food inventory – Frugal Things Every Day

Strawberry KitKats et al

I had a crazy busy day yesterday. I started the morning going to an annual doctor’s appointment which is 16 miles away. So after the appointment on my way home, I did some shopping in a town that I don’t get to very often.

I stopped at CVS to use the $3.00 in ECB’s that they gave me for my birthday. I picked up some needed foundation and then I saw the candy pictured above on clearance. I purchased two bags to put in my Halloween stash for $ 1.25 each. I will use these bags after I give out the candy I already had. If there are any of these left, I will save them for Christmas or Valentine’s Day. My family loves Kit Kats.

Then I stopped at Home Goods. We use the Jordan’s SF Skinny Syrups in our coffee and Hubby finished his favorite. My sister told me that Home Goods has the big bottles for $3.99. That is $2.00 cheaper than buying them online at Jordan’s. They had one of the flavors he wanted but not all. But they did have the ones I like. I will keep checking back there anytime I am down there for new flavors. The cashier told me they change them often. BTW, the peach in my coffee is my very favorite. It is so good!

When I got home, I finally had some time this afternoon to finish my basement freezer inventory. When I was done, I sat down and made a list by category. For example, beef, chicken, pork, turkey, lamb, vegetables, fruit, baked goods, etc. have their own Master List. That way I can menu plan from those master lists. It is such a relief to know exactly what I have. I am not buying any beef, chicken, ham, sausage, bacon, etc. for a very long time. The same goes for fruits and vegetables.

As I was doing the inventory, I found this bag with 1/2 lb. of cooked ground turkey. Hubby was going to finish the Spicy Szechuan chicken that was leftover for his dinner tonight. It did not set well with my stomach the first day we ate it.

So I grabbed a packaged cheese pasta that I bought at Aldi’s for my stockpile. I cooked it up and added the turkey last minute. I also made a tossed salad to go with it. There is enough pasta for lunch tomorrow. I want to make sure that all of the cooked meats in my freezers get used up first.

I hope you all had a great frugal day.

Frugal Things: Tracking Your Inventory and Others

It’s so important to use your stockpile and rotate it as you replenish it. That way things get used before they expire. Mine had gotten out of hand. So I spent a couple of hours today taking inventory of my two freezer drawers in my French door refrigerator. Here is one of the inventory sheets. I emptied everything out of those drawers and then cleaned them well. When I put the items back, I tried to put like things together so that they would be easy to find because I hate wasting electricity leaving the drawers open longer than I should.

Tomorrow I will inventory my basement freezer. Then I will inventory pantries and the refrigerator. You can’t use up food and make menus if you don’t know what you have. It does take time and I hate starting from scratch doing it but I have been bad at times with not adding something when I buy it. Other times I forget to cross off what I have taken out and used. So I am starting with a new inventory and I have vowed to make it a habit to always add and subtract on my inventory sheets.

I like to make breads when I have time. Certain rolls and breads I can buy cheaper than making them. These sub rolls are an example. We use these for submarine sandwiches or for Philly steak ones. I purchased these at Walmart. I always check their day old bakery items to see if they have something we can use at a discount. These were expiring within a day or so when I bought them for $ 1.22. I saved $.66 off the regular price. I immediately put them into packages of two and froze them.

We had company for an early supper one warm afternoon. I made a large bowl of pasta salad which I chilled most of the day. It is large shells, cheddar cheese, black olives, diced tomato, and Italian dressing. I added pepperoni to this salad just before I served it. I don’t like it when the pepperoni slices soak up too much of the dressing when it sits in the fridge. We had garlic bread, spumoni ice cream and a glass of wine with the salad. It was a tasty and inexpensive supper.