We provide an observation relating several known and conjectured $q$-series identities to the theory of principal subspaces of basic modules for twisted affine Lie algebras. We also state and prove two new families of $q$-series identities. The first family provides quadruple sum representations for Nandi's identities, including a manifestly positive representation for the first identity. The second is a family of new mod 10 identities connected with principal characters of level 4 integrable, highest-weight modules of $\mathrm{D}_4^{(3)}$.