Supply Journal, anyone done this?

[hennypenny9]

I came across something that used to be standard that most people have forgotten, or never heard of. Making a record of what you buy, when, and how much it costs. That way you know how much food (or firewood, etc) you go through in a year. Then you can plan for next year. Especially for use trying to grow our own food, we would know how much to store. I'm curious if anyone does this, and how it's done. I want to try once I move, that way I don't over buy and have food go bad, or under buy, and have to get more at a higher price.

I've started this to a certain extent. I make a note of low prices, and which store has them. Like sugar, flour, pasta, etc. But I haven't made a note of how much I bought, or when I needed more. I just love the old books where the guy would say that they had enough food for winter, and really knew it!

 

[Henrietta23]

Somewhere I have my grandpa's. I've thought about it. Now with all these animals I'm afraid to know.

 

[hwillm1977]

That's a really neat idea... I think it would get complicated, but I bet you could set up some sort of spreadsheet to make it easier to edit.

I think I might start doing this this year since it's our first year having a real garden.

 

[hennypenny9]

If only I had Excel... My only idea is to take a notebook and write it all down with categories. I'm tempted to just save receipts, but they don't usually list the weight of the item.

 

[dragonlaurel]

If only I had Excel... My only idea is to take a notebook and write it all down with categories. I'm tempted to just save receipts, but they don't usually list the weight of the item.

You can get Open Office. It's freeware and works well and their spreadsheet was easy enough to figure out.

 

[TanksHill]

Ok so I have something like this. I have tried to chart how much we needed by keeping tract of a months worth of needs then buying first 6 times the amount and then so on.

I do like your idea of keeping track of cost. I am watching the fruit for canning this year. I cant remember wen my store has peaches at their cheapest. I am so afraid I will miss them.

Maybe we should start this year. I bought whole oats just yesterday for 3 lbs for a buck. It would be interesting to see how long they last and compare them to future costs.

Ok note to self, new project...

 

[ginny5680]

I Digged this thread to save it for future


Regards


ginny5680

 

[TanksHill]

Welcome Ginny!!!

You might want to just save the whole web site. Your going to end up with a ton of threads to follow.

gina

 

[Farmfresh]

Welcome ginny!

I do something pretty much like this. Mine all started with a crazy grandma and a canning record.

When I was a kid my grandma used to write the purchase date on EVERYTHING that she bought as she was unpacking the grocery bags. OK, so Grandma Nettie was OCD.

When I started being more serious about this whole self sufficient thing I began to realize that I needed to be able to plan a year (or more?) at a time. I worked out a chart for my canning stuff with all of the main things I can on it. Each item has a line and a place that you mark with a slash for each jar canned in the correct jar size box. How many pints. How many quarts.

Then I do an inventory of my pantry in January and July of each year. Then I compare notes. Each year my charts got a little tighter. I added places for notes and new items. I added spaces for meats. And frozen. And bulk items. Now I seem to be working on basics like toilet paper.

I find myself dating the new bottle of dish soap and writing down the day I opened the toilet paper packages on the big calendar in the kitchen to see how long they actually last. Now my whole family thinks I have turned the final corner and have finally BECOME Grandma Nettie - complete with her OCD's! On my end of it Grandma is making a lot of sense nowadays, although l have yet to start a weather journal like hers!

The final straw came the other day. I found an entry on my big calendar that my sister wrote there when she was visiting.

It said, "Sis used the bathroom at the house today - toilet paper figures my be slightly off." Nothing like a little family support!

 

[ORChick]

Welcome ginny!

I do something pretty much like this. Mine all started with a crazy grandma and a canning record.

When I was a kid my grandma used to write the purchase date on EVERYTHING that she bought as she was unpacking the grocery bags. OK, so Grandma Nettie was OCD.

When I started being more serious about this whole self sufficient thing I began to realize that I needed to be able to plan a year (or more?) at a time. I worked out a chart for my canning stuff with all of the main things I can on it. Each item has a line and a place that you mark with a slash for each jar canned in the correct jar size box. How many pints. How many quarts.

Then I do an inventory of my pantry in January and July of each year. Then I compare notes. Each year my charts got a little tighter. I added places for notes and new items. I added spaces for meats. And frozen. And bulk items. Now I seem to be working on basics like toilet paper.

I find myself dating the new bottle of dish soap and writing down the day I opened the toilet paper packages on the big calendar in the kitchen to see how long they actually last. Now my whole family thinks I have turned the final corner and have finally BECOME Grandma Nettie - complete with her OCD's! On my end of it Grandma is making a lot of sense nowadays, although l have yet to start a weather journal like hers!

The final straw came the other day. I found an entry on my big calendar that my sister wrote there when she was visiting.

It said, "Sis used the bathroom at the house today - toilet paper figures my be slightly off." Nothing like a little family support!

The weather journal is about the only part of this that I do. Several years ago I realised that I was trying to garden in Oregon just as I had for many years in California, without very good results. So I started a little journal. At first it was just the highs and low temps, and whether it was sunny or rainy, and the amount of rainfall. Then I added in what was blooming, being planted or harvested, etc. Then a line about the progress of the chickens. Now I also put in a note when something significant happens - guests arriving etc. Most days are only a line or two, occasionally a short paragraph. I have notes for the month at the top of the page (time to fertilize the lemon tree, for example), and this year I put in the approximate dates for seed starting based on my climate. Its all on an Open Office document file, and all of "today's" notes for the last 4 years are together, so I can easily see what happened last year on this date. It has really helped me get an "Oregon" mindset concerning the garden.