Saving Money on Food: A Word of Caution aka "When Good Food Goes Bad"

So we all know we should buy In bulk whenever possible, and we should snap up those great deals we come across, and not be afraid to buy 200 boxes of cereal if it's on clearance.  Right?

Yes.  Definitely yes.  Always yes.

But... keep an eye on it.  If you're not eating it like crazy right away (for example, when I bought 100 boxes of my kids' favorite cereal, it was gone in two months), pay attention.  I still say that expiration dates are an imperfect way to decide when your food is too old to eat, but...

But sometimes food, even "non-perishable" food, goes bad.

I have to admit, there's a possibility that it's not just that my food was past date.  Maybe it's that I've trucked some of it coast-to-coast twice in the last two years, in a super hot moving truck.  I don't know.  All I know is that for two things: canned tuna, and boxed pasta, this fall was definitely not good to them.  It started with the pasta.  This was "boil in 3 minutes" pasta, that I'd gotten on sale, plus in-store coupons, and ended up paying 48 cents per 16 oz. box.  Naturally, I bought over a hundred boxes.

I think, in hindsight, if I'd moved the pasta from it's individual (not at all air-tight) cardboard boxes, into some kind of air-tight, lidded, plastic container, it would have lasted longer.  I don't know.  What I do know is that this pasta, which I expected to last for years (like all my other bagged pasta) is so stale and gross we almost can't stand to eat it.  I'm about ready to toss it, which should give you a clue as to just how much we hate it...

The other is canned tuna.  And this one makes me sad.  Canned tuna should last years.  Like ten years.  Or more, if you keep it cool, which I did not.  My moving truck got so hot it melted candles I had packed in boxes.  And "hot" is definitely not the way to go for good food storage practices.

Anyway, when I was unpacking my food storage (actually Marcia and her daughter did most of the unpacking - it's so nice to live kind of near her again, and not just because she helped me unpack!), I noticed that my tuna cans were bulging.  Now, I'm a pretty cheap person, but I'm not stupid.  They all went straight into the trash.

So keep an eye on that food storage.  It's not a super great deal if you end up throwing it away.

Kate