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I thought I'd give a little tip about eggs and their expiration date and how to tell if they're bad.
If you do happen to find those eggs you have in the refrigerator that got buried behind something and are now past their expiration date, there is a way to "test" them without ever cracking the shell: float 'em! Fill your kitchen sink or a big bowl or pan or whatever, with cold water and place your eggs in that. If they lay flat, they're super good; if they rock a little bit and one end tips up, they're still good; if one end stays on the bottom but the other end goes at an angle, I'd still use them; if they end up with one end down and the other one straight up, they're probably still good, but just in case, I cook those up and give them to the dogs. If they float? Hoo boy! You don't even want to crack those puppies! Throw them out.....very gently, of course.
Of course, you can always use them to egg your psychotic neighbor's house. Just kidding, I would never, ever suggest such an act of violence (although I do have a psychotic neighbor).
I use the float method when I find a nest of eggs and I'm not sure how long they've been there. After all these years, it has only let me down maybe.....twice.
Produce is often not usable by it's date.. meat is dangerous but could be used for couple more days if cooked very thouroughly. Everything else, imho, is OK for a little longer!
Raw uncooked meat is just to iffy to buy if very dark in the case. A day or two past is ok if you cook it right away or freeze it until use. Old ,or past due, cuts of raw beef wind up as hamburger late in the week to hold down waste.
Never ever buy old , or past due, poultry of any kind!!!!!!!!!!!
Processed meat that if fully cooked and preserved is good until your nose says "No!" which could be several weeks past in a very cold refrigerator or freezer.
This frugal forum really gets to me sometimes. All this time people waste savings a few bucks here and there can really be used more effectively making more money.
Just how much money would you actually earn, in the 30 seconds that it takes to save a few cents? Say, by rinsing out a plastic bag that you can use again. If you just threw the bag away, what would you do in that minute, which would yield an actual cash income? Let's say you think your time is worth $20 an hour. How would you step away from the sink and earn 30-cents in one minute, and then go back to dishwashing? Since you don't need to rinse the plastic bag and that is now free time for you to use for financial gain. Or, if not rinsing the bag meant you finished the washing up one minute sooner, how much more money would you earn by having one more minute to work doing something remunerative before bedtime?
I don't care about the expiration date: if it looks, taste and smells right - I will eat it
I am known to eat stuff from my pantry that is ( that's the question - maybe 10+ years old?? )
Just last weekend I made spaghetti sauce using a jar with expiration date 2002. The sauce was delicious!!
I will do this, too, much to my husband's chagrin.
But I believe botulism would pass the look/taste/smell test and kill you, which is why it's important to watch for puffy can tops or a 'fizz' when you open the can from the gas that bacteria create.
I watch Ramsay's 'Kitchen Nightmares' and, at least last season, I believe every restaurant he went into had really horrible sanitary conditions in the kitchen - much worse than we would have in our own homes.
Just how much money would you actually earn, in the 30 seconds that it takes to save a few cents? Say, by rinsing out a plastic bag that you can use again. If you just threw the bag away, what would you do in that minute, which would yield an actual cash income? Let's say you think your time is worth $20 an hour. How would you step away from the sink and earn 30-cents in one minute, and then go back to dishwashing? Since you don't need to rinse the plastic bag and that is now free time for you to use for financial gain. Or, if not rinsing the bag meant you finished the washing up one minute sooner, how much more money would you earn by having one more minute to work doing something remunerative before bedtime?
A couple of things vary in the way you described and how I see it. So I'll point those out first.
1. I think you're underestimating how long it takes to wash a bag (honestly, I don't use ziploc bags anyways) or look through expiration dates.
2. It's not the individual times that matter, but the aggregate time.
3. When considering value of time, you have to use the time-value theory. This states that current time is valued at the sum of all future revenue as a result of work performed during that time.
So let's say the aggregate savings over a week is 20 minutes. In that 20 minutes I could potentially review a pile of resumes and find someone a job. From that job placement, I've now created a future revenue stream that can last years through commission. If the commission is $20/hr, that's a significant amount of money.
Another example is for an investor. Let's say in that 20 minutes an investor calculates an option discrepancy in which they make Θ amount of money from an investment of β. The following week, they now have β+Θ to play with the following week. If they have a similar result they will have (β+Θ)(Θ/β) more money. In this particular case, it's all about magnitude. If the savings from washing a plastic bag were larger than the money made doing these activities, then washing a plastic bag would be a better option.
Then there's the value of life in general. 60 seconds washing a plastic bag is 60 seconds less you get to spend with your family. And family isn't around for ever and cannot be replaced. A plastic bag can be replaced.
I can't count how much money I save every year 'cause we're not afraid of foods past their sell by date but it's a lot!
Grocery stores can't sell foods once past the sell by date (some do with a deep discount) so I look for markdowns that are just past sell by date then either freeze the dated food or promptly refrigerate the dated food.
That said, we use the rule......oldest first....when we consume these dated foods.
Sounds like poor planning and food usage of you are finding things in your pantry past the expiration date.
I think the point of this thread was not about using expired food in one's pantry, but buying slightly expired food at the store to save!
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