Save money on pantry staples with a permanent marker

My mom has sent some of her pantry to my house. She's a bit of a food hoarder, with an even larger pantry than I have. I have instructions to shop her pantry before buying myself groceries.

I'm reminded of one of my biggest money saving hacks for keeping a large pantry.

A permanent marker!

I'm putting it away, and it is a reminder to me why I try to mark everything that goes into my pantry with its best before year.

Pasta that expired in 2020, and 2022.

Peanut butter that expired in 2025.

Etc. ...

Has she eaten these things, since ? Yes, lots! Thats why she has so many of them! She goes through a ton of peanut butter and pasta.

But things get pushed to the back, ignored,  and missed, and keeping a scrupulous first in first out system is challenging.

Neither of us are very choosy about past dated things, but I am tossing some expensive gluten free pasta and a few other odds and ends. Also annoying are things that we could have donated to a food bank since neither of us will ever eat them, but they're past dated.

I loathe food waste, and it sort of ruins the point of keeping a deep pantry to save money.

As I sort,  i write, in big permanent marker, "26" or "28"  or whatever the last 2 digits of the year are. I typically write on the top of cans, and the side of boxes.  When I rummage in my cupboards, looking for dinner, I tend to pull out things that are close or past dated, and use them begore they reach that stage where i no longer trust them or they don't taste as good as they once did.

Anyways - back to sorting and musing. Trying to figure out what I can make with past dated lemon juice, herring, pasta, coconut milk, and canned cherries.... !

Maybe put the past-dated stuff out, where they'll annoy you into finding uses for them? Some things can safely be shared with the local wildlife, or subbed-in for pet & livestock food.

That's exactly what I do - past dated stuff normally gets sat on my counter until I use it.  Past dated rice, for example, is destined for my homemade dog food.

Right now I am sorting.

"REALLY past dated - garbage"
"past dated  - use soon - keep in kitchen"
"Close dated -  sit on my basement pantry shelves, and
"far dated - store in box"

Honestly, its unlike my mom to have this much out of date. Usually I recall her sorting her whole pantry once a year or so.

Maybe some of the way past stuff can go to compost, or even directly into the garden? Sometimes life just gets away from us all...

There's not a ton to trash - pasta will be composed, and a couple cans of weird things like mango chutney and creamed coconut that are 4 years past date.

But lots in the "eat me soon" pile.

Musing about this as I sort - i think the change was when I moved out and she started having a lot of trades people working in her basement joking about "where they'll go when there's an apocalypse ".

She switched to keeping stuff in opaque totes instead of on open shelves in her basement. Way harder to keep things rotated so that the oldest items get eaten, and to know what you have to avoid overbuying. Previously we kept more of a "grocery store" style organization system, with shelves.

Probably a good reminder that I keep meaning to bujld shelves and start storing things in what was likely once the pantry instead of on open shelves in my utility room.

So far lessons learned : mark things with their dates, if buying close dated food, have a plan to use it soon, and avoid storing large amounts of food in plastic totes. Also avoid storing food in too many locations (like the pasta, which was stored in her kitchen, in her laundry room, and in the basement).

Catie, please, before you toss "outdated" stuff contact your local food bank. They have specific and legally valid protocols for determining if stuff that is past "best before" is still safe for human consumption.

It would be a shame to compost something that a hungry neighbour could safely eat. My 2c.

That said, I can imagine that cleaning out someone's pantry is a bit overwhelming and you have to choose your battles.

Personally I date when it, when I put on the shelf, month and year.  And put it on the shelf in order so the oldest is always in front.(tried pulling stuff by dates and found I don't do it.  It has to be in order on the shelf so I can just grab and go.)  This lets me track use rate by a simple glance at the shelf.  Depending on product the goal is 1 to 5 year rotations on most stuff.   Since nearly everything is purchased on special this also automatically shows me when I last purchased it on special.  Also put the price on it to aid in tracking best special price.  One other thing.  I love oval cross section big markers for doing dating because they don't roll off the shelf or stairs etc when put down.  Sharpie makes on of my favorites but several makers have them.

So for example I know I use 1 to 2 cases of pineapple a year.  Most years it specials once a year(rarely twice) on the super special.  But once in a while it goes 2 years between specials.  For the most part I have never had a can fail in less than 3 years so the goal is to stock back to 3 cases each time it specials.  Best bet is the spring case lot sale but sometimes the fall case lot sale.  I know pre covid the goal was $0.99 a can.  Post Covid $1.33 a can and most recently $1.67 a can.

