Unemployment Benefits Extension Signed into Law

Last week President Obama signed an extension of unemployment benefits into law. The measure provides emergency relief to 2.5 million Americans who had recently passed the 26 week mark of unemployment – when most state unemployment benefits expire.

The measure, however, does not provide extended emergency support to those entering their 99th and final week of receiving extended unemployment benefits.

I want to get your take on whether this is a good move for the country. The vote to extend benefits in the Senate was pretty much divided right along party lines. However, I think this issue goes far beyond political party affiliation. Here’s a look at what each side has been saying in this debate:

Extended Unemployment Benefits Supporters Argue…

• Money will be spent immediately by those in need, helping to revive the economy.
• It limits foreclosures from those who don’t have enough income to continue paying their mortgage.
• The average unemployment payment of $309 is not enough to motivate someone to not find a job.
• It’s the humanitarian thing to do.

Extended Unemployment Benefits Detractors Argue…

• The extension de-motivates the unemployed from finding a job.
• We should cut the deficit before we spend more money and this extension shouldn’t add to the deficit.
• 6 months should be plenty of time to find another job.

Unemployment Discussion:

• Did I miss any of the arguments on either side?
• Do you side with your political affiliation on this one? Why or why not?
• Do you think that unemployment benefits should be extended beyond 26 weeks? (take the poll!)

Related Posts:

• Unemployed? Many Hiring Employers Won’t Even Give you a Look
• Extreme Job Hunting Strategies
• 7 Lessons Learned After One Week of Unemployment

Tracfone Review

Warning: if you are a semi-Luddite, you will love this review. If you would hook a 3G (or 4G) smart phone up to your bloodstream intravenously if the opportunity existed, you will not.

About a year and a half ago, I made the switch from Verizon to Net10.  This cut my cell phone bill from $60/month to $30/month for two phones. Net10 has been great, and when combined with the Ooma VOIP system, I have actually been able to cut my cell minutes down to under 100/month because I typically use my phone for a quick check-ins, emergency situations, and sexting – er, texting.

Because I’ve been able to cut my minutes so low, I’ve now banked over 1,200 minutes (Net10 allows you to rollover your unused minutes). As a result, I’ve done a lot of research into Tracfone to cut my phone bills even lower, and wanted to give it a review so that you all may benefit if the plan fits your lifestyle.

Surprise! Tracfone Owns Net10

Here’s the funny thing. Net10 is a Tracfone brand. They literally run off of the same network and share the same towers with 30 major carriers in the U.S., and can be CDMA or GSM, based on the phone model that you purchase. Other than pricing models and phone selection, the two companies are the same.

It’s basically the same as the differences between a Ford and a Mercury vehicle. Inside is the same. Outside (the phone) and prices are different.

Tracfone is actually the largest prepaid cell phone service provider in the U.S., with 11 million subscribers. Here’s a look at how they grade out in key wireless provider characteristics.

Tracfone Reception

In a year and a half I haven’t had one dropped call with the Tracfone network. The coverage was way better than Verizon ever was. The acoustic clarity is a step up as well.

Activation

Very simple. Charge the battery and go online to activate your airtime card, and you’re all set.

Customer Service

Net10 and Tracfone are not going to win any awards for their service. The reps are typically foreign and not the most well trained. The good news is that I’ve only had to have one encounter with them (when my wife’s phone was stolen), as the phone service quality and setup have been flawless. The online help center is pretty well built out if you run into problems. Unlike the large mobile customers, Tracfone and Net10 don’t have local stores to get service in. I’m sure this is a contributing factor to why they are able to offer such inexpensive service.

Tracfone Phone Selection

You might as well forget about getting a smart phone of any kind. Tracfone has a limited selection of phones and they are all bare bones. These are phones for people who want good, inexpensive service without all the fancy bells and whistles.

For instance, right now they have a special deal to get a Samsung T301G slider phone, accessory kit, and double minutes for life card all for $29.99. Not an award winning design on the phone, but one hell of a deal for no contract.

