Home Inventory Inbox acts as a holding area for receipts for items that need to be added to your inventory. Send a receipt to the Inbox from your email app, a web browser, or almost any other application on your Mac without having to open Home Inventory. You can use Home Inventory’s Inbox view to go through them later and quickly add your items. Pantry Inventory Apps Overview. It is a headache that we often face, but with the arrival of some amazing pantry inventory apps, they just vanished this factor and provided some amazing features that facilities the user in the right way.
- Pantry Inventory App Mac Free
- Pantry Inventory App Mac Download
- Pantry Inventory App Mac Pro
- Pantry Inventory Template
Keeping track of what food you have on hand and what you need to buy can help reduce both food waste and grocery bills. Our savvy readers share their best tips for keeping track of pantry inventory.
Gary,
Because of our flexible work schedules, my wife and I share cooking duties. We both actually enjoy cooking, but we’re running into a problem. Both of us plan our recipes in advance, and make sure that we have (or I buy) the things we need. At least once a week, I look for one ingredient or another to find that we don’t have it. I can’t blame my wife. She didn’t know that I was counting on using that last clove of garlic, too. Is there a way that we can keep track of our pantry inventory, so we know what we have and what needs to be bought before we run out?
Marcus
Because of our flexible work schedules, my wife and I share cooking duties. We both actually enjoy cooking, but we’re running into a problem. Both of us plan our recipes in advance, and make sure that we have (or I buy) the things we need. At least once a week, I look for one ingredient or another to find that we don’t have it. I can’t blame my wife. She didn’t know that I was counting on using that last clove of garlic, too. Is there a way that we can keep track of our pantry inventory, so we know what we have and what needs to be bought before we run out?
Marcus
Use a Spreadsheet to Keep Track of Pantry Inventory
We made an Excel spreadsheet of all the pantry staples we use regularly, listing the number we have of each and where they’re stored (the regular pantry or our overflow pantry downstairs). We printed out a copy and taped it to the inside of the pantry door, and whenever we use an item, we cross out the number and write in the new amount we have left. This also helps us know when it’s time to buy more of something and how many we need. Whenever we restock the pantry, we update the spreadsheet and print out a fresh copy. If you only need to keep track of a few items, an erasable white board and marker might work just as well.
Amy
Amy
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High Tech Pantry Inventory
If you and your spouse have smartphones, a free app, Our Groceries, allows us to keep a running list of what’s in our pantry. On another list, we keep a current grocery list. When a person uses the last of something in the pantry, he/she adds it to the grocery list. Both lists can be seen and edited by both of us, and they cost nothing.
Andi
Andi
Last Bottle? It’s Your Responsibility
In our house, the person that takes the last bottle, box, jar, etc. off the pantry shelf or out of the refrigerator immediately writes that item on a shopping list that hangs in our kitchen at all times.
Barbara in Florida
Barbara in Florida
Give Yourself Wiggle Room
My husband and I used to have this same problem! For us, the solution was to organize and increase our “pantry” area by finding room for shelving in an area close to the kitchen. Then, we began doubling our normal amount of food staples kept on hand. This took about a month, so the cost didn’t hurt quite as much. Also, when either of us uses up more than half of spice, package of cheese, etc., we immediately add the item to our grocery list! This has saved frustration in the kitchen and also gives us some wiggle room if we have bad weather, unexpected dinner guests, or a short paycheck.
Barbara
Barbara
Related: A Grocery Stockpiling Guide: How and When to Save
5 Steps to Keeping Track of Pantry Inventory
- Make your meal plans together.
- Create a reusable grocery list in either a word document or spreadsheet to be used when making your meal plan.
- Beside each grocery item, create two boxes. One is for him and the other one is for her.
- When you make your meal plans, mark each item needed for each meal. You can also include the quantity you will need for each meal.
- Using the grocery list, you will know how much of each food item you will need and can shop accordingly.
Chelsa
Pantry Help at Your Fingertips
Out of Milk is a fantastic app that can do just this. It’s available for iPhone and Android, but there’s also website access as well for free. For each item, you can set the type of measurement (i.e. jars, cans, ounces, etc.), and as you use items, you simply adjust the amount of inventory left. The key feature is the ability to share access to your pantry list with another user and keep the lists synced.
By the way, the app also features an item scanner, shopping lists (multiple lists plus categories to organize by aisle), circular deals from local stores (pushed), and to-do list capability. Plus, it has the ability to shift items from one list to another. For example, when something is bought, move it from the shopping cart to the pantry. I love this app to death.
