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All on view eta update

anne

Veteran

So you know the idea of keeping all your clothes visible so you can, among others things, not buy duplicates?
Well DH who now does the weekday cooking and the food shopping, kept over buying tins because he couldn't see what we had in our pantry. So he put all the frequently used items on the bench!
ETA look I have put the cans away now. And Suz please note the 2 lazy susans installed in the corners as per your suggestions. Now
I just have to get DH not to put anything in that nice white space and obscure his view!

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24 replies

Latest reply was from anne

Gigi

Veteran

Ha ha!

Now he needs to make a spreadsheet of all these items and divide it up into vegetables, meat, starches, etc. Then he needs to add date of purchase, price, number of cans, and how many total servings, from which he can calculate cost per meal. Then he can compare brand A to brand B and find out if he should get a better deal.

At the end of the month, he should go through the pantry and purge all the items that are not pulling their weight so that you have room for more up-to-date foods.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Hilarious!!! Love what Gigi said!

Suz

(website)

Veteran

He could also just purchase a Lazy Susan to solve this problem.

Adelfa

Veteran

That is adorable.

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

He needs to calculate Cost Per Meal CPM.

rabbit

Veteran

lol this thread, I love it!

Confession, I actually found YLF because I was reading couponing blogs (not sure how I jumped, but some link somewhere), and they are all about saving money on non-perishable food and other basics like this. And I do have a stock-up price Excel sheet of the best prices for pantry goods printed out that I carry around in my purse so I know when to buy more. Luckily someone else made it

But yeah people totally figure out the cost-per-sheet of TP and cost per load of laundry detergent and how many boxes of cereal their family will eat before they expire and things like that, don't knock it until you've tried it.

Deborah

Veteran

This is so funny! My DH consistently buys baked beans because he thinks there are none and we end up with tins and tins of them;)

anne

Veteran

Gigi - so funny!! And so NOT what will happen!
What did happen is that the next shopping trip after this he forgot and still bought some stuff that was on the bench!!

Rabbit, I know what you are saying, and in fact DH is pretty good at getting stuff when the price is low etc (couponing isn't a huge thing over here in Aus, but I understand the principle you are talking about) but in this case he just kept buying stuff thinking we needed it without checking.

Suz, I want to get a lazy susan for our bottles of cooking sauces/ oil etc. I'm not sure if it'd work with these tins though - there is room in the pantry for this stuff, but DH really needs to sort out the pantry himself to his own logic. If I sort it out (or our girls, one of whom has already tidied it and would gladly do it again) he wouldn't know where things were!

On a similar vein, he doesn't use the vegetable drawers at the bottom of the fridge as we put our milk in front of them (the door shelf having broken) and he can't see what is in them.

It is quite interesting seeing how this role reversal is going!

(I did however, sort out the plastics, and inventory the freezer today)

Glory

Veteran

Just love that he did this and that he is doing the shopping an the cooking!

Suzanne (ambergreen)

Veteran

This is so cute.

(For some reason, mine tends to overbuy frozen green beans. I don't really know what is up with that.)

rachylou

Veteran

Lol. If it works, it works. I have two mayo's in the pantry and one in the fridge for the very same reason.

fern

Veteran

We have French doors on our pantry so we can see what's in there

kerry

Veteran

Understandable strategy although maybe not entirely convenient!

Gigi, you had me seriously laughing out loud

Gigi

Veteran

Anne, that is too funny that your DH went and bought the same stuff that was sitting out on the counter! LOL.

This reminds me of my mom. Every time I would be with her at the grocery store, she would buy another bottle of some frequently used condiment—I think it was Heinz 57 sauce most often. She had a really big kitchen with lots of storage and would tuck it away somewhere. At one point, I was looking for something and came across three bottles of the stuff in my searching, as well as multiple bottles of other condiments. That's one nice thing about living in a small apartment—I can't lose track of much, because there's not enough space to store it!

deb

Veteran

Too funny!!!!

kkards

Veteran

for the stuff in the everyday pantry, growing up we solved this problem by keeping a list on the fridge, if you opened something, you put it on the list, who ever did the shopping that week bought what was on the list. that way, we got what we needed, but heaven help you if you forgot to put it on the list. (my mom went back to work when i was 11, at a time when most women were not working out side of the home, and this helped keep us organized).

my dad was an engineer, and after he retired, he started an inventory of everything in the basement freezer!

AJ

Veteran

LOL! He doesn't make a shopping list before he heads out?

anne

Veteran

Khards and AJ - he does have a list (he has an app, and I text him to add items to it when I see things we need as well as him adding things himself) BUT I think sometimes he see things that aren't on the list but we use regularly and just buys them anyway!!

As an underbuyer, I was not much like that when I did the shopping. And I can't personally relate to a tale often told on YLF about people having so many clothes they forgot they had something and bought it again!

Glory, I am so grateful he does the cooking and shopping. I know I am in the minority of working mothers who can arrive home with a hot meal cooked, and the children's homework mostly finished! I am working to support the family so he can do the ministry he thinks is right to do at this point, so I guess we are pretty supportive of each other. He really is a gem!

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

That is priceless! We often end up with 4 cans of clams and 4 jars of capers because you know you can never have enough capers and clams.

amiable

Veteran

We have the same problem - especially with bathroom items. I went through our bathroom closet a couple of weeks ago and categorized items into hanging pockets. We had dozens of small sample-sized lotions, four bottles of hydrogen peroxide and numerous other absurd duplicates. Now we can see them all, I'm hoping the problem corrects itself

Lyn D.

Veteran

I have a suggestion Anne- some tiered removable shelves for your pantry!
And I like the shopping-list idea of Kkards too

anne

Veteran

Sorry - took a while to get back to this. Lyn, we do need something. You know, while some people fantasise about decor and colour schemes I tend to daydream and research on more functional kitchen arrangements. I have been interested in this for about 30 years, and yet I live in a house with a bog standard bottom of the range 90's project house kitchen (curved bench, corner pantry, no overhead cupboards) *sigh*. I am planning to buy a spice rack soon, and lazy susan if I can find a cheap one.
DH knows it is up to him to reorganise things. BTW he didn't overbuy these things last shop, and the piles are lessening. With 5 in the family and regular visitors we do go through a lot of food!

glamourpuss

Maybe try making two lists before going shopping. One with the things you know you need to buy, and one listing everything you already have, as well as how many of each.

I'm an overbuyer so maybe I should try this myself...

anne

Veteran

Glamourpuss you are right, though I haven't worked out an easy enough system yet.

AND see update in edited original post