks to sky-high inflation.

While you can typically expect a bag of day-end or day-old goodies, what you get can vary. You'll just have to make peace — or even get excited by — that element of surprise. 

Some hints can be found in the "What you could get" section of each restaurant's TGTG profile, but just like in matters of love, expect no guarantees.

At least where I live, I've found there to be mainly bakeries, coffee shops, and pizza places. So more often than not, expect pastries, bagels, donuts, pizza slices, and bread. More restaurants and buffets are popping up on the app, and so on occasion, I've a breakfast dish or soup or salad. Produce and packaged goodies are even more rare finds. 

I've bought bags from the same coffee shop, same location and everything. One pickup, I got breakfast burritos, sandwiches, yogurt, and almond croissants. The next time? A half dozen water bagels.

What you receive really hinges on whatever doesn't get sold, and that varies day to day. Plus, these surprise bags are offered in limited quantities, so once they get snatched up, they're gone. You'll need to keep an eye for when they're up for grabs next. 

Typically, there's a pickup window to grab your food, and can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour around closing time. Some establishments have a more liberal time period to pick up that stretches out for several hours. 

These places are pretty strict about the pickup times. After all, they're closing shop and don't want to be waiting on anyone at that hour.

As there aren't too many T2TG locations near me, I do my research ahead of time, scroll through the spots on my "favorites list," and link a pickup with some errands. For instance, if I'm doing some yoga or taking a dance class in Highland Park, I'll choose a pickup that's after my class in the same 'hood. Or I'll grab a surprise bag on my way to a potluck.

Otherwise, you'll be wasting time and gas driving an hour to grab some food, just to save some bucks. (I've been that person, and trust me, it's not worth it.) 

I did mention that you most likely will get a bunch of carbs, yes? I'm taking a dozen-plus donuts, in some instances. For those surprise bags where I have four too many croissants to devour in one sitting, I've gifted a few to my neighbors and members of my Buy Nothing group, but typically will freeze those babies.

Before freezing those pastries or pizza slices, I'll wrap them tightly in foil, plastic, or an air-tight container. Here's how long you can freeze food for before they go bad: 

+Pizza slices: two months 

+Bagels: four months 

+Pastries: one month 

+Sliced bread: eight months (but best to eat within a few months) 

+Loaf of bread: six months 

If you start frequenting the same places with your T2TG pickups, your tastebuds might grow tired of eating bagels and cheese pizza.

Instead, I'll do a quick look-through to see what's hiding in my kitchen cupboards and fridge to see what I can put together. There's also the Tasty app, which lets you search for recipes by ingredients. A few ideas I've played around with:

+A bunch of sides from a fish grill chain: chopped up some sausage from my fridge and tossed it onto the mix. 

+Focaccia bread from a vegan bakery: dipped it into marinara sauce, or put together sandwiches from stuff I had lying around.  

+Day-old slices of pepperoni pizza: topped them with a bunch of veggies (i.e., arugula, mushrooms, bell peppers, spinach).

My friend Alanna, who is also a tad obsessed with T2TG, and I have swapped our extras from recent scores. For instance, I offered two chocolate croissants for a bowl of clam chowder. 

That way, I'm not stuck unloading a bunch of pastries which I can't reasonably eat, nor have room for in my freezer to store for several months. 

As a former Groupon addict, where I maintained a spreadsheet to keep tabs on all my Groupons (this predates the Groupon app days), TGTG can be a bit addicting. There's only so many pastries I can eat or stash in my freezer before it turns into a small mountain of carb chaos. 

If I find myself going overboard with the pickups and getting too click-happy, I limit my pickups in a given week and try to eat what I have before picking up another surprise bag. 

Just because I'm scoring a deal on food doesn't mean my food pickup manners go out the door.

TGTG lets you cancel up to two hours before the scheduled pickup time. If my day isn't going as planned or I'm pressed for time, I make sure to cancel well before the two-hour cancelation window. That way, someone else gets a chance to pick up the surprise bag, and that food doesn't go in the dumpster.

Most places do offer a bag for the goods, but it's encouraged to bring your own bag just in case. And while tipping isn't required, I do tip a few bucks to thank the folks working there for taking the time to prep the bags.