“I hand down everything -- car seats, toys, books,” she said. “There's no way we could afford to buy everything new for all the kids.”

The only thing that trumps affordability is safety, she says, but it's difficult to do both nowadays. Expiration dates now extend well beyond your refrigerator door. Out with the old and in with the new seems to be the key to safety.

Expiration dates are everywhere. We wanted to know if they really promote safety or just manufacturers’ bottom lines.

Take car seats for example. Most have an expiration date after six years. Beachler is skeptical.

“If it's not broken and you can still use it, and you're on a tight budget, I can't see throwing it in the trash can,” she said.

She has a car seat dated December 2000.

“That's when it would have been manufactured,” said Beachler. “All three boys have used that seat.”

Our expert says it's time for a new one.

“Unfortunately, it loses it's effectiveness so it's important the seat stays us to date,” said Daphne Greenlee of the Safe Kids Coalition.

Greenlee says the belts, plastic and foam can all break down with constant use and temperature changes. Beachler wishes she knew sooner.

“I can't imagine being in an accident and knowing he was injured because the seat was expired,” she said.

Another thing about Beachler had no idea came with a shelf life: her son's bicycle helmets.

“Over time, when they're sitting in garage and get beat up and get used, the foam starts to weaken,” said Greenlee.

Most helmets last just two to three years but keep in mind that the expiration dates aren't easy to find. Instead, most companies stamp on the inside the helmet when it was manufactured, so you'll have to do the math to figure out when it's time to get a new one.

“This one is 2005, so it's three years old, so his probably should be replaced,” said Beachler.

You should pay attention to plenty of other expiration dates as well. Optometrist Dr. Mitzi Lewis says some contact lens wearers hold on to their saline solution far too long.

“Once the preservative breaks down, it's not killing bacteria like it should,” said Lewis.

She says pay attention to the date on the bottle.

You may have noticed an expiration date on your mascara or eyeliner but Lewis says you can take those dates with a grain of salt.

“It's arbitrarily decided by the company. They decide how long it's good,” she said.

Lewis says, no matter what it says on the package, toss out mascara and liquid eyeliner after three months and pencil eyeliner and eye shadow after a year.

But don't be so quick to toss out everything with an expiration date. Plenty of consumer products last well beyond that stamped-on date. If you throw them away, you're only throwing away your money.

“We get a lot of questions about, ‘I have this antibiotic or allergy medication; can I take it?'” said Dr. Shelby Smith, a family physician for CoxHealth.

Smith says go ahead and use them.

“In general, those aren't going to hurt you if you take them. The question is whether they going to work well,” said Smith.

While the Food and Drug Administration requires expiration dates on every drug, studies show most medications keep their effectiveness long after the expiration dates, as long as they're kept at room temperature. So Smith says, as long as getting an exact dose isn't critical, it's safe to use medications after they expire. The same goes for vitamins.

Suntan lotions may expire after a year but Smith says not to believe it.

“They may be able to go up to three years,” he said.

It doesn't stop there. Many brands of bottled water also come with an expiration or “Best if used by” date. But a spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association says, if it's kept away from temperature extremes, bottled water can be used indefinitely.

He says some manufacturers put the date on the bottle because that's when the plastic may begin to show aesthetic defects. We found one that expired last September and the bottle is beginning to pucker. The water inside, however, is perfectly safe.

“That's bad if they just make it up to get you to buy more stuff,” said Beachler.