New lifestyle- no use-by dates!

louise83 · 9 May 2005 at 11:06AM

Hello to all you Money Saving Experts.

I am new here, and my arrival coincides with a major life change. My boyfriend of over 10 years decided to leave in search of a more interesting life. As well as a near death blow to my self-esteem :rolleyes: this has been a bit of a blow to the old finances as well, since my income is around £21k (I'm a nurse!) and his was around £40k (IT- it's definitely the field to be in). We had a relatively small mortgage on the house (which I'm determined to keep on), but as you can imagine, I'm having to make some adjustments. Luckily, I am naturally a frugal person, but years of living on our fat combined income had eroded my frugal instincts. SO, I'm here to try and find my Moneysaving way again, and I have been reading all the wonderful threads for inspiration. You are a wonderful and very creative bunch of people and have helped to fill me with hope for a financially secure future, as well as reminding me of my environmental responsibilities. I have stopped buyng Tesco Finest ready-made food (embarrassed cough) and made some tentative attempts at learning to cook. My latest venture, and my most ambitious to date, is a pot of homemade carrot and coriander soup, which was amazingly cheap to make, and very edible. But what's this? There's no use-by date! Having lived on all shop-bought food, I'm used to having a use-by date on everything to tell me how long it will keep. I'm obsessive about use-by dates, can't bear to try tasting something that's past it's sell-by date even if it looks perfect.

My question therefore is how you know how long to keep homemade food for? I know this is appallingly ignorant of me, please forgive me!

Thank you,

Louise

squeaky · 9 May 2005 at 11:11AM

Hiya, welcome to MoneySaving

I have no idea how long to keep stuff in the fridge. I rarely plan to keep anything more than three days in there. For the longer term I freeze it straight away.

A lot depends on what the foodstuff is, how cold your fridge is set to be, how often you open the door in a day, how full it is...

..I'd bet there's as many answers as there are people.

mightymo_2 · 9 May 2005 at 11:13AM

Hi Louise, and welcome!

I know what you mean about use by dates - I am exactly the same. We hardly ever (if ever) throw food away, I always try to use it before the use by date. But I constantly have my eye on what needs to be eaten next.

Regarding home made food, ie. soup & meals, we tend to eat them the same day as I make it. However we would eat something the next day but that is probably my limit! When I make cakes, these tend to be eaten within about three to four days and are OK, although sometimes a little dry by that time!

You could always freeze some of your homemade goodies...

Mo x

Bargain_Rzl · 9 May 2005 at 11:14AM

Welcome to the board Louise! I'm sorry to hear about the breakup of your relationship.

The thing to remember is that a lot of the evil E numbers that shop-bought/processed food is full of, are preservatives. So good wholesome home-made food is bound to go off a lot quicker than what you're used to.

Most things will keep in the fridge for a few days - a cooked joint of meat can last for getting on for a week - but everything is different. That is what your freezer is for. If you cook in bulk and freeze extra portions/leftovers, be sure to let the food cool properly before it goes in the freezer or it will raise the temperature in the freezer, potentially causing bacterial problems for the food that's already in there.

casper2004 · 9 May 2005 at 11:15AM

I made a pot of soup on friday and the last container is getting used tonight, its been in the fridge since then, could probably be ok for another day after that.

I prefer putting it in to indvidual containers at the start instead of going into the same bowl night after night, theres always the freezer too.

Regarding dates, I usually give the dates at least one if its milk or something like that but ifs its more like biscuits or dry produce until there are eaten.

moggins · 9 May 2005 at 11:18AM

I'd be no help then as I just use my eyes and nose, if it still looks good and smells good then I figure it's good to eat.

The best thing is that as there are no artificial preservatives in homemade food then as soon as the bugs arrive that would give you a tummy upset so do the visual signs too.

r.mac_2 · 9 May 2005 at 11:20AM

I agree with squeaky, I don't really understand the basic rules either, so I have made some up which I try and stick to. I think the main thing is that you feel comfortable and not worried about eating food that may have gone off. The best way around this is to meal plan. It takes a little while to get right, but is definately worth it.

Portion control is another tip and can also take a while to judge. I am getting better all the time, but still have some 'way off' moments.

my fridge/use-by date philosophy is as follows;
* keep foods in fridge ad freezer covered securely and labeled if any doubt may arise.
* if I kow I am not going to eat the leftovers the next night/meal, then I try and freeze them straight away, for another time.
* I usually give myself about three days max in the fridge before chucking something (but this depends on the ingredients. I am much stricter about meat and rice than I am about home made humous etc!)

hope this helps

Galtizz · 9 May 2005 at 11:28AM

:hello: Hi Louise and welcome to the boards. Firstly, sorry to hear about your ermm 'lifstyle change'

Have a look at THIS thread which you might find useful for your self esteem, they're a friendly lot on the F + R board too. Well done for taking the first steps.

