Improved Organization?

Yesterday I went grocery shopping at Sam’s. I buy canned fruit and vegetables in the 6, 8 or 12 can packs there because I think I am saving money over regular grocery store prices. The problem is these multi-can packs take up a large amount of my limited pantry space. I cannot tell what is at the back of the shelves unless I take everything out. Yesterday I found I already had several cans of stewed tomatoes at the back of the shelf and had purchased an additional six pack.

Now I think I have an idea for better inventory control in my kitchen. I created a little three column spreadsheet in Excel and with the aid of Documents to Go transferred it to my Palm-based pda. In the first column of the spreadsheet I have the name of the canned goods such as pears, peas, corn, etc. In the second column I have the number on hand. In the third column I have an if function =if(A3<=2,”Buy”,””). What that does is when the inventory reaches what I have chosen as a minimum level it shows the word Buy. If the quantity on hand is above the minimum level the cell in the third column is blank. I also formatted the third column color to red. When I prepare my shopping lists, all I will have to do is glance at the spreadsheet to know what canned goods to put on the list.

I have to update my quantity on hand at the end of each day on my pda. I am fairly disciplined and think I can train myself to update the numbers as I use my canned goods. I have read about systems built into appliances such as refrigerators that will scan your food automatically and prepare your shopping lists or even phone in a grocery order. I don’t think I need anything that elaborate.