Ketchup specials good typically 3 times a year.  Just before Memorial day, 4th and Labor day.  I know from decades there that I use roughly 18 20oz bottles in a year so when it specials I will bring it back to that count each time it specials.  I prefer bigger bottles but usually best price is on the 20 oz bottles.

Use of markers teaches me each time I get stuff off the shelf.

C. Letellier - you're much more organized than me! But agree, being able to keep things on shelves so you can push the oldest to the front makes keeping a pantry way easier, and yes, buying things in large quantities if you eat them, when on sale - my price for tuna is $1/can, and i buy 10-20. Regular non sale price is $1.50-$2.50. I keep prices in my head which is good until it isn't... Really like the idea of tracking on the can, though I have a hard enough time making myself write just 2 digits on it!


Pp

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Catie, please, before you toss "outdated" stuff contact your local food bank. They have specific and legally valid protocols for determining if stuff that is past "best before" is still safe for human consumption.

It would be a shame to compost something that a hungry neighbour could safely eat. My 2c.

Sadly, my local food bank is strict about zero past dated food. But, if we decide there's anything we don't want to eat ourselves, we have a few acquaintances who frequent food banks and scoff at the food bank date rules, and would cheerfully eat it.

So far all that's being tossed is pasta and rice dated to 2020 to 2023, and a few condiments of similar dates, and some  old canning that i made and didn't like, from 4+ years ago. I've tried stale pasta before, wouldn't give it to anyone to eat.

Everything else past date is in the "eat me soon" pile and will get dealt with in the next few months. The nice thing about keeping a pantry for a long time is that there's very little we won't eat - mostly just things that got pushed to the back and ignored while younger versions of the same thing were eaten.  Just going to take some focus and creative cooking.

I use old rice to make rice-bag heating pads, for drying out cell phones, and other stuff like that.

I would suggest doing experiments on " best buy" or "best use by" before tossing stuff in the  trash.

Pasta is still good though it might take longer to cook.

When it comes to food I really hate the "food police".

If you have unlimited monies supplies then go ahead and toss,  I don't.

Anne Miller wrote:I would suggest doing experiments on " best buy" or "best use by" before tossing stuff in the  trash.

Pasta is still good though it might take longer to cook.

When it comes to food I really hate the "food police".

If you have unlimited monies supplies then go ahead and toss,  I don't.

I've kept my own pantry for well over a decade. Those experiments are long past me, I have a very good idea how long I can push expiry dates for.

My experience is that saving food long past it's expiry is throwing good money after bad.

Gluten free pasta comes in paper boxes. It absolutely is not still good 2+ years after the expiry date - it doesn't just take longer to cook, it tastes awful, and inevitably, when I use it, i end up tossing out good food because I was trying to be cheap and use it, so whatever I used to make the sauce for it gets wasted too after a few bites, and now suddenly I've spent half an hour cooking and have no dinner. I've done it by mistake before I started recording dates on my boxes, and fished the package out of the trash to figure out why my dinner is gross!

Rice, dry beans, flour, and packaged snacks are similar - they eventually go randid/stale and anything made with them tastes bad. Stale items with a lot of fat go rancid. And fruit/veg products slowly lose taste or colour though they are definitely the longest lasting.   Oh, the disappointment of opening a jar of jam you've been saving as "too good to eat the last one" to discover it's lost quality and is now just okay.  

I've known several older people who refuse to toss long expired food, who end up getting sick in their later years when they can no longer tell the taste of good food from bad, and end up constantly fighting diarrhea, stomach aches, etc until they finally move to a retirement home and their "bad digestion" mysteriously resolves itself. I hope never to reach that point.

In my experience, the best way to avoid food waste, save money, and keep yourself healthy,  is to keep a deep pantry where food is rotated, avoid stocking more than you can use, and avoid buying things you don't like, just because they are a good price, and make a plan to quickly use or share items that are close or stale dated.

My strategy is to  use a permanent marker to label my pantry items.

What a huge task! I had to do something similar when my sister moved into a group living type place where prior residents had received lots of food aid and... stashed it in closets and cabinets. The house was literally overflowing with canned goods that were, in many cases, 10 years+.
It killed me to throw that stuff away (and it was several garbage cans full) but it had to be done to make room for things that were actually useful. I figured, big picture, I was doing good by helping, and the rest was beyond my pay grade.

Hopefully your mother now can have a fresh start and keep this stuff under control.

I also wanted to add we use the magic marker on things like moisturizer/face stuff and medications/creams. I found a tube of antibiotic ointment that expired in 2015 these days-- the dates are on the crimp of the tube and practically invisible. But things like that, stomach remedies, etc, tend to get shoved in the cabinet and forgotten about. Big dates written is a great thing.

Catie George wrote:

My experience is that saving food long past it's expiry is throwing good money after bad.

