To be annoyed with MIL's almost out of date chicken?

[MrCollinsandhisboiledpotatoes]

Last night, about 4pm, MIL turns up while I was out with a pack of chicken breasts with the use by date of yesterday, puts them in our fridge and says they have to be eaten today (yesterday) as it's the last day. DH tells me when I get home that there's chicken in the fridge that must be eaten tonight.
I'm like, OK.... But I have stuff I had planned for dinner tonight and all week in fact, and I've got my own use-by dates on the stuff I bought and the week's dinners planned accordingly and now you're going to throw that all out of whack because we have to eat MIL's chicken instead, because of her poor planning and/or reluctance to throw out her own shit, you acting like her food waste bin?
But DH thinks we should be grateful?
Who's side are you on?

You know "why" you're buying food don't you. To eat it.
But yes it's completely normal to buy food without a specific plan to do with it. Not everyone has a neurotic highly planned approach to everything they cook and eat. Especially people who live on their own like your MIL.
It's much more normal than being "seething" because someone gave you free food during a COL crisis.

I think this is one of those things where you don't like someone and so everything they do (even nice things) annoy you. I love my MIL so this wouldn't annoy me at all. Perhaps if I didn't like her I would find some reason to be upset about it.

Christ, imagine this being your biggest problem 🤣

Well yes, of course, but I have a plan. That's not "neurotic".
I think it's more of a problem during a COL crisis to just buy random food that catches your eye with no plan for it so that it sits in your fridge until it nearly goes off and you have to give it away at the last minute to someone who may not want it and will chuck it in the bin.
Seems a lot less cost effective way of doing something than just planning your meals.
But of course I'm the odd one here, because this is mumsnet.

You can freeze them on the last day.

We regularly buy yellow stickered meat on its last day, but write "cook as soon as defrosted" on the label as a reminder that it was frozen on its last day.

What on earth is wrong with chicken twice in one week? It's very versatiles. Chicken curry( which I eat most nights) fajitas, nasi goreng, chicken and chorizo bake,

All different flavours

Or maybe just stick it in the freezer, or is that not enough drama?

I didn't say it was my biggest problem

It is possible to post things on Mumsnet without it being a catastrophe. Sometimes you're just mildly annoyed or pondering it and wondering what others think.

Well u must be buying food to not have a plan for if your freezer is stuffed to the hilt

Depends on the size of your freezer and how you use it.

I will indulge you in feeling super annoyed about this, because my parents and ILs both pull nonsense like this that doesn't DESERVE headroom but GETS headroom.

My mum decided to clear the desk out of my childhood bedroom and give it to me.

It's a fucking huge desk. I never liked it as a child or did work there as a teen. It was far too big for my bedroom and too big for my house now, and somehow still actually too small for me to sit at.

It is even more annoying to be expected to be grateful for some molloch you didn't want and absorbs headroom.

The text exchange could go "do you want you old desk?", "thanks but no thank you".

It never does though.

Things keep in the freezer though so you can buy stuff when it's discounted and use it when you need

Unless it's one of those small ice boxes being stuffed to the holy means that you are not in immediate need of the food in there

Cook it and tell your husband that he can make himself sandwiches or something with it this week. Or throw it away.

Yeah usually on the last day which OP says she didn't know you could freeze food then

I happily freeze things on their last day, but I also knock a day off the use by date if something has been left out of the fridge by accident as, from experience, it goes off sooner.

In this case after MIL taking it out of the fridge on its last day and likely letting it come to room temperature by bringing it round to your house I would have chucked it to be sure. Although, maybe I'm biased, MIL gave DH food poisoning one visit with undercooked chicken...

Yes!! She could have just texted and asked if I wanted the chicken!
They don't want a no, that's why. They have decided you are going to be their bin/tip/charity shop and that's that. You get no say.
My mum will do things like give my kids a fish tank that I then have to spend my time cleaning and maintaining, or fill my drawers with cutlery I don't want.
She forced a compost bin on my sister once even though she repeatedly said not to bring it round. Sister looks out the window one day to see mum marching up her drive with it, with my poor reluctant step dad coming up behind her, carrying the lid. She pretended to be out 🤣

I don't get this at all. You could have bought it from the shop on the last day and then frozen it "on the date of purchase".
The chicken doesn't know what day it went home with you to start its new life.

This is a great answer. My MIL regularly turns up with random surprise food that always needs cooking/eating immediately. Often she's taken it out of her own freezer so we can't even refreeze it.

Agree that it's massively irritating OP, but they won't change so just deal with it as the mood takes you at the time and move on. I once cooked the random stuff MIL brought round then sent her home with all of it as 'leftovers' the next day. You could also make DH have it for packed lunch until it's used up.

Just because I am not in immediate need of it, does not mean I do not have a plan for it.

Did you see where I used the word 'usually'?

Did she say it was?

I'm on your side OP. That would piss me off no end. I have to make sure when I buy fresh protein that I cook it in specific order so it doesn't go bad, and so when I make something theres enough time in the use by date so we can still eat it for leftovers. I would hate that someone left almost-bad chicken in my fridge for it to then become my problem. Plus it sounds like your husband is chiming in, which ups the pressure on you to use the damn thing.

I'm not sure what I'd do - maybe freeze something I had bought in to use, and use the shit chicken instead. But then I don't like freezing fresh stuff that I had intended to use fresh.

The thing is it's not a big huge issue but I can absolutely see how it can mess with your planning and give you a headache you don't need. She should've dealt with her own shit chicken rather than palm it off on you to figure out what's to do with it. Cow.

One thing we found was that MILs friends (whose GC were older) all used her as their personal bin/dumping ground for baby stuff that was so well used it was basically wrecked. MIL used to tell us how kind and generous everyone was being offering her their old stuff to pass on to us, but it was really obvious from looking at most of it that they just wanted an easy way to be rid.

Are you and MIL aware that it’s okay to throw chicken in the bin? I’m guessing she thought she’d see if you could use it before she binned it, but you have no need for it. So… just bin it?