Tracfone Vs. Net10: It’s all About the Pricing

Herein lies the main difference between the two companies. Tracfone has a lot more flexible and cheaper airtime card options than Net10. The lowest minutes/month airtime card you can get is 150 minutes from Net10 (300 minutes for 60 days of service, costing $30). So the cheapest you can get your cell cost down to is $15/month.

With Tracfone’s 60 minutes (before doubling to 120 with the double for life card), you get 90 days of service for just $19.99. That’s only $6.67 per month! Of course, you only get 120 minutes over those 90 days. But if you use your phone like I do, it might just be enough.

It’s also worth noting that most Tracfone phones have a text message rate of 0.3 minutes (some are 0.5). Net10 is 0.5 minutes on all phones.

Tracfone Benefits

• No contracts.
• Don’t like the service? Phones are cheap, so you haven’t lost much.
• You see your service date and minutes remaining right on your phone screen so you don’t have to worry about where you stand with either. Hard to get accidental overage charges.
• No daily airtime fees. This is where you can save money over other prepaid carriers. A lot of the other prepaid cell plans charge you $0.99 or more for each day you actually use the phone in addition to the per minute charges.
• Rollover! Unused minutes during your service dates are banked and rolled over.

Downsides to Tracfone

Customer service and they don’t have the latest in phone technology (in my opinion, this is a good thing if you’re looking to cut costs).

Who is Tracfone Good For?

Anyone who uses their phone minimally for emergencies, short chats, and for texting – and not heavy conversation.

Who is Tracfone Not Good For?

If you live and die by your unlimited data plan from another carrier, you’re probably not going to see Tracfone as a good fit.

Final Thoughts on Tracfone

If you can keep your cell phone minutes down to a bare minimum, or really only use your phone for texting, quick chats, and emergencies, then Tracfone is a great option. It’s essentially taking what has typically been a high-priced subscription model product, and taking it to a frugal, bare bones extreme. Right now, Tracfone is also offering free 3-day ground shipping on all orders $19.99 and over.

Tracfone Discussion:

• Have you used Tracfone? What’s your take?
• Have you been able to find a cheaper cell provider than Tracfone or Net10?

Related Posts:

• Net10 Review
• Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk Review

Kiplinger recently rated its picks for the top 10 Best Cities for Young Adults. The factors that they took into consideration when compiling this ‘best’ list were:

1. healthy economies fueling new job growth
2. large percentages of people under 35
3. cost of living and rental costs
4. culture
5. nightlife
6. time you’re likely to spend in traffic

That’s not a bad list of selection criteria. However, two of the bigger factors that young professionals probably over-weigh in their selection criteria of where to move are the ‘culture’ and ‘nightlife’. And, for the most part, those are two completely subjective variables. The other four factors have a more objective number you can put on them. But who cares, it’s all about the fun factor, right?

A scene from one of the top 10 - my hometown.

What cities did they pick? Here’s a review and my take on each:

• Austin, TX: Austin is seemingly popping up on everyone’s top 10 lists these days – top 10 most livable cities, top 10 college towns, top 10 live music venue cities, top 10 places to bake a pizza. With an unemployment rate of under 7% (4th lowest of cities with populations exceeding 1 million), how can you keep them off the list?
• Charlotte, NC: Charlotte has the second largest banking center in the country behind New York. That was the surprising fun fact of the day for me. It’s one of the few on this list that probably wouldn’t have made my own list. But then again, I’ve only driven through.
• Chicago, IL: No big surprise here. Chicago ranks high for nightlife and culture, yet provides a much lower cost of living than other major metro cities in the country. I have seen countless young professional friends and co-workers leave Michigan behind for Chicago.
• Houston, TX: Heavy pollution and crime rates, but a median rent cost of $775 in America’s 4th largest city make it a great value, with a strong economy to boot.
• Kansas City, MO: Kansas City is in the midst of a $9 billion downtown development project to revitalize the nightlife in the town. Would have expected St. Louis before Kansas City though.
• Lansing, MI: My home town! I was a bit surprised to see Lansing make this list, honestly. I can see why it did – it’s the capital of Michigan (gov. jobs), has one of the largest (and best, might I add) universities in the country in Michigan State University, and the cost of living is low. But unless you like the college night life or Michigan State athletics (go green!), the nightlife in the town is lacking a bit. Awesome to see my hometown make this list, but I think that another city in Michigan I have lived in – Grand Rapids, probably deserves it more. It has a more vibrant nightlife, better entertainment, a more diverse economy, the downtown area is 100% revitalized, and the cost of living is lower (I paid $430/mo. for a nice loft apartment). Grand Valley State University is too far outside of town though, to be a huge contributor to the culture and nightlife. If you could transplant Michigan State University in Grand Rapids, it would be mentioned in the same breath as Austin.
• New York, NY: No surprise here. The nightlife and job prospects are limitless. But I could never get over the commuting challenges and cost of living being so ridiculously high. I’d never choose to live in NYC.
• Portland, OR: Great choice. Portland is the next Seattle. Microbreweries, great food, and serial killers are abundant.
• Salt Lake City, UT: Kiplinger refers to Salt Lake City as a cheaper version of Denver. Cost of living is low and the unemployment rate is 7%.
• Washington, DC: Incredible job prospects and a very low unemployment rate of 6% (who says government jobs don’t help the economy?). But I’d never choose to live there for the same reasons I wouldn’t choose to live in NYC – traffic, crime, and high cost of living.

