…and that seems really stupid now.
When things aren’t going wrong I can live like a king on $150 a month. I’m housed, clothed and fed on what I can scrounge and what I figure out. But I will admit my diet is bland and monotonous. I eat a lot of bread, eggs, rice, potatoes, onions and oatmeal. Canned veggies are mostly for flavor; they’re too expensive to make the bulk of what I eat. Any sort of meat is a luxury.
So when somebody comes along and hands me a sack of groceries, I take it. Not because I’m starving, I’m very much not, but because a guy gets sick of oatmeal.
My neighbor H cleaned out her pantry this afternoon and – I could hear the hesitancy in her voice – asked if I wanted some out-of-date packages.
I practically laughed out loud. Unless the can is bulging or weevils are falling out of the package (I’ve seen both) I don’ care ’bout no steenking best-by date.
So now I’m rich in things I’d never normally buy, like brownie mix, pre-mixed hot chocolate, and popcorn. Popcorn! I haven’t tasted popcorn since Claire was here and we used to go to movies together.
Point being, if you’re going to make it on the economic edge there are certain assumptions and pretensions you need to leave behind. Once upon a time, believe it or not, I was uncomfortable buying groceries in a dollar store. Real people didn’t do that. Now, for everything but bulk foods and occasional fresh veggies, it’s about the only place I shop. 🙂
My parents ran a food bank for several years. They called the food companies about the best by dates. The various companies said pretty much what you did. If there aren’t weevils, or the cans exploding, they are still good.
Actually, even weevils can be dealt with. Don’t ask me how I know. But I know.
Swollen cans … I’m with you there.
Joel, may you get many more such treats. Would be sorta nice if they included a few healthy things, too, though.
I’m with you on food shopping at the dollar store. Our local Dollar Tree is stocking lots of food items, frozen dinners, rice (Uncle Ben’s), pasta, and lots more. My wife and I can have a nice 3 course dinner for about $2.50. Of course, we’re retired and not loggers or ranchers, so we actually split one dinner and eat about half the rice each meal. We supplement with fresh vegetables when we can, as well as other fresh food. Anyway, Joel, good for you!
Thankyou for referring to the food as out-of-date, and not as expired. In the vein of Claire’s post at her place about pet peeves, calling food expired is definitely one of mine! At the food pantry where I volunteer, the USDA guidelines we go by are that, depending on the food and the packaging, we can give out things 1-5 years past their best by dates. Beyond that, I’ve brought home things we can’t give out and found them to be perfectly fine.
Bless your neighbor for sharing with you and not just throwing away the terrible awful EXPIRED food.
Weevils: Put the bag in the fridge for 24 hours. Move to freezer for 24 hours. Remove bag and open it. Dig down to the center of the bag (removing gunky cobwebby bug leavings as you dig). Remove ball of frozen bugs. Discard bugs if you wish. Make a delicious meal with the flour. Tell no one.
Feed the bugs to the chickens. Waste not, want not! 🙂
That’s where the pinkies from the mouse nests go, too. They love’em.
Oooh, good thinking, ML.
Joel, you heartless monster- feeding pinkies to chickens instead of raising the little darlings to, um, mousehood. There’s more protein that way…
Re: meat…
Is hunting verboten in your neck of the woods?
Rabbit is really tasty, and small enough that the whole storage without electric freezers thing is solved by eating it before it goes bad…
“Is hunting verboten…”
You’re kidding, right? No.
We’re up to our collective ass in cottontails here, and I originally assumed they’d be a fairly major part of my diet. Even though I am not a skilled hunter I don’t have any trouble potting rabbits, and I’ve potted several. Hell, they come right up into the yard, dogs and all.
I like farmed rabbit, but our local wild variety isn’t like that. Hardly any meat on them, and what there is is tasteless. Hunting, killing, skinning, butchering and cooking them is a lot of work for little return. Dogs and coyotes can get by on them but they eat them fur, bones and all.
There’s also quite a lot of mule deer and elk, but for them you really need to know something about hunting.