Friday, February 20, 2009

When good couponers go bad!

My stockpile is overflowing! I should be able to go without buying even milk, eggs or bread for some time. I still need to build up my chicken and beef stores but if I HAD to go without buying anything I could do it...I think.

Unfortunately during my newbie days I went coupon crazy! I bought everything that was 75% or less with the benefit of a coupon, and if I could buy it for free, you'd better BELIEVE I bought that too! When I looked on the bags of free things, it was easy to forget about little details like expiration dates and to worry that these oppertunities might never present themselves again. As a result I hoarded most of my items and now they are useless.

Below is just a few of the items I have had to throw away.



I have reorganized my stores and placed them in expiration date order. I am using up the items whenever and wherever I can, and I am going to have faith that the deals will be around again.

2 comments:

sarah said...

you are throwing away stuff just because it is past expiration? All of those should be good for a long time past that.

Sarina said...

Sarah,

I spent hours on the phone with each individual company. They all have different rules for what they consider "safe" beyond expiration date. The Lipton sides were from 06! I really needed to organize my pantry.

Believe me I didn't want to throw out all that food. I did everything safe I could to save what I could. The Keebler/Kellogg brands have a hard and fast rule...flat out if it hits the expiration date THROW IT OUT! I might have stretched it a bit but the cookies expired as long ago as September, so I wasn't taking any chances.