I couldn't cook properly either (I didn't know you couldn't count pouring Dolmio onto mince and cooking pasta as cooking

). It is something that gets better with practise. I find the recipes on here (have a look at the recipe sticky) invaliable because they are written in English (unlike some recipe books) they usually start with 'bung in a handful of this and that' and you can easily ask questions if it goes wrong so you know how to do it next time.

As for sell by dates, it depends what you are using and whether it is cooked or not but as a general rule of thumb unless it is pickled (i.e preserved in vinegar or lots of sugar) like jams or apple sauce or pickled onions etc. which will last longer most things will last about 3 days in the fridge.

What I usually do is have a menu plan (which I do for a fortnight) go out shopping and freeze all the meat that I am not going to use within the next couple of days then I get it out on the morning I am going to use it. If I have left overs that I am not going to use in the next couple of days I freeze that too (remembering to label it). For example, your soup, if you made 6 portions I would have eaten one, left 1 or 2 in the fridge and frozen the rest in portions in double freezer bags (which mould to fit into little spaces in the freezer if you have limited space, I freeze liquids in 2 so they don't leak). You can use tupperware, freezer bags, some pots (check first incase they crack), washed out plastic tubs that take-away chinese's come in (not that you will be having take-aways

) or you can buy foil trays from supermarkets.

Have a good read of the menu planning, freezing and grocery challenge threads and, as I've said before, take it one step at a time and if you've had a blow out on take-aways or CD's at the supermarket just put it down to experience and try to learn from it for next month. We all do it from time to time.

Good luck.

Sorry, been so long typing this other people have replied and I've repeated what they said.

P.s Another thought, if you have loads of left over veg that is starting to 'go' bung it in a pot and make soup (there is a recipe on the sticky). And have a look at the rubber chicken thread for making food (Sunday lunch) last longer.

Queenie · 9 May 2005 at 11:28AM

:hello: Welcome to MSE and especially Old Style

((sorry about your b/f))

The *real* trick to keeping/storing hm food is to have a menu plan which takes into account potential leftovers. Yes, you will now *plan* your leftovers LOL

As already stated, if you make a recipe which serves 4 and you're only going to be feeding yourself, use your freezer to freeze half and plan to eat the two remaining portions over the next 3-4days. Or, eat one portion and freeze the remaining 3 - if you use the 2nd option, you could spend each night of one week cooking ... and then the remaining 3 weeks eating the single frozen portions! Economical on fuel too

Meat/meat based I use up within 3 days if it's only kept in the fridge.

Don't panic though, nature is a wonderful thing .. as a general rule, perishable goods either LOOK off or SMELL off or FEEL off (ie soft, squidy

)

Shopping: frozen veggies are just as nutrious as fresh, so you might want to keep a couple of bags of frozen as a back up.
It's a false economy to buy fresh goods if you are not going to use them up in the following few days. Only buy what you need unless you plan a cooking session where you can freeze the meals, or if you plan to blanche and freeze.

Curry_Queen · 9 May 2005 at 11:33AM

moggins wrote:

I'd be no help then as I just use my eyes and nose, if it still looks good and smells good then I figure it's good to eat.

The best thing is that as there are no artificial preservatives in homemade food then as soon as the bugs arrive that would give you a tummy upset so do the visual signs too.

Hehehehe I use nose and eyes too, even on stuff that does have a use by label, and will often ignore it

If something is really pushing it's safety margin though I'll risk eating it myself but wouldn't give it to my son, but otherwise I tend to use the 3 day rule for HM food in the fridge. If I know I won't use it by then it goes straight into the freezer.

Eliza252 · 9 May 2005 at 11:33AM

Hello! Learning to cook from scratch is great!
I have been building up my cooking skills since becoming am MSE'r and am pleased to say that I have gone from barely being able to toast a bagel to being able to whip up a roast dinner with home made cheese cake for dessert! now I love cooking and am v. popular as a result - not that I am that shallow or anything - hee hee!
- I split use by dates into high risk foods and low risk. stuff like meat/rice/eggs etc which could give you really, really nasty food poisoning I go by the book. Look at The Food Standards Agency website, they give good guidelines with respect to storage etc
- Low risk food, I think it is up to the individual - I have pretty low standards (ah, hem..) I keep milk to the very last minute, scrape mould off bread (yea I know I'm gross) - and pretty gestimate on everything else!
hope that helps!
nb. If I'm cooking for someone else I obviously exercise much higher standars!

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New lifestyle- no use-by dates!

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