Who doesn’t love a free organizational resource? Especially when it saves you money! 😍
Pantry Inventory List
You know the story well. You’re wandering the aisles at the grocery store filling up on olives and tea when suddenly you get hit with the hankering for a pot of chili. You aren’t sure if you have any more canned tomatoes at home so you stare blankly into space trying to imagine all the canned items in your pantry.
If you have kids with you in the store, you don’t ponder very long. You just grab a couple cans and move on. Then you get home and realize you just went to Costco last week and bought a three month supply of canned tomatoes and now you have even more.
Sounds like it’s Chili for the rest of the month, right?
Now more than ever families are having to live on tighter and tighter budgets. Many families are trying to make their family’s diet more sustainable, healthier and affordable all at the same time. It’s hard to keep all of that top of mind when you’re at the grocery store with your kids! SO you need a plan!
We’ve created a set of FREE inventory sheets that you can easily laminate and throw up on your pantry door, inside a cupboard door or hung up on your fridge so you can always know where your at with your needed supplies. We’ve created one for what’s in your Fridge, Pantry, Cupboards and Freezer.
I realize that this might seem like extra work but actually, if you’re already following a meal planning system like we talked about in our Healthy Sustainable Diet post than you’ll know that this is actually going to shorten the amount of prep work you have to do each week in order to get your grocery shopping done quickly, effectively and affordably.
As with everything we do here at Honeydew Goods, we only want to promote habits, ideas and products that are good for the planet, doesn’t compromise the things you love (mostly), and is feasible to do at least 50% of the time.
Having an easily accessible list of the items you have on hand will help you save money, use what you actually have on hand and know what you need to get for your next shopping trip. Plus, you’ll see what things you have on hand that you don’t actually use because it’ll just linger there on your list...forever....until you cave and finally donate it before it expires.
The best way to use these sheets is by laminating them. As we’ve said, we want to be sustainable. Printing something out every week because you have to re-track isn’t that sustainable. You can easily purchase some laminating sheets that don’t need a laminator on Amazon. These are our favorites. You can also just cave and get a laminating machine. Us homeschool mom’s thrive on these babies and this one has all the rave reviews.
Once you’ve printed out and laminated your sheets pin them up in your pantry so that you can see them at all times. I like to also have a small dry eraser marker tied to a string next with the sheet so that I can easily note whatever I need to.
It will take some time at the front end to really write down everything you have and and how much of each you have but it should really be a one time thing. From here on out you’ll just be adding to or taking away from the list you have written.
In a month or so you’ll see what you actually go through quickly and purchase often so you can start writing things in sharpie on your list and not worry about little hands smudging them off.
Write down each item that you have, when it expires and then use an X in a circle if you currently have it on hand. Once you use it, fill in the whole circle so you know it’s gone.
It’s also a good idea to underline or circle the items that will be expiring soonest so that you can incorporate those into a meal or recipe at some point in the near future.
Do this for each of the different charts noting all the same things. You may even have some extra spices you didn’t realize you had on hand and who knows what creative foods you’ll come up with!
The Art of Habit
Now that you’ve filled it out for your initial inventory make sure that when you bring all your groceries into the house after each session you bring the charts together, add the items and X’s that you need to and place them back in before you put everything away or else you’ll forget.
This will take some getting used to! You’ll have to remember to do it after each trip. It might actually be wise to put this as a reminder in your phone calendar so it pops up when you get home, or on your grocery shopping day.
Better yet, after you’ve made your list of needs pull them all together and place them on your counter, or in a place you’ll see them easily but no little hands and grab them and use them as a doodle pad. That way when you bring the groceries in they are already top of mind because they’re right in front of your face.
A Failsafe Option
One of my favorite meal prep services, PrepDish, actually has a monthly list of pantry and meat/proteins that you will need for all their recipes that month. It’s incredibly helpful to use their shopping list to see what you already have on hand, what you’ll need and where to get them in the most cost effective manner. You can try them out for two weeks free using this link.
We also like to reset our list every three months...when I do a deep clean of the fridge and pantry because my toddler has gotten really good at sneaking stuff into strange places. This means that I’ll wipe off the list completely and refill it with what I find to make sure it all is up to date. It’s sort of a failsafe on making sure that anything you forgot to wipe off or add are now accounted for. You can’t know all the things all the time, and you’ll forget to add or take things away. It’s just life.
If you do this method regularly for a couple months you’ll notice how quickly you save money, how aware you are of what you have on hand and what you’re buying impulsively that you really don’t need.
Download your free inventory charts now and get started! No time like the present to get a little OCD about your kitchen organization! Plus, you can now use your important minutes of your day for something else other than organizing your kitchen.
You’re welcome 🤩
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