Save Money on Groceries: Items With the Longest Shelf Life

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There’s nothing worse than throwing away expired food when you’re living on a tight budget. If you can
plan your meals and shopping lists around the timeline in which you’re going to use the food, you can save
money on your groceries. Below are some tips on staying stocked up on foods with a longer shelf life to
help you save on food costs for your family.

Fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats have the shortest shelf life but also are where the best nutrients are
found. When planning out your grocery lists, it’s best to have a constant supply of foods with longer
shelf lives and rotate in the fresh items. You can also consider freezing these fresh foods though the
freezing process can take away from the nutrients but will make it much easier to prepare and fresher and
healthier dinner every night having to go to the grocery store too often.

Freeze-dried and dehydrated foods have the longest shelf life but since you aren’t planning for the
apocalypse just yet and your family most likely won’t want to eat freeze-dried meals, you won’t want to
spend your money on these. Foods that are generally usable indefinitely are sugar, flour, and honey. These
items will never go bad if kept in appropriate conditions, away from heat, moisture, and bugs.

The shelf life of a food depends on moisture, oxygen, temperature, and light. When kept in the right
conditions in regards to these four things, food will stay good for much longer. Canned goods can often
stay edible for many, many years; you just need to look at their “best if used by” dates that are legally
required to appear on the can. Keep them in a dark location at room temperature and it’s unlikely the
canned food would expire before you can use it.

Buying in bulk is a great way to save money on items your family consumes a lot. Items that come in bulk
include but are not limited to seeds, nuts, dried fruit, beans, and grains. Look up the different shelf life for
items you’d like to purchase to know how long you’ll have to use up your bulk items for sure. Most dried
beans are good for about 20 years, quinoa is good for 8 year, and brown rice is good for 6 while white
rice is good for 20 plus years. Keep in mind these shelf life estimations are assuming that you’re properly
storing the dried products.

Using these facts, you can create a system in which you rotate what fresh foods you combine with the
canned foods you have on hand. With beans, some noodles, tomatoes, greens like spinach, and fruit you
could make a healthy dinner with some fruit on the side. If you want to save even more money on your
weekly grocery costs, you can check the newspaper, in stores, and online for coupons.

Using these guidelines, you’ll not only save money on your groceries, you’ll be prepared should something
happen, like a natural disaster. Understanding the different shelf lives for your most-eaten items can help
you save and help you from having to throw food away.

Evan Fischer is a contributing writer for Coupon Sam, where you can find coupons for a variety of
products and services including phone service http://www.couponsam.com/promotions/att-uverse.aspx.