Are You a Saver?

fureverywhere

fureverywhere

beloved friend who will always be with us in spiri
Location
Northern NJ, USA
I love hubby dearly but one of his habits that makes me nutso, well besides the TV on late night...is he doesn't believe in expiration dates...on food. The kitchen and refrigerator have always been his domain. He still cooks when he's home or the kids do it. Sometimes I'll even venture in...I make a mean grilled cheese. But since he's grown more disabled I'm in the kitchen more. He used to regularly clean out the fridge. Now it's easier if I do it. I noted a few things that went to seed so today's project. Take everything off a shelf, wash it down, replace the stuff.

Then things started getting horrifying...the salsa that reached out to me, the cheese is a baggie that reeked through the bag. A long lost cup of unidentifiable science experiment...Certainly some items can last several months past expiration but not if it was 2012. I've got a black bag and I'm tossing. While he watches TV...I don't want him to start reaching in and saying " Wait did you taste this? It might still be good". I don't know where he got this fear of letting go of food. He didn't live through the depression. His Dad had a good job. His Mom would cook meals for six that would feed thirty. From now on I'm keeping that fridge in shape.
 

I don't save old food in the fridge, but I have a terrible habit of saving jars. I do not know why I think I need to save jars. I never use them either! lol When my next to the youngest daughter visits she will always go through my kitchen & bag up jars and throw them out.
 
I don't pay much mind to expiration dates on certain things, we just had some Catalina French Dressing in the fridge that was out of date, but my husband is the only one who uses it, and he was fine with it. It was still sealed and had been refrigerated from that day it was bought. If something is old and may be funky, I'll toss it ASAP.

I sometimes test the freshness of eggs before I use them, because we buy them by the dozen, but rarely eat eggs. I use the sink or float method if I have to. Sometimes I just know they've been in there a long time, and I throw them out without testing them. Can't even taste old cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, after a quick look and smell, I'll toss it. Hubby's more likely to taste test something and give it a chance....not me.
 

Most things don't get a chance to go bad in my fridge I use things up soon enough, and if I think I'm not going to eat leftovers right away, I'll freeze them. I recycle jars I don't particularly like, but save big ones for my grains and nice matching jam jars for my spices.
 
I kind of understand because his mother was the same way. There are these shelves beside the fridge. This house was remodeled a bunch of times and somehow these pantry shelves were built six feet deep. The spices and cans were always kept there. But things would get pushed to the back so his Mom would buy new and put it in front...repeatedly. She never threw anything away either. By the time I had to tackle those shelves it was like an archeology dig.
 
BlunderWoman said:
I don't save old food in the fridge, but I have a terrible habit of saving jars. I do not know why I think I need to save jars. I never use them either! lol When my next to the youngest daughter visits she will always go through my kitchen & bag up jars and throw them out.
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Plastic peanut butter jars don't break if you happen to drop one.
 
I don't save old food but I do have plastic bins of cloths I might want or need someday. I won't list a lot because I know I've mentioned it on this forum before. I would like to get rid of a lot of that stuff but I keep thinking I might need it someday. Or someone I know might need it. Books, cloths, cookware, dishes, etc. Even a bunch of those colored glass things that used to be on ele or telephone wires. I'm saving them in case they become valuable some day. I save rocks because they are beautiful. :) I also have many boxes of books that won't fit in the 5 bookcases in my house. I have a box full of vintage playing cards, a plastic bucket of vintage match books, --- oh, I said I wouldn't list them and now I'm starting to. :(
 
Linda said:
I don't save old food but I do have plastic bins of cloths I might want or need someday. I won't list a lot because I know I've mentioned it on this forum before. I would like to get rid of a lot of that stuff but I keep thinking I might need it someday. Or someone I know might need it. Books, cloths, cookware, dishes, etc. Even a bunch of those colored glass things that used to be on ele or telephone wires. I'm saving them in case they become valuable some day. I save rocks because they are beautiful. :) I also have many boxes of books that won't fit in the 5 bookcases in my house. I have a box of vintage playing cards, a plastic thing of vintage match books, --- oh, I said I wouldn't list them and now I'm starting to. :(
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You know I had so much junk that I didn't even know what I had because of 5 kids coming and going and moving out and leaving things. When my last kid moved out to get married I knew I was going to have to clean it. I was dreading it bad. Then my house burned down. I was sitting in the cop car crying as my house burned ( because of my pets) then I was terribly embarrassed to be visibly crying in front of people so I tried to cheer myself so I would stop & finally I thought WELL AT LEAST I DON'T HAVE TO CLEAR OUT THAT CLUTTER NOW . :D
 
The expiration dates on most products...especially if they are unopened...are of little concern. Some things, like bread, milk, eggs, etc., do seem to have a limited shelf life...so it is a good idea to only buy what you can expect to use within a few days, to a couple of weeks. We're not overly frugal, but having to throw away what was once good food, seems like a real waste. I recently read an article that said the U.S. throws away enough good food, every day, to supply the nutritional needs for millions of people.
 
I think one of the secrets is simply the same thing they do stocking shelves in stores. Well, what they're supposed to do...when you stock a shelf of anything from pepper to hair color the back stuff comes forward. So like with the cheese drawer, it's okay to buy a bar or three on sale. But then that can't get dropped in on the older ones or it gets confusing.

Same thing with bottles of juice. They get pushed to the back and ferment into hooch. Oh and cups of liquid, if you aren't finishing it in a day or two I'm tossing it. It must be easier for folks that live alone or just have one partner. We have four people prowling the fridge around the clock...maybe chain the doors like in "Fatso"?

Funny some of you mentioning the jars and such. My grandmother struggled during the depression with a big family. I don't recall who had to clean out her house after she passed. Must have been an awful job though. She saved EVERYTHING, her whole back porch and pantry were lined with jars, empty boxes, paper bags, plastic bags, more jars, more boxes, empty bottles.
 
BlunderWoman said:
I don't save old food in the fridge, but I have a terrible habit of saving jars. I do not know why I think I need to save jars. I never use them either! lol When my next to the youngest daughter visits she will always go through my kitchen & bag up jars and throw them out.
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I'm kind of like that with boxes. You never know when you'll need a box right? For example, when Don bought new runners, saved the box and a year later, I needed one just that size for a little burial box for my old little doggie. It was perfect and had room to pad it with some clean hay (and make it cozy???) Other than that, I don't think I save anything else compulsively.

And Blunderwoman, are you saying you lost pets in a fire? Oh my gosh how terrible for you to watch that!!! You poor thing, your heart must have been breaking with thinking about that and all! I only hope it was a long time ago and you've gotten over the pain.
 
My husband would be like that if I let him debbie. But after 40 years and lots of moves, I'm slowly getting him trained ;) to let go. (lots of yelling and screaming about how 'one day I'm gonna need that [hasn't happened] and 'do you know how much I paid for that?', but his fingers are uncurling and relaxing slowly!)
 
Debby said:
My husband would be like that if I let him debbie. But after 40 years and lots of moves, I'm slowly getting him trained ;) to let go. (lots of yelling and screaming about how 'one day I'm gonna need that [hasn't happened] and 'do you know how much I paid for that?', but his fingers are uncurling and relaxing slowly!)
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LOL...my husband was like that, Debbie, we had drawers full of bits of paper with his notes written years ago.
 

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