Top 10 City Discussion:

• What cities would you have added to this list, and why?
• What cities would you have subtracted, and why?
• Did your hometown make the list?

Related Posts:

• Tiny Homes: Jay Shafer Interview
• Apartment Searching on Craigslist with Google Maps
• Urban Homesteading with the Dervaes Family
• Rent or Buy?

“He who saves with purpose, grows hope.” – G.E. Miller

Hope you enjoyed that attempt to blend Confucianism and personal finance. On to the highlights, oddities, and deals of the week.

20somethingfinance Highlights:

• 3 Guerrilla Tactics to Get Rid of Clutter: The ‘keep it or pitch it’ strategy for getting rid of clutter has never quite worked for me. I decided to drum up a few new tactics. This time with a take no prisoners attitude.
• Craigslist Apartment Searches on Google Maps Mashups: A look at Mapskrieg and Padmapper, two mashups that combine Craigslist listings overlaid onto Google Maps.
• An Intro to Urban Homesteading with the Dervaes Family: A look at relatively new, yet old-school approach to becoming self-sufficient, growing your own food, and reducing your carbon footprint.

Other Personal Finance Highlights:

• Financial Reform Makes FDIC Deposit Insurance Permanent at $250,000 (genxfinance): A look at the history of FDIC insurance and how it came to be what it currently is today.
• Where’s the Money in America? (mint): An infographic on who controls the money (and debt) in the U.S.
• How to Use a Food Dehydrator to Preserve your Harvest (getrichslowly): If you liked my ‘intro to urban homesteading’ post this week, this is a great follow-up intro to dehydrating the food you grow.

Oddities:

• How to Upgrade an Old Phone into a Porsche (yahoo): A story about how one guy used Craigslist bartering to make a number of swaps, starting with his old cell phone, and ending up with a Porsche.

Deals of the Week:

• Earn a $50 Statement Credit with select Citibank credit cards. This is an exclusive offer.
• eHarmony.com is offering the ability to communicate for free between 7/23/10 – 8/1/10 (U.S. only)

Urban Homesteading? What the Heck is that?

Ever wondered what it would be like to grow all of your own food at home, be completely independent from economic recession, gas prices, not knowing what kind of pesticides or other crap is dumped on your food, and the stress of feeling that you have to work a 9-to-5 job in order to put food on the table? If you’ve wanted to make that dream a reality, then urban homesteading, aka urban farming, might be the path for you.

Meet the Dervaes Family

Jules Dervaes and his four children moved to Pasadena, California (a Los Angeles suburb) in 1986. Jules slowly turned his one-fifth acre lot into a completely self-sustaining farm and urban garden to feed his family of four and actually have enough yield left over to make a decent income selling his food to local restaurants.

