In every home, every now and then, the time for big cleaning comes.
Usually it also means looking into cupboards, shelves, and freezers to see what's really there.
At this time many homemakers find, to their horror, lots of expired goods.
Canned food that expired two years ago.
A few packs of pasta expired 5 months ago, a piece of meet in the freezer that nobody can identify or tell how old it is.
Although lots of such food gets finally thrown away, people seldom think about how much money they have just wasted.
In every home, every now and then, too much food is prepared, and although the whole family helps to eat it, nobody wants to have the same re-heated meet, turkey, or stew for dinner three days in a row.
Again, the food ends up in the trash can.
We can even feel a slight discomfort while we throw it all away and think about how much work, time, and money it cost to prepare all that food.
Although in both cases the amounts of money may seem small, it may turn out that we are wasting at least one month's rent for the house or a year's car insurance this way, if not more.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop wasting both food and money once and for all.
What's more it's easy to implement, and once you start following it, and teach your family do the same, you'll reduce your grocery bills significantly.
What you have to do consists of a few steps, including forming a few habits concerning the way you buy food, store it, and use it to prepare meals, and also planning what food, how much of it, and when you are going to prepare.
The first step, however, will be to see how much food you have stored so far in your cupboards, shelves, and freezer, and when it expires.
Start from taking a piece of paper and divide it into three columns, labeled "What?", "How Much", and "Expires".
Then you take each and every can, jar, pack, bag, or any other container with food, and write down the information in appropriate column, e.
g.
"What": Green peas, "How much" 1/2 lb can, "Expires": 2011-03.
This will take some time, so it is best to plan it for the weekend, and engage your family to help you.
You can even prepare the inventory sheets using a word processor, and print them beforehand.
Once you have your full inventory, you have to arrange the food in a proper way.
First according to its kind, as it was, and then in the following way: front line: all open containers, second line: those with the nearest expiry date, then those with the next nearest expiry date and so on.
The ones with the furthest expiry date will form the last line.
Now you will use them in the appropriate order, and can be sure that nothing will expire before you'll be able to use it.
Of course, you'll most probably find some expired food, but in many cases it can be used to.
See my article: "How to Tell If Expired Food is Still Good to Eat?" Doing this will take you some time, but it is the first step to substantial savings on food.
You will not have to give up anything, you will not have to lower your eating standards, and still you'll be saving money.
If you are curious where to go from there, read my next article "Saving Money With Proper Food Management - the FIFO Principle".