According to a new poll* from ShopSmart magazine, from the publisher of Consumer Reports, a surprising 10 percent of women say they categorically won't eat leftovers. And only 29 percent of women say they budget or estimate how much a weekday dinner will cost.

According to this poll, seventy percent of married women do all or most of their household’s grocery shopping. And while we think we're being more abstemious than in years past, the average weekly grocery expenditure is $115, only $1 less than in November 2007.

Huh. We all feel like we're tightening the belts, spending less, making better choices, but that doesn't sound like it. As someone who could accrue a refrigerator stacked full of doggie bags at an alarming rate, I do have to reveal my own anti-leftovers bias. I'll bring home certain things (pastas in a tomato-based sauce; most Asian dishes, from kung pao to pad Thai), but I usually end up guiltily tossing those Styrofoam clamshells if they contain seafood of any kind, meats in creamy sauces, salads or desserts. My uncles end up making hash with doggie-bag steaks and chops, and I've been known to have quesadilla night with leftover restaurant flotsam and jetsam.

What are other people's strategies for incorporating restaurant leftovers into family dinners?

*The Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a telephone survey of a nationally representative probability sample of telephone households. 1,001 interviews were completed among women aged 18+. Interviewing took place over April 23 – April 27, 2009. The margin of error is +/- 3.2% points at a 95% confidence level.