In fact, he’s done such a great job at it, that three of his four children are still living with him (all into their twenties and thirties), and here’s the kicker – NONE of them have jobs! You heard that right. They are all able to live on the food and income (about $30k per year) that their little one-fifth acre lot farm generates. And they’ve created an exceptional blog to boot, called Path to Freedom.

Pictures, or videos, often speak louder than words, so here’s a story that ABC’s Nightline did on the Dervaes urban farming family:

What I Love About Urban Homesteading

The Dervaes family story is great for so many different reasons:

• The family is very cohesive and happy doing what they are doing.
• They have built a true community amongst their neighbors and at home.
• At this point, they are probably carbon negative.
• They sell product to local restaurants, cutting down on the restaurant’s carbon footprint.
• They have learned skills that have been lost over the years.
• They are recession proof. Neither food nor fuel prices affect them much at all (other than the price they can charge for their food going up if food prices increase).
• They work for themselves. No stress of a full-time job.
• They took a rather boring house and made it beautiful with food.
• They know where all their food has come from and that it’s natural and healthy.

The Challenges of Urban Homesteading:

Their lives sound like utopian bliss, but let’s get realistic. I’m sure they had to overcome a hell of a lot to get there.

The Dervaes family have built a garden of Eden within their own backyard, but that didn’t happen overnight. The skills that they learned took years to learn and develop and most likely a lot of trial and error. Doing what they are doing also probably also took a huge up front investment to be able to buy all of the equipment that they have (and I’m guessing they had paid off the home in full). Not to mention that there are very few climates where you could do what they do year round (and homes in California are not cheap).

However, you shouldn’t let those things hold you back from following your dreams. Start small, find mentors, and slowly get to the place that you want to be. You might not get all the way to where the Dervaes family has ended up, but you may just become an urban homesteading model example in your own town.

Urban Farming Discussion:

• What’s your take on the Dervaes family and what they have created?
• Do you see urban homesteading as something you are interested in?
• What steps have you already taken to get there?

Related Posts:

• 55 hobbies you can Make Income from
• Marketable Hobbies: Get Paid to do what you Love
• Stop Dreaming & Start Retiring – Now!

Getting Rid of Clutter

Why is getting rid of clutter so dang hard? For starters, we tend to get emotionally attached to things. We tend to think that all of these material possessions symbolize a piece of us. And if we get rid of them, we are ‘throwing our past away’. We can even hear a faint, fading, yet hideous scream, “NOOOO!!!!” as we toss our Mr. T air fresheners, M.C. Hammer pants, and Metallica t-shirts into the trash.

Each of the last 2 times I’ve moved dwellings, I’ve had to upgrade to a bigger truck. That is ridiculous.

Because it’s a constant personal struggle, I’ve covered this topic in the past pretty extensively (see links at the bottom of this post), but I’m afraid that I may have been a little too simplistic in my de-cluttering strategies. Until now…

De-Clutter Requires Guerrilla Tactics:

You wouldn’t defend your house from invading Guatemalans with a Smith & Wesson pistol, would you? Heck no, you’d want to pull out the big artillery. I’m talking Tommy Guns, grenades, and rocket launchers.

Simply going through your things and saying ‘yes, I’ll keep it’ or ‘no, I won’t keep it’ isn’t going to cut it. This isn’t an exercise where you can sit back on the defensive. It’s time to take it to the enemy. So here are some guerrilla tactic approaches to de-cluttering.

Tactic #1: Buy your Clutter Back Tactic

• 

  Step 1: Round up everything that you don’t use at least once a week and pile it all into one big room or in the yard.

• Step 2: This will admittedly take an entire day to do. So find a nice CD (one that you listen to frequently, because everything else is going in the pile).
• Step 3: Do a rough count of all the items in your pile. Write down the number.
• Step 4: Go to the bank and get a number of pennies that is equivalent to one-quarter of the number.
• Step 5: Buy back your stuff until the pennies are gone.

Congrats, you’ve just eliminated three-quarters of your clutter!

Why it works: The ‘Buy your Clutter Back’ tactic works because it forces you to go beyond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and actually prioritize what you value the most. In a way, it is like you briefly do not own your stuff anymore. It makes you ask the question “if I had to go out and buy that again, would I?”. In most cases, the answer is ‘no’.

