I think one of the worst things a frugal person can do is just throw away food. I hate it. I hate throwing away food. I don't like throwing away leftovers, I don't like tossing out stale chips...I just don't like to toss out food. Today I had to do something that just about did me in.
I went out to our deep freeze to get some hamburger for our lunch and found something horrible. As I opened the chest I heard a sloshing sound. Our deep freeze was off and I have no idea how long it had been that way. It was still cool inside but the items on the top were totally thawed out. We found out that a breaker was tripped to the outlet and that's what shut it off (we're still not sure how that happened).
I was in a panic trying to get the freezer back on and move anything I could into our other freezers. As I dug into the layers I found that everything under the top layer or two was still somewhat frozen so it should still be safe. I immediately had a few items I had to toss and then others I had to think about. I know there shouldn't be anything to think about when it comes to food safety, but I just couldn't start tossing it in the trash right away.
After supper we went through and realized what all needed to go. Pork chops, beef, italian sausage, chicken, pizzas, ice cream, hot dogs....all in the trash. I started crying part way through and Jim had to finish. I know it might seem silly to cry over it, but I couldn't help it. I know that many of those items I purchased very inexpensively but it was just the action of unwrapping it and throwing out that I couldn't handle. It was no ones fault, and there was nothing I could do about it...but it was hard.
Jim said that it all balances out with what I save all the time, but I don't want it to balance out. I want to save and that's that. I don't want to feel ok about throwing out 4 packages of hot dogs because I only spent 50 cents a piece on them. Or throwing out 3 large pork chops because they were marked down and only paid a couple dollars for them. I spend extra time cutting coupons and watching the sale ads so that we DO save money. I wasn't just throwing food away. I was throwing away time and energy as well.
There may be more that will end up going (I don't think we should probably keep the other pizzas that were in there). It just makes me sad and made for a really rough day.
Oh, that's so rough! I hate that as well. Throwing away food that you have stored is awful.
ReplyDeleteI have a confession. I am really bad about this. I buy way too much stuff and it goes bad a lot of the time before we are able to use it all. Bread is the worst. Thankfully, Ally loves toast so we have been using it more. I think I finished a loaf for the first time in years. I feel ashamed.
ReplyDeleteNo need to feel ashamed Robin. As much as I hate it, we still end up throwing away leftovers. Bread we usually don't have an issue with. Between sandwiches and the kids just eating toast we go through it pretty fast. :)
ReplyDelete