Food Inventory

J and I do a weekly grocery shopping trip, and I try to write lists of what we need so that I don’t go all the way home and remember I forgot something. Sometimes, I write lists of what we need, and then I don’t make the meals as planned, so things build up.

The boy is the absolute worst for buying things he already has. He will stock up when there is a sale, and then forget about his stock. He will then buy the same item the next time we go to the grocery store.

I was trying to find the bag of cumin that I was sure we had, but digging through the mess that our cupboards hold was painstaking, so I started pulling stuff out of the cupboards. I found 14 tins of fish in the cupboard, which prompted me to do another food inventory.

Last year, I blogged about doing a food inventory so that I could reduce my grocery bill by eating what we already had. I found six cans of diced tomatoes in my pantry that day, so I’ve been trying to be more diligent in checking if we have the ingredients before buying them. Apparently I was not as successful as I had hoped, because I found another food buildup in the cupboards this year.

Here’s what I found:

3 Cartons of chicken broth
2 Cans of coffee
4 unopened jars of jam
2 Cans of hot chocolate
2 jugs of V8 juice
2 jugs of other juice
1 Tub of protein powder
2 boxes of Muslix cereal
5 boxes of other cereal
3 boxes of vegetable thins
3 boxes of granola bars
5 boxes of crackers
3 bags of croutons
2 bottles of vanilla extract
2 cartons of salt
7 cans of various soups
1 can of tomato paste
1 carton of couscous
3 bags of popcorn
2 bags of rice
6 bags of various pastas
2 bags of stirfry noodles
1 bag vermicelli noodles
2 bags of lentils
2 boxes of oatmeal
1 can of tomato sauce
Olive oil
Sunflower oil
Canola oil
White vinegar
Apple cider vinegar
Red wine vinegar
Sugar
Flour
Cornstarch
Honey
Refried beans
Chickpeas
Brown Sugar
Marshmallows
Peanut butter
Nutella
Pancake mix
Walnuts

I could eat for a full month, really well, without spending a dime with all of this food. The only thing I’d have to buy is fresh fruits and vegetables.

I’m actually kind of embarrassed that we have hoarded so much food. As somebody who should be living on a budget, buying more when we already have it is senseless and wasteful. The worst part, is that the majority of the items listed above have never even been opened. We literally bought and forgot.

I have been thinking about a plan of attack to use some of this up. There are a few things I should take to the food bank, such as the soups. I will keep two or three and donate the rest. Lots of the popcorn has been there for a long time, so it’s clear we won’t be eating it any time soon.  That can go as well.

I threw out some of the cereals which are past their due dates, and didn’t include them in the count.

I made Mexican rice, which helped me use up some of the rice and a half of a can of the diced tomatoes. I planned meals to eat up some of the pasta and pasta sauce, and a big bag of frozen peas I have in the fridge.

When we did our grocery shop this week, we didn’t buy granola bars, oatmeal, juice, pasta, tomato sauce, or anything that we already had. I’m going to need to make stir fry soon so that I can use up the noodles.

Having this much uneaten food stresses me out, but at least I will have a cheap January as far as groceries go.

Have you ever done a food inventory?