Tactic #2: The No Use, It’s Clutter Tactic

• Step 1: Again, round up everything that you don’t use at least once a week and pile it all into one big room or in the yard.
• Step 2: Go to a local department store and get a lot of boxes.
• Step 3: Box it all up. Everything. Seal it shut. And don’t label it.
• Step 4: Live your life for 12 months.
• Step 5: If you had to go into the boxes and get something to use, keep it. If not, get rid of it.

Why it works: The ‘No Use, No Clutter’ tactic works because it does not judge. You either had a use for something or you did not over the year. I specifically chose the year period because it allows you to get through all 4 seasons, if you life in such a climate. You can probably use a much smaller time period if you live in a different climate. If you didn’t use something over a year, you probably don’t need to keep it.

Tactic #3: The Out of Mind, Out of House Tactic

• Step 1: Once again, round it all up, box it, and seal it.
• Step 2: This time wait 1 month.
• Step 3: Grab a pen and paper and a kitchen timer (hopefully you didn’t box it up).
• Step 4: Give yourself half an hour to write down everything you want to keep that is boxed up.
• Step 5: Get rid of all stuff you didn’t write down.

Why it works: The ‘Out of Mind, Out of House’ tactic works because it forces you to really think about the things that are important to you in a limited amount of time. If you’ve completely forgot about something after just a month, do you really need it anymore?

De-clutter Discussion:

• What unique de-cluttering tactics have you used? Did they work?
• Have you tried one of these clutter-busting tactics? How did it work?
• Are you willing to try one of these tactics?

Related Posts:

• 8 Personal Finance Spring Cleaning Ninja Moves
• How to Get Rid of E-Clutter
• The Story of Stuff
• How to Sell your Stuff Online

First there was Mapskrieg

I had previously highlighted Mapskrieg as one of the 4 best real estate search tools. Mapskrieg essentially overlays all Craigslist apartment listings over a Google Map, so that you can visually see the location of all the listings. Craigslist is very inefficient in that way on its own. You have to find the apartment address, then jump over to a map service and look it up. It can be very time consuming and not that helpful if you are honed in on a particular area.

Mapskrieg was the first of its kind to offer this service, which seemed amazing at the time. However, it hasn’t improved at all since it launched. And now a similar mashup tool has come along and taken its place – PadMapper

PadMapper is Superior to MapsKrieg

In my experience with Mapskrieg, searches for your city or zip only worked half the time. That was problem #1. Problem #2 is that once you completed a successful search, you didn’t have any way of filtering it down further. You basically have to click on each listing to find what you’re looking for.

In both areas where Mapskrieg fails, PadMapper succeeds. Every search I completed gave me results (note that for both tools you need to search in an area that has Craigslist apartment listings). It also works in listings from apartments.com and forrent.com (you can filter out both if you want to stick to Craigslist listings) so that you can have a complete apartment search without having to go to any other website or tool.

But it’s the filtering options is where PadMapper really succeeds. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Search for the area you are looking for. And click ‘go’:

Step 2: Click the little ‘+’ box in the lower right corner to start filtering:

Step 3: Filter however you like to narrow down your options.

Filter Away: In the above example, you can see that I’ve decided to narrow my search down to apartments that cost more than $400/month, but less than $1,000 per month (trying to stay away from a crappy one and a real expensive one). I’ve also decided I want between 2 and 3 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. This narrowed my options down from hundreds to about 30.

If I wanted to, I could also have chosen whether or not cats or dogs were welcome, if it was a sublet or not, if there were pictures in the Craigslist post, and where the source is from. Pretty awesome!

Final Step: Super-Secret Advanced Features.

PadMapper takes things to the next level by letting you filter in quality-of-life components:

• Walking distance to work address
• Crime rate
• Walk Score
• A list of Yelp bars, groceries, restaurant, and gyms

Did I mention that PadMapper is free and you don’t even have to create an account? Good stuff. And for those wondering – no, I’m not moving to Provo.

Craigslist & Padmapper Discussion:

• Have you used Craigslist to find an apartment?
• Have you tried Padmapper? What did you think?

