Kitchen Inventory?!

[prepared101]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic having just bought 4 tins of baked beans at the supermarket and coming home to find 6 already in my cupboard.

AIBU to ask how you keep track of what's in your kitchen!? Is there a good app!? If it's cheaper than the cost of 4 tins of baked beans it'll be worth it!

I'm not clever enough but I wish someone would invent this:-

You have your favourite recipes on an app.

You add the ingredients and the weights on the jar, tin, packet you have in your cupboard.
Every time you use your recipe it deducts the quantity of your cupboard ingredients.
When the jar, tin, etc is nearly finished it adds it to your shopping list for your next shop/order.

I don't have a specific app to keep track, but I use the "notes" app with one titled "shopping list" and just add things on through the week that we run out of. Or if one of us is popping to the shop for something, we have a quick look in the fridge/cupboard to see if there's anything we need that can't wait for the weekly shop.

Pretty sure most people just open the fridge/cupboard and make a shopping list...

Op do you just go grocery shopping and have no idea what you need? No meal planning on any level?

I have a pretty good idea what's been eaten in the previous week, and when I'm shopping I'm mentally replenishing and buying ahead for my mental plans for the week to come.

Things like baked beans we don't have very often, so I might get caught out buying extras if I was thinking ahead to a camping trip and hadn't checked the cupboard before I went shopping. But beans last forever and can always go in the doomsday cupboard.

I meal plan and write a shopping list.
I sit at the kitchen table to do it, and keep getting up to see what we've got in the cupboards, then I write only what we need for the meals I'm planning.

Am I missing something? Why is this so difficult? Just look!

Apps for shopping lists? The world has lost its GD mind!

I have a 'not to buy" section on my shopping list where I put things I commonly buy either out of habit or when on offer but that we don't need that week.

When I make the meal plan I open the fridge, freezer and cupboard and plan meals that use up anything that is left first. Then I plan meals for the rest of the week and add only what’s needed to the shopping list. Do you just go shopping and buy things at random? I’d remember if I’d bought four tins of beans the week before but not eaten the meals they were planned in anyway.

Next time you go to the shops take the 4 pack of beans and put them in the food bank collection point?

Keep a shopping list pad handy. When one of us opens the last pack of something or takes the last one (or nearly the last if it’s something we use frequently), we add it to the list. This includes toiletries and cleaning stuff - anything we get from the supermarket.

We have a weekly delivery, so when I do the order, I plan the week’s meals and add what I need for those to the list, checking the cupboards and fridge for things still left first, then make the order. I also check offers of the week and will buy these in greater quantities if there’s something we use regularly, so we save money that way.

You can do the last two things even if you shop instore - just make sure you still get all the things on your list as well as the week’s bargains. Always meal plan, even if loosely, to avoid waste and unnecessary extra trips to the shops.

I have a pen and pad in my kitchen. When something runs out or is near to running out I write it on the pad, thus gradually creating a shopping list.

Then before I go shopping I have a look in the cupboards and fridge/freezer and add anything I'll need to buy.

I never go shopping without a shopping list. That way I only buy what I want or need and don't end up with a load of stuff cluttering up the cupboards.

Doesn't need an app, just some paper and a pen.

Get Alexa to add things to my shopping list then
use it as I go around the shop. Although I would say open and screenshot the list before you go as sometimes you can’t get a signal.

I keep a list to add to as things run out.
I tidy out the fridge on a Saturday or Sunday and then write my list for the week checking as I go along .
I do get a few little mountains if things have been on three for two or whatever but don't have enough storage space for too many gluts and they tend to be of things that I use regularly.

Do you not write a list before you go?

If I was planning on having, or potentially having, beans in the upcoming week I’d check if I had them before putting them on a list.

I cast a quick eye over the contents of the cupboard before I go shopping. And I have a strict 'use the last one, put it on the list' rule.
My app is the notepad on the side of the fridge 😀

Nope, I don't do any meal planning how have I survived for over 20 years of adulthood

It is a bit baffling to get to adulthood, have children, presumably work and have a load of responsibilities and then start a thread asking mumsnetter how you can grocery shop without buying items you already have In your cupboards.

No genius trick OP.

Just look in your cupboards before you go to the shop and / or keep a list on your phone of items that you notice need replenishing

You’ll have survived fine, but probably spent way more than you needed to on groceries 😁 With the cost of living rising so much you’ll thank all us oldies for recommending our magnetic shopping list pads and a pen.

AIBU to ask how you keep track of what's in your kitchen!? Is there a good app!?

Yep. I use this great one called openthecupboardorfridgeandlookinside. It's free for both android and iPhone.

I don't know why people are being so rude OP. I used to do this all the time and then my daughter came around when we'd moved and basically ordered my fridge and cupboards like a store. Ie all the ketchups in one line, baked beans, tuna etc. ie it's not all jumbled up. When a line runs down, I immediately add to my online shopping list!

Like pp I meal plan, writing a list for what I need before I go shopping. That way I can look in the cupboards to make sure I'm not buying things I don't need. We also use Alexa - when one of us notices we are low on something we tell Alexa and it is sent to our phones.

The shelf life of baked beans runs to years. Just, eat them later?

I run a shopping list on alexa who lives in my kitchen. It's really easy to just say alexa add x to shopping list as I notice it.

We have a "deep store" of all foods so basically there's some in the cupboard and in use and a lot more in our store room. We've got a database of what's in the freezer, and in every storage box. We meal plan (not hard and fast, we plan 7 days meals but not Monday we're eating this, it's Monday, we can eat any of these 7 meals planned for this week if that makes sense!)

We need the freezer contents recorded as we buy fish straight from Grimsby twice a year in huge quantities so we must keep track of what we've got!

Thank god, I was starting to think i was the only non meal planner in existence. I have a pad on the fridge door and a note on my phone but have been known to come home with yet another unnecessary bag of pasta.

I don't have a set time for shopping so I'll often go after dropping a kid to an activity and realising I have 45 mins to kill so as I ran out the door from a meeting to pick up said kid from school, no, I don't have time to work out if those three tins at the back of the cupboard are beans, soup or something someone took a notion for 3 years ago. So I've no solutions for you, OP, only solidarity!