Frequently Asked Questions

First think about your biggest challenge for provisioning.

If it’s what’s in the freezer, start there.  If the fridge, go for it. But I suggest that you divide the fridge and freezer into zones.  For me, it’s bottom, middle and top. So for the fridge, it’s FridgeB (bottom), FridgeM (middle) and FridgeT (top).  I keep beer and seldom used soft drinks in the bottom of the fridge, mostly for guests and entertaining. The middle is things like open bottles mayonnaise and salad dressing, cheese and any meat.  The top is always lettuce and leftovers. Whatever needs to be less cold and eaten first.

For the freezer, the bottom is nearly always a frozen turkey breast or chicken.  It helps to keep the freezer cold. The middle is fish, meat, seafood and poultry parts (breasts and legs).  The top is usually leftovers, ice and pizza dough.

Maybe it’s what’s under the floorboards that’s your biggest challenge.  Inventory what’s under them. It’s probably what’s oldest on the boat, and the cans may be starting to rust.  You want to use them up before you use what’s in the cupboard.

Pick a couple of your more “challenging” locations, and start with them.  You can add locations at any time.

You also have the option of setting up all of your locations before you start doing any inventory.  That way, as you go along and add inventory to different locations, the locations are already set up in the app.

When you put an item into inventory, make sure you put in a minimum quantity to have on hand.  For example, if my minimum quantity for mushroom soup is two, if I have two on board, when I draw down one, I’m now one shy of my minimum quantity.  When I check “Add all shortages to my shopping list”, it will add one can of mushroom soup. Of course, you can always buy more than the minimum (especially if it’s on sale).

The Inventory on Hand screen displays all below minimum and out of stock items using a symbol. Green circle means you have at least the minimum quantity that you set, amber box is below minimum but not completely out, and red triangle is you’re completely out of stock.

And I’m sure that will happen to all of us.  I use my iPad in the galley. I have all my recipes on it, and it has a folding cover so it ‘sits up’ so it’s easy to read when I’m cooking.  And of course, I use it for Pantry in Paradise. If I forget what I’ve drawn down on, I can always go back to the last recipe I used, and check the ingredients.  That’ll jog my memory. Conversely, check your leftovers and see what ingredients you recently used. I also usually make a note of what we have for meals, mostly lunch and dinner, and that’s another memory jogger for what you’ve recently used.

Your other option, which I suggest is part of a regular routine, is to inventory your storage locations on a regular basis.  Do one cupboard a month and check what’s in it. It’s also a good time to clean the cupboard out, add bay leaves and cloves to keep bugs away (or whatever your choice of anti-infestation is), and make sure that you don’t have any bugs in your food.  Then you can update your inventory for that location, and you’re good going forward.

Tip:  Photograph your locations as you inventory them.  That’ll help jog your memory if you used something (as it’s in the photo but not in that location anymore) and forgot to draw down on it.  It also helps with knowing can sizes and brands.

A great feature of Pantry in Paradise, is that you can draw down fractions of any and all inventory items.

One of the handiest items in our galley, is our digital scale.  It measures all of 10 x 10 cm, and stores in its own plastic case.  It’s great for figuring out what fractions you’ll need to use. For example, our cat’s treat come in a 220 g bag.  Four treats (his normal serving) is 1 gram. So there are 220 treat ‘servings’ in the bag. He has about five treat servings a day, so a bag will last about 44 days, or six weeks.  Since David gives him more treats per serving than I do, and sometimes he gets more than five servings a day (as we both give him treats and he’s good at asking for them), I figure a bag lasts five weeks.  When it’s about 1/3 empty, I draw down in the app, and it’ll get added to the shopping list. I’m not going to draw down every time I give him treats, which would be too time consuming. 

Same for spices.  When a jar is less than 1/3 to ¼ full, it gets drawn down in the app.  And then it gets added to the shopping list.

Some things just don’t make sense to draw down by fractions.  I choose a limit for different pantry items. For spices, it’s when a jar is below a 1/3 to ¼ full.  That’s when it gets drawn down in the app.

When I make bread, as I keep small quantities of sugar and yeast in the cupboard nearest the sink, and the bulk stored behind cushions in the salon, I don’t draw down on the smaller containers at all.  Again, when the sugar box is less than ¼ full (because we only use sugar for bread or the occasional baking it doesn’t get used up very quickly), and yeast I buy by the pound and use by the teaspoon, again, a box lasts a long time.  So for sugar, when the bag is ¼ to 1/3 full, I draw down 0.7 of a bag of sugar, leaving 0.3 of a bag on hand in inventory. As my minimum quantity on hand for sugar is 0.5 of a bag, or 2 ½ pounds, that ensures it gets added to shortages, and then added to the shopping list.  For yeast though, I date the box when I buy it, and discard it after so many months. Six months if I buy it and use it over the summer, longer if the weather is cooler or it’s used over the winter months. So I check the date on the box when I fill up the small container in the galley, and when it’s close to being about a month left in its useful life, I draw down .8 of a bag (so my quantity on hand shows as 0.2).  As my minimum quantity on hand for yeast is 0.25 of a bag, that’ll add it to shortages, and then onto my shopping list.

For other items, like our cat treats, I weigh them once, and put a label on the bag with the results.  As the bag is shiny, a permanent market tends to smear, so labels work better. When I start a new bag, I add a label and the information from the old bag goes on it.  So I only have to do it once. Unless of course the bag gets thrown out before I label a new one! It makes more sense to label it when you buy it, and before you put it away, and not when you finish the old bag.

For me, I have Pantry in Paradise on my iPad, not my iPhone.  I like the iPad’s bigger screen and I find it easier to work with.  But I don’t take my iPad grocery shopping. I email the shopping list to my iPhone, and shop from that.  As the shopping list is organized by categories (e.g. fruit and vegetable department, dairy), it makes shopping organized and easy.  You’ll find what works best for you.

Coming to a future version!  You’ll be able to check what and how much you throw out (tomatoes gone bad, avocados forgotten, rusty tins abandoned in the bilge) and see how much it’s costing you.  If Pantry in Paradise can save you from losing even two or three vegetables or forgotten leftovers each month, it will more than pay for the subscription. And you’ll be walking more gently on the earth!

Coming to a future version!  You’ll be able to make notes on the shopping list in a future version of Pantry in Paradise.

To use Pantry in Paradise, you don’t need Internet.  But you will need a connection if you want to email the shopping list.