Suggestions requested on how to best inventory food preps

[Alaskajohn]

I’ve been on a kick of late and have been compiling detailed inventories of my preps, and I want to create an inventory of my food. My inventories go on an excel spreadsheet so I can conveniently sort and adjust.

I don’t necessarily want to overthink this, but food has some unique aspects that I don’t want to overlook something useful.

Here is how I am thinking of building my spreadsheet:

Item
number of these items
servings per item
calories per item
total servings
total calories

Calories and total calories of each inventory type are probably the most important for each item. I would sort in tables for things like dehydrated fruit, staples like rice and beans, frozen, canned goods, etc to help me make sure I have a good balance in what I am storing. I am still thinking through how to categorize the different types of food, but that is easy enough to move around on a speadsheet after the inventory.

I thought about adding things like expiration dates, but that would add a whole new level of complexity for items like single cans of tuna (for example) where you might have 300 cans with 40 or 50 different expiration dates that were bought at different dates. And you can solve for expiration dates by rotation.

I‘d have a super simple system of inventory management like I do with my other preps that I inventory. I’d have the spreadsheet printed out in the location where I have the preps. As I remove items to consume, I would have a pencil next to the inventory and write the number of items removed and then “true up“ and reprint the spreadsheet when I add items.

Before I build my food prep spreadsheet, is there something I am leaving out that I could track that would be useful without overly complicating it? Because I have a lot of counting to do once I build my spreadsheet, I will not want to go back and redo the inventory.

Thanks

 

[Aklogcabin]

Is there a place to add in food you harvest like a moose or salmon ? Which extends your food inventory. Berries for jams n preserves. Things like chaga that provide nutrients n vitamins.
So maybe figure in a way to identify alternate food sources like that. Or maybe be able to add in like rabbits or other small livestock

 

[Alaskajohn]

Is there a place to add in food you harvest like a moose or salmon ? Which extends your food inventory. Berries for jams n preserves. Things like chaga that provide nutrients n vitamins.
So maybe figure in a way to identify alternate food sources like that. Or maybe be able to add in like rabbits or other small livestock

I would definitely track stuff I harvest, and since i typically freeze meat and berries, I would list them in my frozen category. If I can or dehydrate, they would be tracked there.

i hadn‘t though about doing an inventory of my chaga, but that is a daily drink! I guess I could track that by weight? I have about 10 years supply growing on birch trees within an easy 20 minute walk. I mark waypoints on my OnX app for the chaga location. Before I was turned on to OnX, it was pretty easy to forget the exact location resulting in significant time navigating the thick underbrush to find the right tree. I suppose I should figure out how to print a map from OnX with all the waypoints, or simply transpose to a map.

 

[Caribou]

I don't worry about expiration dated on canned goods. One time they sold me some canned tomatoes that had been put in the wrong can. the acid ate the can and the tomatoes spoiled. It was obvious and I threw out the unopened cans. Horseradish has a shelf life but most canned meat or vegetables do not.

 

[Alaskajohn]

I don't worry about expiration dated on canned goods. One time they sold me some canned tomatoes that had been put in the wrong can. the acid ate the can and the tomatoes spoiled. It was obvious and I threw out the unopened cans. Horseradish has a shelf life but most canned meat or vegetables do not.

I don‘t worry about shelf life after I buy something, as shelf life is simply an exercise in inventory management after you purchase it.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I’ve been on a kick of late and have been compiling detailed inventories of my preps, and I want to create an inventory of my food. My inventories go on an excel spreadsheet so I can conveniently sort and adjust.

I don’t necessarily want to overthink this, but food has some unique aspects that I don’t want to overlook something useful.

Here is how I am thinking of building my spreadsheet:

Item
number of these items
servings per item
calories per item
total servings
total calories

Calories and total calories of each inventory type are probably the most important for each item. I would sort in tables for things like dehydrated fruit, staples like rice and beans, frozen, canned goods, etc to help me make sure I have a good balance in what I am storing. I am still thinking through how to categorize the different types of food, but that is easy enough to move around on a speadsheet after the inventory.

I thought about adding things like expiration dates, but that would add a whole new level of complexity for items like single cans of tuna (for example) where you might have 300 cans with 40 or 50 different expiration dates that were bought at different dates. And you can solve for expiration dates by rotation.

I‘d have a super simple system of inventory management like I do with my other preps that I inventory. I’d have the spreadsheet printed out in the location where I have the preps. As I remove items to consume, I would have a pencil next to the inventory and write the number of items removed and then “true up“ and reprint the spreadsheet when I add items.

Before I build my food prep spreadsheet, is there something I am leaving out that I could track that would be useful without overly complicating it? Because I have a lot of counting to do once I build my spreadsheet, I will not want to go back and redo the inventory.

Thanks

I've been using a spreadsheet for years, it just keeps growing.

I record the name of the item, the location (2 columns to allow for shelves), the quantity, the units (15 oz. 12 oz..... 1 lb, 2 lb... gallons), the purchase date, the food group ( I have 29 but think that was over kill - meat, grains, beans....): In addition I created a conversion table to convert the quantity and units into pounds (I track everything in pounds) I was trying to track shelf life (in days) but I found the wife just looks for the old stuff in the print outs and says bring me this one.....

