Now clearly I'm talking about my house and not a shop but the principle is much the same. So once a month or fortnightly (depending on how tight the purse strings are) I drag everything out of the cupboard, fridge and freezer (one at a time or I'd end up putting peas in the fridge or something silly) and list down to the minute detail what we have.
This works in several ways, firstly it helps reduce waste. I did a stock check last week and found four tins of coconut milk. I barely ever use coconut milk but went through a phase where I made curries or coconut rice, And then I forgot about it and the tins sat languishing at the back of the cupboard. Thankfully because I'd forgotten about tins over something fresh there's a bigger scope for using something before it goes off. When it's something fresh that's looking a bit limp I'm faced with one of three choices; chuck it, freeze it or cook it. Thankfully most fresh things we have can be frozen in some form or another!
The fridge usually goes next and this is where the second bit of help comes in. By knowing what I have in that needs using up quickly, it helps with meal planning. I haven't posted a meal plan on here for a while but I do it every week. When I know I have a load of mince in the fridge that needs using up next week I can use my lists from the cupboard/freezer to see what I can make with it (e.g. chilli, lasagne, spag bol, burgers or rissoles) which in turn saves us money for the next week's food shop.
Somewhat unconventionally it can also give you a few nice surprises. As well as the coconut milk languishing at the back of my cupboard, during the last stock check I found an unopened pack of m&s Dutch shortcake biscuits (a firm favourite of mine from childhood) that had clearly been pushed to the back of the cupboard by other things.
Yummy!
So, let me know in the comments below, do you ever do a stock take?
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