My action plan - Inventory

I have been wasting a lot of food. Sometimes I get fresh produce, meat, or fish. I forget about it and many times it spoils. Going to the store was always an exhausting chore. I grab a coffee drink and snack and go because I get so frustrated and disappointed. I go down the aisles and try to avoid the snack and candy areas, but usually give in. I have little will power. I can’t help it the evil candy temptress calls me like a moth to a flame. The candy coated cyanide tastes so good. I do plan ahead of time (or try to) with hours of looking through cookbooks, websites, magazines, recipe clippings. It seems to work for a short time cooking for just a few recipes. The never ending thoughts of: not knowing what to get, is it healthy, what I have and don’t have on hand. How can I shop and plan for any meals??!

light bulb moment My ACTION PLAN

I put all my food in my living room. After clearing my kitchen, I cleaned my cupboards. The fridge I’m saving for another day.

• Started making an inventory list of what I have on hand (writing it on paper was sloppy and tedious, especially with my bad handwriting) I made lists before, but that was just reminders of what to buy. To make it faster and easier, I made my list on the computer with the excel spreadsheet. I can sort it alphabetically, adding, and changing it. There are many possibilities of how to organize it and it’s neat. I organized it by categories and made the font bold: herbs & seasonings, baking, dry goods, canned goods, oils, condiments, and drinks/smoothies.
For the food that was getting low, I made the text red. Next to the food item I made columns for sizes in ounces, and another for how much was left. I didn’t make a column for quantity. I just typed the amount in parentheses with the food item.
Then subcategories under the categories like dry goods I add boxed meals, breakfast, grains. I made the subcategories italicized and underlined.
The subcategories under canned goods: beans, fish, condensed soups, sauce, fruit, veggies
And so on.
I looked for the expiration date before adding the food. The ones that expired I put aside. After a day of logging everything in, I see I wasted a box full of expired food and some wasn’t even opened. I didn’t start in the fridge yet, but I do see spoiled food that would fill many bags. Milk, fresh produce, pounds of chicken, fish, and steak.

Giving myself a break and kicking myself. Okay now moving on to action #2.
Print my list and make copies for my fridge and in my notebook going with me to the store

Action #3
Make a daily list and weekly meal plan