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Save Money On Groceries: 4 Steps To Organizing Your Pantry
It's so important to plan ahead for meals when you're trying to budget every dollar. I put in a chunk of time to lay out the meals for the entire week, got my grocery list together, and headed out for the store. This was going to be great! No quick stops at the store for some prepared, deli meal this week. This is great!
When I got home and started to put my groceries in the pantry, I noticed a reoccurring theme. There it was. Duplicate items purchased today at full price instead of the reduced price that I had paid before. I hadn't remembered that I already had some items that I needed, so bought them again. I sure didn't need to spend the money on those things again. And I sure didn't need to pay full price for them when I can always find a sale. What a tremendous waste of money.
So, starting today, I'm implementing a plan to organize and itemize my pantry so I never buy duplicates again at full price. To make it work for me, I'm going to set up 4 steps to follow. Here we go.
Step 1: Remove Everything From The Pantry. This will take a little time, so pick a day when you can dig in. Have a strong cup of tea or coffee, and begin. Pull all the food items, canned and dry, and check each one to see if they are damaged or expired. Throw out anything questionable. Now's your chance to wipe out the pantry and shelves.
Step 2: Sort Items From Your Pantry. Take time to examine your pantry items and sort them by type. You can use categories like tomato products, broth, crackers, sauces, noodles, salad dressings, baking goods, or whatever you think. Same with the spices, but I think it's easiest to arrange them alphabetically so you can sort through all the duplicate spices and throw out the old ones. Be sure to, once again, examine the packages and throw out anything that is beyond an expiration date.
Step 3: List The Contents Of Your Pantry. This is somewhat involved work, but it pays off. Make a "basics" list; a list of all the items that you use routinely, and tack it to the inside of your pantry or cupboard door. If you use an accounting type columnar pad, you can make tick marks in the columns to indicate how many of each item you have in the cupboard and draw a line through one when you use it. That way you can keep a running tally of how much of any one item you have. This seems more labor intense than it really is. Your ongoing list of items will get easier as time goes on.
Step 4: Use Your List On Shopping Day. If you're sitting down with your recipes for the week, you can now grab your pantry list and easily eliminate any unnecessary purchases. You won't pay full price again for staples in your pantry if you know ahead of time that you already bought those items the other week on sale. Now you will stock up on the basics, like canned tomatoes, rice, or broth, when you find a sale, and not buy at full price when you need it for tonight's dinner.
I love looking in my pantry and knowing that all my basic items were purchased at a special sale price. That doesn't happen if I keep buying something at full price because I forgot I already had some on hand. Now that I have all my pantry items identified and accounted for, I can check my basic list before I go to the store and eliminate all those extra full price purchases.
About the Author Nicole Dean is the mostly-sane mom and owner of ShowMomtheMoney.com - a resource dedicated to helping moms work from home. She welcomes you to learn more ways to save money in her Kitchen Organization Ideas section. Be sure to sign up for her free tutorial for work at home moms.
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