The Dangers of Misreading Dates (and Dairy)

What can I say, I'm a living white-American stereotype, and in more than one way. Currently, I'm living in the intersection of three of those ways.
First of all, I drink a lot of milk. A lot of milk. On days that I stay home (which are often on this damn island), I can easily down a liter a day. One good think about living in Martinique is boxed milk, U.H.T. pasteurized milk that's shelf-stable for a long-ass time. One bad thing about it (among a litany) is that I have to carry any milk I buy with my own arms out of the store, onto the bus, along the bus ride if the bus is as full as it usually is, and the short trek into the house from the bus stop. When you drink as much milk as I do, that can lead to a non-negligible strain on your shoulders.
Second of all, I LOVE buying shit in bulk. Entering a thrift store with used clothes in my size, cowboy outlet stores that sell jeans in my size, and discount groceries stores gives me a pure high. So, naturally, when a couple other assistants and I rented a car during the Carnaval break, I took advantage of the horsepower to buy milk. A lot of milk. Enough milk to last me until my departure in May. Fort-eight liters of milk.

Third of all, no matter how long I live an work outside of the U.S., I still instinctively read dates as month/day/year. It's caused a few problems in my life previously, to say the least. Most recently, I read the expiration date on all that boxed milk, which usually lasts several months, as December 3, 2018, when, in fact, it is 12 March 2018. So, all 48 liters of my milk are set to expire over a month before I leave, less than two months after I bought all of it.
Luckily, according to the internet, boxed milk is good for up to a month after the expiration date as long as it is cool and dry, which will buy me nearly enough time to be ready to leave. Otherwise, I'm currently filling the refrigerator and freezer with liter bricks of milk and trying to maximize my calcium-rich consumption.
Wish me luck. And that my flatmate doesn't actually intend on keeping food in the fridge for the next couple weeks.