When I bring "something" new into the house I just copy a line with the "thing" and do an insert row paste, then I update the quantity and date....
I also keep a sharpie at the entrance to my food storage area so each can gets a "DATE" Month/Year, helps finding the old Mac-n-cheese

I have a column for each food group to allow my to have running totals by food group (it added 29 columns but it made the addition math easy)

I have separate tabs to do things like tracking food storage targets and totals by group (so I can see if I have a hole in a group)

To be honest it is a lot of work and if you don't stay on top of it you have to go back and do a complete inventory. (I just finished doing that, it took weeks, just the freezers took 3 days)

The wife has a copy of the printout and she "orders" what she wants out of food storage and uses it to record what we use and to make shopping lists. The food needs everyone working together, one person taking stuff can throw your whole system off line...

But if you want to know what you have and what you need, I can't think of a better way....

 

[Caribou]

I date my food as it is added to inventory. Oldest on the left and, if there is more than one can/box deep, older on the top. I try to not put anything behind something else. Everything is visible. If I want more of something in stock I widen the space assigned for that product. I look at the date on the oldest package/can and get a general idea of how much of that item that I have in stock.

 

[Weedygarden]

To be honest it is a lot of work and if you don't stay on top of it you have to go back and do a complete inventory. (I just finished doing that, it took weeks, just the freezers took 3 days)

The wife has a copy of the printout and she "orders" what she wants out of food storage and uses it to record what we use and to make shopping lists. The food needs everyone working together, one person taking stuff can throw your whole system off line...

I've been thinking of a new inventory list, a generic list that any of us can use. I have a notebook where I've kept track of what I purchase, but it is mostly for bulk purchases like rice, beans, etc.

The idea of doing a new inventory is not really exciting, but should be one of those things that gets done yearly, imho. I haven't been good about it, but am working on reorganizing my food preps now, so this is as good time as any.

 

[Caribou]

I'm not into the written inventory as many here are. Were I to do that I'd get myself a barcode reader. Scan it into and out of inventory. When a container was opened it would be removed from inventory, only full containers would be counted. For home canned you could print your own barcodes or enter the product manually.

If you are worried about an EMP then you could print out a quarterly, or monthly, inventory.

 

[backlash]

There are phone apps that use the barcodes to inventory things.
It might be worth while checking on that option.
This is just one example.
Easy Barcode inventory and stock-taking - Apps on Google Play

 

[Weedygarden]

I'm not into the written inventory as many here are. Were I to do that I'd get myself a barcode reader. Scan it into and out of inventory. When a container was opened it would be removed from inventory, only full containers would be counted. For home canned you could print your own barcodes or enter the product manually.

This is something I never thought about, a barcode reader and printing barcodes. I've used a barcode reader for books for my used book business. A barcode reader is now probably free or not expensive for phones.

Okay, I missed this post as I was posting, Backlash! Thank you!
"There are phone apps that use the barcodes to inventory things.
It might be worth while checking on that option.
This is just one example.
Easy Barcode inventory and stock-taking - Apps on Google Play "

 

[Weedygarden]

Here's a pet peeve: every time I try to log into certain places, the password fails, in spite of me having it written down and updating it every time I need to update it!

 

[Neb]

Here's a pet peeve: every time I try to log into certain places, the password fails, in spite of me having it written down and updating it every time I need to update it!

The Princess was having that issue and I suggested shortening the password. Worked for her.

Ben

 

[UrbanHunter]

Wow, after reading @Weedygarden 's post along with @Caribou and @backlash it is clear that I could get a bar-code reader and customized bar-code writing software I could make custom bar-codes for our home made meals and Jars plus I could make location bar-codes so I could just scan things into and out of specific locations.... I could also see it taking up all my free time for a full summer....

 

[Weedygarden]

The Princess was having that issue and I suggested shortening the password. Worked for her.

Ben

I have a few that I use regularly. Most passwords require 8 something: letters, numbers and at least one symbol now. I use these same ones over and over, so when it comes up that the one that is written down for things are incorrect, I know it was right, but have to jump through the hoops of resetting it. It could be human error, but so frustrating!

And how does everyone save passwords?

 

[Weedygarden]

Wow, after reading @Weedygarden 's post along with @Caribou and @backlash it is clear that I could get a bar-code reader and customized bar-code writing software I could make custom bar-codes for our home made meals and Jars plus I could make location bar-codes so I could just scan things into and out of specific locations.... I could also see it taking up all my free time for a full summer....

LOL! Let the fun begin!

 

[Neb]

I have a few that I use regularly. Most passwords require 8 something: letters, numbers and at least one symbol now. I use these same ones over and over, so when it comes up that the one that is written down for things are incorrect, I know it was right, but have to jump through the hoops of resetting it. It could be human error, but so frustrating!

And how does everyone save passwords?

The Princess has us on an app that caches our passwords.

LastPass

Ben

 

[Weedygarden]

The Princess has us on an app that caches our passwords.