Related Posts:

• Real Estate Capital Gains Taxes
• Buying vs. Renting
• Tax Deduction from Home Sale

The heat wave continues. I’m ready for fall! Highlight of the week? BP capped the oil spill that should have never happened. But enough about evil corporations, let’s get right into the highlights and deals of the week…

20somethingfinance highlights:

• Chase Sapphire Review: I reviewed the Chase Sapphire card (only the second credit card I’ve reviewed in 2 and a half years). And it’s a good one – no annual fee and a simple, yet decent rewards program, including a nice $100 bonus.
• How to Navigate ‘Sell By’, ‘Use By’, & ‘Best Before’ Dates: Ever wondered if you’ll drop dead after drinking milk one day after the ‘use by’ date? or was it the ’sell by’ date? Does it even matter? Wonder no more.
• First Date: How Much Should you Spend?: A reader opinion and poll post on the difficult to answer dating dilemma.

I also wrote a post on the Wall Street reform bill passing for Mint.com: What will Wall Street Reform Mean for you?

Other Personal Finance Highlights:

• 8 Ways to Save Money on your Cell Phone Bills (genxfinance): You only really need one way – Net10, but if you’re looking for eight others, check out Jeremy’s post.
• 50 Healthy Foods for Under $1 Per Pound (wisebread): This is an awesome list to follow to assure that you are saving money on food, yet still eating healthy.
• 10 Best Cities for Jobs Over the Next Decade (Kiplinger): Hard to argue with their list. Find out if your city is on the short-list.

Other Highlights from Across the Web:

• The True Calling that Wasn’t (NYTimes): A look at why people choose careers that they end up not liking.
• When your Co-Worker is your Spouse (WSJ): A look at this emerging trend and how to make it work.

Deals:

• Buy One-Get One FREE prescription eyeglasses at EyeBuyDirect.com from July 12th-25th.
• Get 100 Commission-Free Trades at OptionsHouse.com.

Who Should Pay for the First Date – Taken to the Next Level

One of the most heated discussions elicited from any post EVER on 20somethingfinance came as a result of an analysis I did on who should pay for the first date. Regardless of what your take on that controversial topic is, the next question to arise is “how much should you spend on the first date?”.

The First Date: Hard to Break Away from the Social Norm

Here’s the thing about first dates. It’s hard to break away from the traditional dinner and a movie, or dinner and some form of entertainment since it has become such a social norm. On the second, third, or fourth date, and so on, I think it’s completely acceptable, in my opinion, to break free from that social norm and go for a long hike, a bike ride, cook at home, or do something that is usually free.

But I don’t know that you’d want to break too far away from the social norm on the first date just to save a few bucks. If you break free for other reasons, so be it, but being frugal for the sake of being frugal can wait until another day.

That being said, is it possible to spend too little?

Spending Too Little – Frugal Vs. Overly Cheap

Since we’re all value-rich personal finance stewards, I’m going to assume that there are few people that would set a lower limit on how much you should spend on the first date. That would just be shallow, after all, right?

Not so fast. There are social norms, and if you’re going to partake in them, the hot dog stand and the dollar theater combo is probably not the way to go.

Spending Too Much on the First Date: The Downsides

On the other end of the spectrum, I think it is possible to spend ‘too much’ on the first date. We’ll get into how much is ‘too much’ to spend in a bit… but there are some obvious drawbacks to spending TOO MUCH:

• You’re setting bad expectations. The pressure is on to keep it up, regardless of who pays.
• You are showing signs of reckless spending. Hey, if this is going to be something serious, why set that standard right away? It sends a bad message that you are careless about your spending.
• Your motives might be questioned – in spending a lot on a first date, your motives might come into question by your date. You usually don’t want that, unless your goal is to not have a second date (if you catch my drift).
• If you have a lot of first dates and don’t go far beyond, you could go broke real fast.

What is the ‘Perfect Amount’ to Spend on the First Date?

I’ve take too long to spit it out, so I’ll just get on with it now…

What is the perfect level at which you are spending neither too much nor too little on the first date? (take the poll below).

