A Stocked Pantry
People who visit my house sometimes look in awe at my pantry.
I pride myself on a well-stocked pantry. I consider myself a savvy grocery shopper, trying never to pay full price for items used routinely. I study the grocery ads in The Monticello News and shop accordingly.
I hear some people say they save money by going out of town. I believe in keeping my dollars at home….and I don’t have time to go out of town.
On that rare occasion I decide to shop elsewhere, I always spend more money. There’s something about routine. But, I maintain I can save money right here as long as I shop wisely.
Every so often my pride in my well-stocked pantry backfires though. This happened the other day.
I wanted something different for breakfast, so I decided to fix some oatmeal. Now, I didn’t have to check to see if I had oatmeal although I couldn’t tell you when the last time was that I ate oatmeal.
I keep it on hand because you never know when you might need to make no-bake cookies. And, because it’s a healthy breakfast. So, I head to the pantry to get the oatmeal to fix breakfast.
Oh, this box isn’t even open. So, I take a gander at the date. The oats went out of date six months ago…and the box is not open. The really sad story is that when I was looking in the pantry a few days later, I found open oats…and they were even older. So, I threw away the really old oats, and I ate the slightly old ones. After all, they weren’t even open yet. And, what can go bad with an oat?
So, I ate oatmeal. It was good. Then I made no-bake cookies. They were good. Then, I made “disappearing oatmeal cookies.” They disappeared.
And, I still have half a box of oats left. I wanted to use them up before they got really old. I planned to make more cookies and freeze them for Christmas. But, the best laid plans. I still have half a box of oats.
Thanksgiving arrived, and it was time for pecan pie. I knew I had syrup. Guess what…you got it…out of date. But, no one really knew. The pies were great.
I did read something they other day about dates not being absolute. I knew that.
Having a well-stocked pantry is good…but you must rotate that stock.