LastPass

Ben

I have an app for passwords as well, but where is it when I need it for my Apple password? It usually just pops up when saving passwords. Oh, I probably didn't save it there either. Now I'm just complaining, and this is not the right thread for that! I'm going to go do some chores and then I'll come back and try to update that, again!

 

[Amish Heart]

Oh, wow, you guys are spread sheet nerds! Ha Ha. If I wrote down inventory, I would never look at it, so I don't. I'm a visual stocker. And everything is dated in heavy black marker with expiration date. I make it easy to see if I'm low on whatever. I stay cans mostly in flats, by exp dates. I move them forward when I get more. If I can see I have 10 flats of black beans, then I'm good. They are all right there on a shelf together. Flour is packaged and put in rubbermaid tubs and they are all together. On and on it goes.

 

[Weedygarden]

Oh, wow, you guys are spread sheet nerds! Ha Ha. If I wrote down inventory, I would never look at it, so I don't. I'm a visual stocker. And everything is dated in heavy black marker with expiration date. I make it easy to see if I'm low on whatever. I stay cans mostly in flats, by exp dates. I move them forward when I get more. If I can see I have 10 flats of black beans, then I'm good. They are all right there on a shelf together. Flour is packaged and put in rubbermaid tubs and they are all together. On and on it goes.

I have been working on bringing home cardboard flats now that you and someone else showed them. I don't know why I never thought of that before, and they work so much better than how I was trying to keep canned goods before, in crates and bins! But I am also working on an inventory of my metal canned goods and my # 10 cans of dried and dehydrated foods now, so that I can see the gaps there. I have never been as good about the canned goods, because my storage space has not been good for organizing them. I'm working on it! 5 gallon buckets have been easier for me to inventory and to see what I have.

 

[LadyLocust]

I have a few that I use regularly. Most passwords require 8 something: letters, numbers and at least one symbol now. I use these same ones over and over, so when it comes up that the one that is written down for things are incorrect, I know it was right, but have to jump through the hoops of resetting it. It could be human error, but so frustrating!

And how does everyone save passwords?

I don't remember passwords for many of the sites that require so many characters, letters, symbols etc. I just say "forgot pw" everytime then the new pw is something that I don't say in polite company. I try to stay away from those sites anyways.

 

[SheepDog]

Some of my passwords are 30 characters long. I don't save them on my computer or write them down. I keep them in my overworked memory.
I choose them as numeric patterns which I can remember. I can't tell you what any password is without my keyboard in front of me.

 

[Morgan101]

I don't remember passwords for many of the sites that require so many characters, letters, symbols etc. I just say "forgot pw" everytime then the new pw is something that I don't say in polite company. I try to stay away from those sites anyways.

I use a format for passwords that seems to work for me. I try to hit the main requirements like Capital Letter, symbol, numbers. Pick a noun. Capitalize it. Add #. Finish with your birthday or birth year, both are four digits i.e. 0101 or 2022. When you have to change it, go to Google Translate and look up your noun in a different language. Use the same format.

 

[LadyLocust]

I guess, I do sorta like @Amish Heart . While I did make a written list, I am more concerned with how long it will last. I know a can of coffee lasts us about 3 weeks so how long will our current store last us?
When I return home from work and am trying to get supper going, I am not going to be writing down that I used a cup of rice or # of ground beef or how much cheese etc. I don't need another thing on my to-do list. I just want to know that I have "enough" whatever I deem that to be.
PS- I would not trust any online ap or site with a list of my preps. but that's just me.

 

[Haertig]

There are a bunch of Android apps for tracking inventory, some are specific for food. I ran into a bunch of these when I was researching a more generic inventory app for tracking home contents. I ended up with "Magic Home Inventory" for my needs - which is not food. But a quick trip to the Google Play Store or a few Google website searches for "Android (or iPhone) home inventory apps" should turn up a bunch of hits. I was looking for something that did not rely on the cloud for storage, but this may or may not be a concern for you. Mine either had to allow self-hosting or store things locally on the smartphone and allow export. You have to search a little harder to find those. I remember bumping into an inventory app that was highly recommended for general home inventory, even though it was really designed for food inventory (exactly what you are looking for). It looked very neat, but was too food-centric for me. I can't remember the name of it right now. I'm searching for it again but haven't been able to find it. It was in a a Google hit something like "10 best home inventory apps for 2021" or something similar.

 

[Weedygarden]

Oh, wow, you guys are spread sheet nerds!

I am definitely a spread sheet nerd! I use them for many things. When I was teaching, I used them for inventorying my personal books in the classroom. I had over 3,000 books that were just mine.

 

[Weedygarden]

I'm looking to see if we ever had a food storage inventory list, but it isn't here!

 

[Weedygarden]

Okay, it is almost one year ago that I created this list. I just found it on my computer! It is in Excel. I remember that someone asked for me to send it to them but they could never open it. Can you open it?

Edit, it doesn't post like an Excel sheet.

 

[Amish Heart]

Yep, I can open it.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I tried to print mine out to a pdf, only got the list of items but you get the idea.