Time for a Purge!

Aug 11, 2011 by admin

This time of year – when we are transitioning from summer to fall – although you wouldn’t know it by the temperatures outside … is a great time to consider a good once over of the refrigerator and pantry.

On Tuesday, I received a huge shipment from Amazon. I got some great deals on snacks that will be convenient for the kids to take for school and needed to put them away. Once I got in the pantry, one thing led to another and before I knew it – I had filled several garbage bags with food that had expired or was 1/2 eaten and I was too chicken to “test” and see if it was still good. (You know, that bag of goldfish that has the folded down top and it’s clipped, but you can’t think of the last time you ate goldfish?)

I decided “If it doubt – toss it out.”

The should-have-taken-15-minutes-to-put-this-stuff-away project turned into 3 hours, because I decided that I might as well also do the fridge! Oh my. At one point, I nearly decided to just throw EVERYTHING away. Refrigerated items don’t have nearly the lifespan of boxed foods, so after an entire summer of not having to cook – there wasn’t much in the fridge that was worthy of staying.

All of this to say, now that my shelves are more bare and the refrigerator is clean I’m not worried about filling it up with the best deals (even though you know I won’t buy anything not on sale!). Rather, I’m taking the opportunity to meal plan around what I have left. Remember, a sale isn’t a deal if you’re going to throw the food away … and even a seasoned shopper like myself still has to work at that!

Remember my motto, there’s no cents in paying full price!

* This post is part of a weekly segment on KSBJ Christian Radio. For more on segments featuring Stephanie Click, the Texas Money Mom, click here.