Related Posts:

• What are your Costly Pleasures?
• How to HomeBrew & Save 63% on Beer
• Can Money Buy Happiness?

Why ‘Sell By’, ‘Use By’, & ‘Best Before’ Dates Matter

When playing the ‘is it still good?’ game with your food and its shelf life, it’s fairly easy to jump to your own conclusions about what ‘Sell by’, ‘Use by’, and ‘Best if Used by’ mean. For example, one may fear that they will get sick and drop dead if eating something after the ‘use by’ date, but not feel the same fears about the exact same product if it had the same date on it, but was instead stamped with ’sell by’.

But what does each guideline really mean? And is it really safe to eat the food after the use or sell by dates versus throwing it away?

Food Waste is a Huge Problem

Why does it matter? According to an 8-year University of Arizona study on U.S. Food Waste, “Americans are tossing out at least $75 billion in food each year…The average American family throws away 14 percent of their food. In terms of money, that’s almost $600 every year in meats, fruit, vegetables and grain products.” Other estimates pin U.S. food waste as high as 33 percent.

That’s a lot of money and a lot of waste. Cutting this waste would save you money, lower overall food prices, and lead to a significant reduction in carbon impact and other environmental damage. And knowing what shelf-life dates mean is the first step in cutting food waste.

Lax Federal Regulation on Food Shelf-Life Dating

Believe it or not, food dating is only required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) in the United States for baby infant formula and some baby foods, in the form of a ‘use by’ date. Other than that, there is no uniform food shelf life dating system. Food dating, at some level, is required by 20 states. However, many states have no food dating regulations at all.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some consistencies and rules that you should follow around food shelf life.

Use By Date

A ‘use by date’ is the product manufacturers recommended date to use the product in order to still get peak quality. After that date, the product quality could decline, and if proper storage measures aren’t used, your health could be at risk. Many manufacturers voluntarily include ‘use by’ dates because they want their customers to experience their food at its highest quality, in order to grow customer loyalty. They also serve as a ‘we told you so’ warning if you consume the food or drink after the date and it has gone bad.

It is generally recommended that you use a product by its ‘use by’ date. However, products can be kept for much longer periods if refrigerated below 40 degrees F or frozen.

Best if Used By/Best Before Date

‘Best if used by’, aka ‘best before’ dates are recommended use dates as determined by the manufacturer to get the highest quality version of the product, but are not aligned to food safety dates as ‘use by’ and ’sell by’ dates are.

Sell By Date

‘Sell by’ dates are intended to serve as a guideline for grocers to sell the manufacturers products. Foods with expired sell by dates can still be at their best quality and safe to eat if stored properly. However, as a consumer, it might be wise to buy inventory at your grocer that has a further out ’sell by’ date versus one that has already expired.

There might also be an opportunity to bargain with grocers to get a lower price on foods that are at or past their ’sell by’ date. Many grocers automatically mark down foods that are approaching the ’sell by’ date, and it never hurts to ask those who do not for a discount.

Sell By Storage Guidelines

Here are some FSIS Guidelines for refrigerated products sell by dates. FSIS recommends that you follow ‘use by’ dates, and recommends freezing or cooking the fresh foods by the following timeline with ’sell by’ or no dates.

They also recommend the following storage times for processed foods packaged at a food plant.

Using Common Sense on Shelf-Life

These are some great guidelines, but it also pays to use some common sense guidelines around food expiration:

1. If you’re not going to eat something with a few days, just freeze it.
2. If it smells bad, don’t eat it.
3. If it looks bad, don’t eat it.
4. If it has mold on it, don’t eat it.
5. If it is perishable, at least refrigerate it.
6. Perishable food doesn’t like air. Keep things covered and sealed.
7. Wash your hands before touching perishable foods

Shelf Life Discussion

• What rules do you follow around shelf life?
• Do you ever bargain with grocers if a food is at or has passed its ’sell by’ date. What kind of response do you get?

Related Posts:

• 10 Food Rules to Save you Money & Improve your Health
• Save on Groceries? Don’t Sacrifice these 6 Food Characteristics
• 4 Tips to Saving Money on Groceries
• 4 Best Grocery Store Chains