Chris
Chris
It’s a Photo Op
My solution to the “missing from the pantry” problem is the camera on my cell phone. Before I grocery shop, or in the early morning of a day I plan to cook, I photograph the pantry shelves (and the refrigerator). That way, when I have time at the store or during the day, I can review whether everything I need is in stock or whether I need to get more to make a wonderful meal. I often find myself reviewing the photos in my car before going into the grocery store. Although I would like to take credit for this time saver, I am happy to acknowledge that it was my husband’s idea.
Cynthia
Cynthia
Buy Two
Buy two of all items that are going to be used up eventually. When you open the second one, add it to your grocery list (which I keep on my kitchen table) to be replenished next shopping trip.
Jan in Western KY
Jan in Western KY
Create a Dated Master List
To keep track of pantry inventory, make a dated master list of all of your pantry items, including the number of each item you have on hand. Keep the list with your grocery list and menu planner. Each time you use items, update the numbers, adding the items to the grocery list before you run out.
Karen
Karen
Related: Meal Planning Around Leftovers to Stretch the Food Budget
Pantry Inventory App Mac Free
His and Her Pantry Inventory
To keep track of pantry inventory, divide your pantry and freezer into three sections. One section is a general section, which includes things you have stocked up on or bought for another meal and did not use. Then have a separate section for each of you. You could each have a shelf. If space is tight, use one shelf and have his and her sides. You could also use baskets. As you make your menus each week and want to use something from the “general” section of your pantry or freezer, put that item in your basket or on your shelf. By doing it this way, the other person knows your plan to use it that week. If plans change and you don’t use it at the end of the week, put the item back into the general section.
Myra
Myra
“R” Means Reserved
I write on the package with a permanent marker; an “R” with a circle around it means “reserved.” This works for the plastic-wrapped packages of cheese or foil-wrapped bags of chips, too. My family was good about respecting this notation, even when the children were in grade school.
Nancy
Nancy
Keep Meal Ingredients Together
Because of multiple “cookers” in our home, sometimes we reach for things that someone else has used. To help avoid this, whenever we buy ingredients for a particular recipe, we place them in a bag together and label the bag, so others know what not to use. Colored stickers on individual items might also work.
Norma
Norma
Plan Menus and Make Shopping List Together
My husband and I also share cooking duties and were running into the same problem! We were also double-purchasing just to be sure we had an ingredient needed for one or two meals.
We shop once a week on Friday. On Thursday, we plan our meals for the following week and make our list based on those meals. On Thursday night, we go through the fridge and pantry and cross off what we already have and note quantities of things we may be low on. Then when I do the shopping on Friday after work, there’s no worry of not buying enough or buying too much!
Solveig
Solveig
Related:
Subscribe to The Dollar Stretcher, our free weekly newsletter aimed at helping you live better for less on the money you already have!
Pantry Inventory App Mac Download
Subscribers get a copy of our ebook Little Luxuries: 130 Ways to Live Better..For Less for FREE!
Subscribe to The Dollar Stretcher, our free weekly newsletter aimed at helping you live better for less on the money you already have!
Subscribers get a copy of our ebook Little Luxuries: 130 Ways to Live Better..For Less for FREE!
What’s in your pantry?
Rice, beans, canned goods, muesli, a jar of mixed nuts, a pasta sauce for sure. But not sure if it’s tomato and chili or bolognese and definitely not sure if it has been there since last year or since 2015.
Even if you haven’t stocked for a long period, there is a good chance that your fridge and cupboards are well utilized.
Truthfully, no one can keep track of everything.
Keeping tabs on everything that is in our cupboards, fridge, and freezer is surely something we all wish to do. It is there because we’ve bought it with a good intention to use it. But when we don’t use it in time, it ends up wasted ?
We remember it when it is too late. That is unless we keep complete groceries and pantry inventory to keep track of our household consumables. By inventory, we mean a list of all perishable items, plus their expiry dates.
Sounds great to have one, doesn’t it? But keeping on top of it challenges even the most organized of us!
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To buy or not to buy?
When you don’t have a fridge and pantry inventory, you buy either too much or not enough. Both of these result in throwing food away.
When you forget to buy something, you would not be able to cook exactly what you had planned. Until you go to the store again, it’s very likely that some of the other ingredients for the recipe will go bad or best case scenario – get buried in the back of the fridge or pantry until completely forgotten.
