I can understand. Doesn't it feel good to know what's there and that it is not outdated!

It is hard for me to pass up a great buy on canned goods and other foods that keep well. So the pantry and freezer fill up with store bargains. At the end of last year I decided it was time to seriously "eat down" the pantry and freezer.

We are entering month 3 of "eating down." We restrict new purchases to only a few fresh things like milk, bread, eggs, and limited fresh produce (there's plenty canned and frozen). No stocking up on the big sale loss leaders for now.

There is still more stockpiled food to eat, but we are making good progress. I hope to keep at it until only reasonable amounts of store bought food that has been in the house for less than 6 months remains. Hopefully, that will only take another month or two, because by then I'll have lots of fresh produce from the garden and won't want to use stored stuff. Fortunately, there were only a few really old things that I had to throw out. (A couple things had faded labels and NO use by date...yikes!)

I've found new ways to use some ingredients (have a new snack bar recipe I love), cooked a LOT of basic ingredients, such as dried beans, to use in other recipes, and overall learned a lot (some kinda scary) about how my mind works. We've had great meals that are planned out ahead even more than usual. There is certainly no deprivation or lack of nutritious food even though very little new food has come into the house. And we haven't had to eat the same thing all the time or eat weird combinations either. I keep repeating to myself, "It's alright, there will be great sales next week, and next month, and next season. You DO NOT need to buy any more right now."

I had a can of mandarin oranges bust the can seal in the back of my pantry a few months ago...the smell was quite unpleasant!!