Microeconomics: A case study in resource and risk management.

I hate wasting stuff.

I have been known to combine all our left over paint and use the “new color” for freshening up a bedroom. It was mostly the “light colored” paint so it wasn’t too wild. And I was able to legally dispose of 4 emptied paint cans, which freed up some space in our storage room. Paint was not wasted, money was saved. Reduce, reuse and all that.

I can also unashamedly excuse my indifference to couponing with my diligence in not wasting. I estimate it takes hours of my time to save small amounts of money, so I’d rather just try real hard to not waste the stuff I’ve already purchased.

So you can imagine my dilemma when, after returning from the store, I accidentally left a $9 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese in my hot vehicle...all day long. That’s right. The largest bag of Italian goodness for sale at Wal-Mart now barely identifiable as shredded, berating me from the conspicuous hideout of the front seat of my vehicle.

I took the bagged blob into the house for inspection.  To use or not to use? That was the question. This decision would require logic. By my logic, warming milk produces cheese, so warming cheese ought to make it…well…cheesier!

After a frightfully short deliberation, I said to myself, “That’s gonna be some cheeeezy pizza!”

So with complete disregard for the FDA’s food storage recommendations, I bet my family’s health on a $9 bag of cheesier cheese. I crumbled the blob, spread it over pizza and baked it at 425* hoping the heat of the oven would kill anything the heat of the day had cooked up!

Twenty minutes and 425 degrees later, I retrieved from the oven the cheesiest pizza in my culinary history. Neither the cheese nor the $9 was wasted. Supper was saved, the family was fed, and we all lived …happily ever after.

Have you ever gambled at the table of food freshness? Obviously you lived to tell about it…so do tell!!