Don't Fear The Sticker

We've all seen them in the grocery store. Bright neon orange stickers on clearance items. Some people perceive that orange as a warning to stay far away, that food is obviously rotten and will poison your whole family!

Of course that's the farthest from the truth. Hunting for the orange sticker can save you substantial sums of money, added up over time! Stores will mark down items that are nearing their "Best By" date...which is something totally different than a date where the food magically becomes poisonous garbage. Granted, some of this food you should eat as soon as possible, such as marked down dairy products, or freeze it (which you can do with milk and cheese without loss of quality). Meat products can be immediately frozen if you don't plan to eat them immediately, and they maintain their quality for quite a while.

 Even eggs, which you might shy away from, are hardly "bad" on their "Best By" date. While it's true that the eggs in your grocery store may be weeks old already, eggs can go a very long time as long as they're refrigerated. True, eggs can be stored at room temperature, but this will hasten the aging of the egg, and it's a good bet that any grocery store egg is already elderly, so it might be a good idea to refrigerate them.

An interesting aside: Old eggs peel easier than fresh. So if you're thinking of making deviled or hard-boiled eggs, the older eggs are a better choice! (the egg actually shrinks inside the shell with time, separating from the membrane, so the shells come away easier).

As long as the packaging isn't obviously swollen with gasses produced by decomposition, or the product doesn't appear moldy or grey or green, (in which case it shouldn't even be on display!), nearly-outdated food is perfectly fine, and can save you valuable grocery-buying dollars every day!