AIBU Bin rummaging 😡

[binratcherswife]

Changing username for this as quite frankly it’s embarrassing!

I’m not stickler for food dates. Don’t mind if biscuits, bread etc are out. However, I do tend to stick to use by’s for meat, yogurts etc. I might give slight leeway, but definitely think use by dates are there for a reason!

On the flip side, H is terrible. Thinks you should eat anything, even it is furry, stinks and with a use by date of 5 years ago.

My absolute bugbear is that he bin rummages. He actually rakes through the bin bag demanding to know why it’s been thrown out and ranting about ‘There’s nothing wrong with it.’ Does all the time.

Anyhow, this morning I have thrown creamy coleslaw out that is four dates out of date. I have just caught him eating it with his lunch- he has plucked it out of the bin 😡🤢. It’s honestly made me feel quite stabby.

So AIBU to think he’s a dirty bin ratching bastard with a stomach of steel or should I just give up and embrace the salmonella!

Why not leave it for a reasonable amount of time and just not eat it yourself? Put meat in the freezer the day it expires if you are not going to use it that night, or earlier if you know you won't use it. Unopened yogurt is perfectly fine a week or two past the sell by date.

It is a bit grim going through a bin , but as PP said it would annoy me if you kept on throwing away food that is ok.
Do you have space for a second ( small fridge or even a a electric cool box like this one
www.aldi.co.uk/adventuridge-green-electric-coolbox/p/800135362745600
that you can put all of the, in your opinion , not fit to eat stuff .

You’d be amazed what some people can stomach. Living in a third-world country has taught me that ...

How much are you throwing away that he feels the need to bin rummage somewhat regularly? It sounds like meal planning could be a bit tighter in your household, so things don't get wasted as often.

Or maybe slap a big luminous sticker on out of date stuff you don't want to eat yourself. Then you can easily avoid it and he can risk his own digestive system if he wants to without having to put on a performance of scrabbling stuff out of the bin.

I have been known to put out of date food in a carrier bag, tie it up, then I used to sling it in the base of the pushchair and put it in a public bin in the village. Yep, it sucks, but the alternative was a lengthy lecture on "not believing in" use by dates, or mould, and he would wait a long, long time for the food to go very, very off before it would have to be delicately separated into all its component parts, washed, rinsed, dried, and added to the recycling. He also had form for going through the bins, pulling things back out of the bin and putting them back in the kitchen, so I didn't really see an alternative.

" Thinks you should eat anything, even it is furry, stinks and with a use by date of 5 years ago."

Is that perchance an exaggeration??

4 days out of date coleslaw & yogurt I'd eat.

I'd throw it out in a way that he either never saw it or so that it was completely, inedibly ruined (mixed in with other rubbish). Either that or let him eat it, I guess, but it would make me feel ill myself to see someone eat something disgusting.

And I'd do my best to minimise the number of things that needed throwing out to begin with, of course. During the worst part of lockdown, when we weren't going anywhere and wanted to use our food the most efficiently to avoid shopping, I wrote the contents of the fridge with best-by dates on a piece of paper stuck to the door. It made it easier to see what needed to be used soonest without rummaging around or forgetting something hidden in a corner or under something else.

I have been known to put out of date food in a carrier bag, tie it up, then I used to sling it in the base of the pushchair and put it in a public bin in the village. Yep, it sucks, but the alternative was a lengthy lecture on "not believing in" use by dates, or mould

I've done this in the past too. Before I woke up and started divorce proceedings because that wasn't the only way that he was a cunt.

Stomach of iron. Bet he eats corner shop pies
I love a corner shop pie

Bin rummaging is disgusting. But I think yabu throwing food away that you know he would still eat.

I understand you being more wary of food dates having had salmonella, - makes even the hardiest of gannets a bit wary! But you're obviously well aware that it isn't a concern for him. He may learn the hard way one day.

I think you need to plan your food usage better. meal plan for example, and buy what will actually get eaten if you're throwing so much food away. If you're still wasting food, just don't eat the stuff you're not happy to and leave it for him.

I'm another that treats dates as more of a guidance though and go more by judgement than absolutes.

I'm another one for "let him have it" - we have less than a bin bag of food waste per month in our house.
Anything that goes in our bin though tends to get eaten by one of our two skip-diving cats. Oddly enough I just have eaten a piece of garlic bread that fell off the plate - you've got to eat a peck of dirt before you die and all....

I don't pay any attention to the dates, just go by the look and smell of things. But I wouldn't go digging stuff out of the bin! However, if he's not preparing food for you and is just eating it himself, I'd let him get on with it. Less waste and no skin off your nose.

*I’m not 100% but I thought Best Before was a guideline but Use By was a safety label?

I take them more as a guide and "you can't sue us after that".

😆

I've eaten previously unopened yoghurt that was about three weeks past its sell-by date and it was absolutely fine.

Sounds like you're buying too much food if this has happened more than once or twice. Maybe just buy what you need and keep track of it then you won't have to waste it? For me the chucking it out is more gross than eating old food.

@binratcherswife my husband does the same!

Next time flush it down the toilet

How exactly do you eat coleslaw out of a bin? The plastic container and the food still need to go in separate bins even if you don't have a food waste bin.

He is a man after my own heart.

lol sorry but this made me chuckle

I have this issue with my FIL. He is constantly buying yellow sticker food and leaving it for weeks and then moan when it gets chucked away.

As well as cooking food and properly not refrigerating it. He'll leave stew, chilli, roast joints etc out on the side for days. Their fridge is a nightmare and I have given up on sorting it out. Once a pack of sausages was going to explode!

I now do not eat anything he cooks. I am pregnant and I will not take the risk.

I don’t understand why people are hiding things in bins that someone else might be willing to eat. I hate the idea of wasting food (although I also hate the idea of bin rummaging).

I’m not the biggest fan of eating out of date food, but I will give it a sniff and a tentative taste before condemning it. I feel like I spend half my life checking the status of things in the fridge to ensure they don’t go out of date unnoticed. I usually encourage DH to eat up things that would otherwise be wasted. I’ve just presented him with a slightly sad kiwi and the remainder of a pot of Greek yoghurt!

It’s definitely weird that your DH bin rakes, but it’s also a shame that you are wasting so much food.

[quote binratcherswife]@DoAsYouWouldBeMumBy I didn’t even know they were a thing!! We have general waste, garden and cardboard. I NEED one of those bins 😁😂[/quote]
Whoa, you are seriously underbinned!! We have general, paper/cardboard, tins/glass/plastic, garden and food. Keeps me out the pub anyway 😂

Yabu about yoghurt, it’s good for weeks after the date as long as it’s not been opened.

Does he really...