Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

My chest freezer and most of my pantry space is in my basement. I needed a way to easily keep track of what was in the freezer and pantry, so I developed an inventory on an excel spreadsheet that I print and keep in the kitchen. When I take a package of hamburger out of the freezer, or two cans of tuna off the shelf, I just change the number by hand on my inventory sheet.



When I'm planning meals for the week, I can consult the inventory and see how much chicken is in the freezer, how many cans of tomatoes I have, etc. and I then know what I have to buy that week. It also enables me to shop wisely - I won't buy more cans of mushrooms when I know I have 6 on the shelf.

I keep the spreadsheet saved on the computer and about once a quarter I inventory the freezer and shelves and update the sheet, keeping it current, and easier to read! Because it's saved on the computer, I don't have to retype much. I can just change "4" green beans to "2" or delete the chocolate cake mix if I've run out.



I use categories like vegetables, fruits, baking, ethnic and condiments, but you can adapt this easily to your needs.

For more kitchen tips, visit Tammy at Tammy's Recipes.