isn't it a bit of mayhem before the new year of school begins? i always feel like i need to have things set and ready to roll for that first week of school so as to minimize the chaos of the new changes from a lazy summer. i thought it would be a great idea to take a trip to sam's club so i could stock up on food that we would be able to use and/or freeze for later use during the next few weeks. i got all excited because i rarely shop at sam's club or costco type stores. (we are just so small of a family that i don't find it super useful to shop there regularly.) this time i had a list and a game plan. i used the trip as a chance to stock our pantry and extra fridge with items we use over and over. i purchased meats that i could break up and freeze in smaller portions, milk, yogurts, fresh fruit for the week, etc. i stocked up on cold cereals and other things that i could use for lunches. when i got out of the store my wallet had about $400 less than it did before but i felt great. i felt prepared. i felt like i would be set for a good long time as far as food was concerned. my plan was to just head to the extra fridge in the garage for items we were out of instead of heading to the store in the weeks ahead.
when i got home i put everything away in its place and stocked my extra fridge as planned. meat was repacked into smaller portions and frozen. extra milk and dairy products and fresh fruit were put in the outside fridge as well.
a few days went by and i found myself going to the extra fridge for a gallon of milk. i pulled it out and went to pour it. it was curdled and sour. it looked and smelled like buttermilk! i could hardly believe my eyes and nose. i had just purchased it a few days earlier. i had thoughts of taking it back to sam's club but it was only one gallon of milk and i didn't think it would be worth it.
over the course of the next week i would go to my extra fridge and pull out food i needed. everything i pulled out seemed to be spoiled in some way. now i was getting irritated because i wondered how sam's could sell all of this food and have it go bad so fast. i then wondered if it had anything to do with the food going into some kind of shock from the nice cool-air conditioned store to my 120 degree car for ten minutes before i could get it home to my cool fridge again. i just wasn't putting together the thoughts correctly. i mean i had done everything right--drove it straight home from the store and put it all promptly in the extra fridge.
then at some point--not soon enough--but at some point i figured out what the problem was. it was the extra fridge itself. it was cool inside but not cold. i never noticed it because it doesn't get opened all that much. but when i realized the fridge was marginally cool and not cold i checked the freezer. same thing. i'd lost the fan on my fridge and all of my food in it! so much for planning ahead and being prepared that month!
the food by the time i figured out the problem was so far gone i had to toss it out. i was defeated. i could get the fridge fixed but i couldn't get the money back that i'd spent on trying to get ahead of the food retrieval game. it was one of those things that i couldn't change but wish i could have.
oh well. isn't that just sometimes the way things go. the best laid plans of men sometimes do not pay off and one is left to scrounge for food the rest of the month. needless to say, i was back to my regular small grocery runs at trader joes in no time for only the essentials. thank heaven i live so close to mr. t. joe incorporated and that i can get my essentials there without it costing me my arm and my leg.
i can laugh at the whole thing now and the extra fridge is now fixed and full again. it was just one of those mysteries that i wish i would have figured out much sooner. good thing i had purchased all that cold cereal for the pantry. we ate off of it for many meals the rest of the month!
How sad!
Posted by: Nicole | October 07, 2011 at 12:29 PM