B.I.U.B.

Do you keep up with BIUBs?

You do know what that is, don’t you?

That’s the acronym for “Best If Used By.” Some products have the words; some use the acronym.

In the past, I’ve rarely checked the dates after the goods were brought home from the store. But, oh, my children did – and do. If I ask what kind of dressing they want on their salads, one or more will ask what the dates are on the bottles. They nearly drive me crazy. I mean, after all, they’ve survived to the ages of 35, 33 and 28 eating what I put before them.

Now, I find myself checking at my own mom’s house, especially the cheese and the bread. And the salad dressing. And the jelly. And the eggs. And milk and juice.

Last week, as I decided to reorganize the pantry that was The Duppster’s and now is ours, I looked at the BUIB dates. These were items he had in the pantry as well as those I added after we got married in June.

Quite a few were still good, thank goodness. Some were only barely expired, which, in my way of thinking, isn’t really and truly expired. Why toss something only a little bit past the BIUB date? I can’t think of a single reason.

And then I came across some canned evaporated milk. The tell-tale date on three cans was February – of 2004! That’s 6 ½ years ago!

I mentioned it to Dupp. He chuckled and said that these certainly couldn’t be what he bought because he didn’t move to South Carolina until three years go.

So, he looked expectantly in my direction. But, as I told him, I never buy that particular brand. Never.

Well, it looks like our marriage must be a threesome ‘cause it certainly seems that Mr. Nobody moved in with us.

Those expired cans of milk? Nobody bought ‘em.


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