Gluten free pasta comes in paper boxes. It absolutely is not still good 2+ years after the expiry date - it doesn't just take longer to cook, it tastes awful, and inevitably, when I use it, i end up tossing out good food because I was trying to be cheap and use it, so whatever I used to make the sauce for it gets wasted too after a few bites, and now suddenly I've spent half an hour cooking and have no dinner. I've done it by mistake before I started recording dates on my boxes, and fished the package out of the trash to figure out why my dinner is gross!

Rice, dry beans, flour, and packaged snacks are similar - they eventually go randid/stale and anything made with them tastes bad. Stale items with a lot of fat go rancid. And fruit/veg products slowly lose taste or colour though they are definitely the longest lasting.   Oh, the disappointment of opening a jar of jam you've been saving as "too good to eat the last one" to discover it's lost quality and is now just okay.  

The best way to save food waste is not to buy more than you will eat.

I don't buy gluten free so I have no experience with that.  There are ways to eat gluten free without those labels.

I have eaten 20 year old food from before "Best Buy" dates and have never gotten sick.

I was taught to scope mold off jelly and jam.  I cut mold off cheese.

I have started using my fridge and freezer to make foods last past the expiration date.

I bought some Nature Valley Blue Berry Muffin Bars.  I put them in the freezer when they got to the expiration date.  When I want one I just pop it out of the freezer for a few minutes to thaw.

I found an over looked Little Debbie Nutty Buddy, didn't look at the expiration date though probably long past.  Popped them into the fridge and enjoyed them till they were gone.

Anne Miller wrote:


The best way to save food waste is not to buy more than you will eat.

I don't buy gluten free so I have no experience with that.  There are ways to eat gluten free without those labels.

I have eaten 20 year old food from before "Best Buy" dates and have never gotten sick.

I was taught to scope mold off jelly and jam.  I cut mold off cheese.

I have started using my fridge and freezer to make foods last past the expiration date.

I bought some Nature Valley Blue Berry Muffin Bars.  I put them in the freezer when they got to the expiration date.  When I want one I just pop it out of the freezer for a few minutes to thaw.

I found an over looked Little Debbie Nutty Buddy, didn't look at the expiration date though probably long past.  Popped them into the fridge and enjoyed them till they were gone.

I'm glad you've never gotten sick from eating past date foods, food poisoning is not fun. And yes, of course freezing will dramatically slow food spoilage. I like to buy big bags of nuts and freeze them. I also know of people who do their own nitrogen flushing in storage bins to preserve food longer... Sadly that's not been done here..

Probably the major difference between gluten free products and conventional is things that are gluten free, labeled as gluten free or not, tend to be marketed as health foods.

No preservatives, and frequently use whole grain flours that "go off" far faster than a bleached wheat flour, and they're seldom in a convenient nitrogen flushed pouch for long storage without oxidization, and rarely include palm oil  or hydrogenated oils for a longer shelf life. I also think preservatives are generally less common in Canadian food in general - we ban several that are commonly used in the US, which likely decreases shelf life for some things.

I'm okay with accepting that food has a shelf life measured in years, not decades. I certainly wouldn't pour 5 year old gasoline into my car!  I can accept that other organic compounds degrade with time, too.

We once bought a jar of vegan mayonnaise and didn't realize it was supposed to be refrigerated. At least 2 years of it being in our cupboard, in a house with no AC, in south Florida, we opened it and it seemed fine. We ate it with no problem.

We regularly eat jarred foods years  past the expiration date and maybe the quality is not so good as it might be, but it's been safe.

I think the OP should be commended for salvaging as much as possible. Most people would throw the whole works in the dumpster and be done with it.

It's the person on the scene who ultimately gives these items the "sniff test" and decides if they're too far gone for human consumption. If the oils have gone rancid, there isn't much more that can be done.

I make yogurt or cheese with expired milk, but other fresh foods (meat, fish, bacon) that are expired, I don't trust.
Realize also that the processed food industry will slap expiration dates on everything to get you to buy more.  ( I mean water? beer?) Those noodles/ pastas in particular: unless they got damp or were visited by critters, should still be OK. Canned goods are usually OK, unless they start leaking: There isn't that much of a difference in taste.
Otherwise, your chickens will love... everything you toss, or just about. (lemons, oranges, raw beans, chocolate, and green potatoes)
My trick, in the pantry, is when you put your groceries away, place them *behind* your older stuff.
Also, when you are thinking of going to the grocery store, go to your pantry first. You will save gas and have less clutter. Think of your pantry as YOUR STORE.
Being consistently confronted with what you still have not eaten can help you make the decision: Keep or chuck.