Week 18

All right. It’s another week of food storage. This week we are spending $20 on five condiment type items: mayo, mustard, relish, ketchup, and pickles. Why? Why the heck are we doing this? Again, it’s all about flavor. We often think about the key ingredients, but we often skip over all the things that give it flavor that our kids are used to accompanying that item in the meal or whatever it might be.

Look for the sales

So, right now is a great time to get the ketchup, mayo mustard, relish, that type of stuff, because stores have it on sale because there are barbecues happening and all of that. I know that Costco has, I think it’s a tri-pack of mustard, ketchup, relish, and that’s on a coupon this month at Costco. There’s a lot of sales going on, so hopefully your money will stretch the furthest. That trio pack at Costco is under $10, so you could get one of each of those and then grab a jar of mayo and a couple jars of pickles and still be under $20.

Tailor this to YOUR family

Also, something to note, just check out the expiration dates.

You probably have a good idea of how often you go through a bottle of ketchup, or a jar of mayo, right? If you go through ketchup like crazy at your house, but nobody eats relish, don’t get the relish. Get more bottles of ketchup. That’s okay. This is to tailor it to your family. Don’t get relish just because I say get relish. I have relish on the list, but I have no relish in my house. Not one person in my family eats relish, so I’m not gonna buy it just because somebody told me that it should be in my food storage. Absolutely not. I’m gonna buy more ketchup because more people in my family eat ketchup and we go through it quicker than lots of other condiments.

Expiration Dates

So tailor this to your needs, but check those expiration dates as you’re purchasing them and make sure it is realistic. Let’s say you were gonna get four bottles of ketchup. Check the expiration date and make sure you are indeed gonna go through those four bottles of ketchup before the expiration date.

Don’t get too far ahead of yourself on these items; you probably won’t with 20 bucks, but depending, you know, if your family doesn’t eat pickles or relish or mayo, you’re gonna have 20 bucks for just ketchup and mustard or whatever it might be. So I just wanted to throw that out there in case you are buying multiples of things. That’s great. Use the money where it would matter for you, but just be conscious of expiration dates and that’s it.

I’ll see you next week!