My family's meals were all planned ahead for the week and I was feeling quite organized. I made out the menu, put together the grocery list, and got my shopping all done in one trip. This week we were not going to waste any money on fast food or delivery meals. I was on a roll.
Then I opened my pantry to put my groceries away. Oops. I was staring at items of food that I purchased while they were on sale a couple weeks ago... items I just bought today at full price. I had completely forgotten them when I made out my grocery list. I guess if I would have dug around a little I might have seen them, but it was too late now. I really hate to waste money in such a foolish way.
So, starting today, I'm implementing a plan to organize and itemize my pantry so I never buy duplicates again at full price. To make it work for me, I'm going to set up 4 steps to follow. Here we go.
Step 1: Empty Your Pantry. Take a couple hours to clean and wipe out your pantry. You'll need a few boxes and a strong cup of coffee. Begin by taking every food item out of your pantry or cupboards. Look for expiration dates and damaged goods and throw them out. Wipe down the shelves and doors.
Step 2: Mapping Your Pantry. This will take some organization, but it isn't difficult. You'll actually be sorting your food items into categories so that you can make an inventory of what you have. The basic items could be sorted into baking goods, soups, broth, canned diced tomatoes, canned tomato sauce, oils, barbeque sauces, crackers, dry snacks, canned snacks, rice, and so on. Then you'll need to do the same with your spices. This can be tedious, but start arranging your spices in alphabetical order so that you can check for duplicates. You'll be amazed how many duplicates you have. Again, check the expiration dates and throw out any spices that you know, or suspect, are old.
Step 3: List The Contents Of Your Pantry. This is somewhat involved work, but it pays off. Make a "basics" list; a list of all the items that you use routinely, and tack it to the inside of your pantry or cupboard door. If you use an accounting type columnar pad, you can make tick marks in the columns to indicate how many of each item you have in the cupboard and draw a line through one when you use it. That way you can keep a running tally of how much of any one item you have. This seems more labor intense than it really is. Your ongoing list of items will get easier as time goes on.
Step 4: Use Your List On Shopping Day. If you're sitting down with your recipes for the week, you can now grab your pantry list and easily eliminate any unnecessary purchases. You won't pay full price again for staples in your pantry if you know ahead of time that you already bought those items the other week on sale. Now you will stock up on the basics, like canned tomatoes, rice, or broth, when you find a sale, and not buy at full price when you need it for tonight's dinner.
In a perfect world we know what we have in our pantry and only buy food when we need it and it's always at a sale price. Since we don't live in that dream world, we all end up with food lost in the far recesses of the cupboard or pantry shelves. Once your pantry items are inventoried, categorized, and listed, your grocery shopping trips should never again yield a gross of unneeded, duplicated, and overpriced surprises. - 16003
Then I opened my pantry to put my groceries away. Oops. I was staring at items of food that I purchased while they were on sale a couple weeks ago... items I just bought today at full price. I had completely forgotten them when I made out my grocery list. I guess if I would have dug around a little I might have seen them, but it was too late now. I really hate to waste money in such a foolish way.
So, starting today, I'm implementing a plan to organize and itemize my pantry so I never buy duplicates again at full price. To make it work for me, I'm going to set up 4 steps to follow. Here we go.
Step 1: Empty Your Pantry. Take a couple hours to clean and wipe out your pantry. You'll need a few boxes and a strong cup of coffee. Begin by taking every food item out of your pantry or cupboards. Look for expiration dates and damaged goods and throw them out. Wipe down the shelves and doors.
Step 2: Mapping Your Pantry. This will take some organization, but it isn't difficult. You'll actually be sorting your food items into categories so that you can make an inventory of what you have. The basic items could be sorted into baking goods, soups, broth, canned diced tomatoes, canned tomato sauce, oils, barbeque sauces, crackers, dry snacks, canned snacks, rice, and so on. Then you'll need to do the same with your spices. This can be tedious, but start arranging your spices in alphabetical order so that you can check for duplicates. You'll be amazed how many duplicates you have. Again, check the expiration dates and throw out any spices that you know, or suspect, are old.
Step 3: List The Contents Of Your Pantry. This is somewhat involved work, but it pays off. Make a "basics" list; a list of all the items that you use routinely, and tack it to the inside of your pantry or cupboard door. If you use an accounting type columnar pad, you can make tick marks in the columns to indicate how many of each item you have in the cupboard and draw a line through one when you use it. That way you can keep a running tally of how much of any one item you have. This seems more labor intense than it really is. Your ongoing list of items will get easier as time goes on.
Step 4: Use Your List On Shopping Day. If you're sitting down with your recipes for the week, you can now grab your pantry list and easily eliminate any unnecessary purchases. You won't pay full price again for staples in your pantry if you know ahead of time that you already bought those items the other week on sale. Now you will stock up on the basics, like canned tomatoes, rice, or broth, when you find a sale, and not buy at full price when you need it for tonight's dinner.
In a perfect world we know what we have in our pantry and only buy food when we need it and it's always at a sale price. Since we don't live in that dream world, we all end up with food lost in the far recesses of the cupboard or pantry shelves. Once your pantry items are inventoried, categorized, and listed, your grocery shopping trips should never again yield a gross of unneeded, duplicated, and overpriced surprises. - 16003
About the Author:
Nicole Dean is the mostly-sane mom and owner of ShowMomtheMoney.com - a fun and informative website to help moms achieve success working from home. She invites you to learn more ways to save money in her Kitchen Organization section. Be sure to sign up for her free tutorial for work at home moms.
