Pantry Inventory Spreadsheet

A Repost for a New Season

I created and published this template last year, on my original Substack. I’m reposting this, because getting organized is the bedrock of being prepared and living within your margins. Start here if you’re new to prepping or bulk buying, and you’ll be able to build on it as you go.

If you don’t know what to do with yourself today, and need to feel like you’re doing SOMETHING productive, start here.

Linked here is the Pantry Inventory Template!

The template is a Google Sheet, and if you have the link you have viewing access. Save a copy to your drive (the dropdown menus in the sheet won’t work until you do), and get to work. I have my templates set up in Google Sheets because it makes it easy to access from any device connected to the internet. I can check my pantry inventory at the store on my phone, from my laptop as I’m making my grocery list, or can use my tablet to add things to it as I’m putting away groceries. You can also share your inventory with other people in your house who may be adding or removing things to your pantry.

Make sure you have it checked so there is an “Offline Copy” available, in case you lose power/internet.

Step One:

Start by going through all the food you have on hand. Freezers, cabinets, pantry closets, wherever you’ve got food stashed. Log every item and its location in your spreadsheet, throwing out expired food and grouping similar items together as you go. Then move on to the other categories of the spreadsheet, doing the same thing.

Step Two:

Once you have everything catalogued, look at your list and see what items you’re missing. Are you on your last tube of toothpaste? Do you eat rice with most meals, but you’re on your last bag? For those items you’re about to run out of, add a “Goal” number so that the row turns orange and you remember to grab those things the next time you’re at the store.

Step Three:

After you have the low hanging fruit identified, it’s time to start considering your storage goals. How many weeks or months (or years) of food feels like the right amount for your household to have on hand? If the answer is six months, start considering what staples you use regularly and what six months of those items would look like.

This last step is going to take practice to get right. If you don’t know how long it takes you to go through an item, you can always add a note in the “Last Purchased/Amount” column with the date/quantity of your last purchase. When you get close to running out of something, you can look at your spreadsheet and see how long it took you to go through it.

The Most Important Rule?

The most important part of inventorying your pantry? Consistency in keeping your inventory up to date. For many of us, margins are already razor thin and there is a good chance prices will go up in the New Year. The last thing you want to do is make a mistake in your spreadsheet, and find yourself short on an essential item without having the allocated budget to fix it.

When you make food, remember to update your spreadsheet on your phone while it’s cooking. When you unload your groceries, add what you bought to your spreadsheet (and mark the location!). If you rearrange things, update your items location so you know where to look. If you take the extra minute or two to keep your spreadsheet up to date, you’ll always know what you have on hand and you’ll be prepared.

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Keep moving forward, friends. There’s always hope, but it takes work to keep that hope alive. You’ve got this.