Food Storage Blues

When you have nine shelving units stacked full of food, supplies and medications it is hard to see any improvements when you go grocery shopping.

Last weekend the wife and I made our bi-monthly food run to as many as half a dozen stores. Where we go all depended on what is on sell and what I have coupons for.
You may laugh at this point picturing me sitting at the kitchen table on a Friday night clipping coupons and planning out the next mornings market run. A far cry from my younger years where Friday nights you would find me in........ well, we all have been there I'm sure.

With the coupons and savings cards we saved right at $100.00 on food. I know that is nothing compared to the extreme couponers saving up in the thousands but it is great for our needs and our budget.
I kinda have a growing problem with the store's savings card and the government tracking our purchases but the little bit I spend at each store, I would not think it would raise a red flag.

We brought home $400 dollars worth of food for $297.00
Once back at home our ritual is, I back the truck up to the front porch, one kid jumps in the back and the other, the wife and myself start a train to the pantry room until all bags are safely behind closed doors.
Being I am the one with OCD, I am the only one that stocks the shelves, anyone else will not do it right, so they tell me.

The downer is, after all the food is put up, the wife will every single time come in and say the same thing, "Wow, did we even get anything, I can't tell"

I hang my head in disgust because I know she is right. Having that much food in storage, a couple of hundred dollars worth disappears within the monster.

My food storage is different than what I read about and how others do, it is also our pantry. I started it all with a very detailed inventory list but that is long gone. Now, I have moved to a more high tech method. I downloaded an app on my phone and on Friday night I go into the pantry and scan the bar codes of each item I need and then enter a number of how many needed. I know the max amount is 3 stacks of 10 on the caned goods. The max number is different for the condiments, box foods and others. All that is wrote down.  So if there is only 20 of that canned item, I scan the bar code and enter 10. Now I have my shopping list with me when I go through the coupons and sale flyers. Pretty simple now hu? If that said item is not on sell, or the budget only allows a purchase of 5 of that item then that is what it is. 5 more will be added to the list in two weeks.

By the way, the oldest girl BlueEyedBaby is back home for a month. I welcome the worry free sleep I will now experience. One of the first things she said to me was "I want to build something cool dad"
I know just the right project I am going to stick her on too.