Re: How do you keep track of your pantry?
We know what minimum stocking levels we like to keep on hand. Since we cook everything from scratch, we always keep two five lb bags of unbleached flour, two whole wheat, one unopened container of parmesan cheese, and certain amounts of all of the other ingredients we use.
Whenever we use an item, if it drops us below our normal stock quantity we just jot it on a 3x5 card that we keep on the fridge.
We keep separate 3x5 cards on the fridge for each place we shop (Walmart grocery, bulk food store, specialty Asian market, hardware store, Big Lots, animal feed store, etc.). On Sundays I pull up all of the local grocery ads online and record any sale prices that I'll want to price match at Walmart. (I put them on the back of the Walmart card, and highlight the item on the front to remember to ask for the price match.)
On shopping day we just grab the cards for whichever places we will go to that week and leave behind the cards for the places that we aren't shopping. Since the bulk food store and Asian store are 40 miles away, we can see when the cards are starting to fill up and plan ahead so we only need to make that run every 3 months or so.
Lynda
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