Friday, June 27, 2008

Stockpiling Revelation

I decided to clean out my pantry closet today. I have no idea why. I think it was because I had no idea what to cook for supper tonight, and I was secretly hoping there was something lurking in the back of the shelves that I could cook.

Now, keep in mind that my pantry is just a tiny closet with wire shelves in it. Not a walk-in closet. Just an open-the-door-and-the-shelves-are-in-your-face closet.

So I start cleaning out each shelf, throwing away things that had expired. I threw away bottle after bottle of BBQ sauce, salad dressing, marinades, Miracle Whip, microwave popcorn, etc. At the end of my back-breaking work, I had THREE full garbage bags full of expired products!!!!!!

As I later did the dishes, I kept glancing at the 3 full garbage bags sitting in my kitchen. (They were so heavy I couldn't move them anywhere else.) I thought of all of the hours I spent cutting out coupons for those products, time I spent driving to the grocery store to buy the papers for the coupons, time I spent in the grocery store buying the items, and the money I spent on the items. Even if I did get them cheap, it was still a waste to buy all of that just to throw it away.

So I came to the revelation that stockpiling might not be very thrifty for me. I obviously did not think to check expiration dates when I bought this stuff. I mean, if I had checked, I might have had the thought that "Wow, I know we won't eat barbequed chicken 15 times in the next couple of months." Or "You know, maybe 10 bottles of salad dressing is a little overkill since it all expires in two months." But, to be honest, if I had checked the expiration dates, would I have been able to overcome the thrill of getting a good deal and been sensible about how much I was buying?? When you are in the heat of a good deal, your rational sensibility goes out the window.

I wish I had taken before and after pics of my pantry. It looks so nice and clean....and NORMAL right now!

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