The same applies to overbuying. That extra bottle of soy sauce or bag of frozen berries – yes, they do have a long shelf life. But is it long enough until you decide to go for home-made sushi or blueberry pie again?
How other people do it?
If we are to pick a role model for keeping track of groceries, these would be restaurant professionals. First, their job depends on it and second, when it’s business, you want to be efficient. At home, we are much more relaxed. We can make last-minute changes to our cooking plans if we are missing an ingredient.
Or just order in. Plus a pack of pasta short or extra doesn’t kill anybody. For restaurant professionals, improvisation is no option and they rely on custom-made systems to keep their inventory. These are expensive and complex desktop solutions that are not suitable for family use.
Very true, sir!
Some decades ago there was an upper-class solution for keeping track of all items at home – the butler, the male chief of the household staff. His full-time job was to manage everything in the house, especially the “pantry” room. Nowadays, households rarely can afford their own Jeeves’, so we have to find another way of knowing what’s in the fridge and what’s not.
Memorizing all the brands, quantities and expiry dates? We don’t think so. Constantly adding and crossing out items on a sheet of paper or board – doable, but inefficient.
What to do then?
Well, technology can make our lives a lot easier in many ways and making a digital list of everything that’s inside your fridge and pantry is one of them. There are plenty of general-purpose list apps out there. Some of them are excellent at putting stuff in a list and if you are using one already, that’s great!
But we do not recommend any of them if you are serious about doing groceries and pantry inventory. What you need is a tool that is tailored to this type of lists. It will assist in every step – from creation with food-specific properties to single swipe updates, impossible with a basic app.
We designed CozZo app so that it meets all household needs in one – we paired your expiry-tracking inventories of groceries, household and personal essentials with all-purpose shopping lists and revolutionary AI-powered cooking planner. Now you can manage your digital kitchen with a few taps on your iPhone/iPad (Android app TBA).
CozZo works in real-time to update everyone in your household what is stocked at home, what can be cooked with available ingredients, and reminds you when something is about to expire. Why does this matter?
Because by keeping a well-organized inventory and a daily updated shopping list you will be able to reduce your food waste to a minimum. Best mac app to delete apps.
Once you have the inventory, it’s Easy
We have put together a “kick-off” pictorial wizard of essential items to help with filling up your “Home Inventory” list on first use. Or if you are an “accountant” type of person – go through your fridge and pantry with an iPhone in hand and enter all the items.
We won’t pretend that you’ll have the time of your life, but we do believe the long-term results are worth the effort. It is always a good time to execute your plan (we hope you have one) for a more organized and sustainable lifestyle. With a bit of preparation, you can tick off “Shop smarter” and “throw away less food” now.
Do you still think making an inventory is too much work?
OK, here’s the next best thing to a magic wand – make your groceries and pantry inventory on the go. Once you start using CozZo app for your daily shopping, all items that you cross off from the shopping list as “Bought” will automatically go into your “At Home” list. Thus your essentials inventory will fill itself over time and in about a month you will have your complete groceries and pantry inventory.
And for any future ‘big shops’ you do you will be able to use our handy Receipt Scanner – it allows you to take photos of receipts each time you shop (as can the rest of the family using the app), then once you have sufficient items to add you can automatically upload them into your inventory – genius!
Tidy kitchen = Tidy mind
For a fresh start, we suggest you make a thorough inspection of your kitchen. It will take some time, but here’s the good news – when you go through your cupboards you will surely free up some shelf space. You’ll throw away stuff that has expired, that’s too sticky, too dry, too suspicious. You will discover some exotic spices and get inspired to finally challenge yourself with that Moroccan recipe you saw on Jamie Oliver’s Instagram.
Making a list of all those jars, bottles, packs, boxes and bags may not make you a better person, but it will make you a more confident chef. Once you do your inventory and start updating it, you will get a clearer idea of what you have and what you need for a delicious home-made dinner. Since we mentioned Jamie Oliver, here’s his complete pantry essentials shopping list.
Pantry Inventory App Mac Pro
Take your housekeeping to the next level, make your own inventory, compare it with his and go shopping for what you are missing. We can guarantee that after this initial step, using CozZo will become intuitive and turn into a daily routine.
Pantry Inventory Template
You will never ever have three types of marmalade but no flour for your Sunday morning pancakes. And those spices in Michael McIntyre‘s story would not feel as useless as they have been for the last seven years ?