School supply inventory

Since Army daughter moved in my inventorying of food and supplies has gone out the window.  Mainly it's because she does the shopping and the cooking and she uses very little of what I use.  I would assume that most of my food is still there after 8 months of them living with me.  Most of my cleaning supplies are probably still there but the paper towels are almost gone.  Where I normally use rags she uses paper towels.  And she uses a lot.  For example, when the baby is done eating I take a wash cloth and wash her face, then hands, then high chair.  Army daughter uses about 5 or 6 paper towels.  A roll of paper towels lasts only a couple of days.  One roll lasts me a couple of months.

 

Ok, I've got to tell another Army daughter story.  I didn't think she'd be able to top the buying egg whites in a carton but she did.  Yesterday she went shopping again.  She came home and told me if the kids wanted a snack she bought apples.  She bought enough for each of us to have one apple a day for the next week.  Yes, she purchased 35 apples from the grocery story .  What about the apple trees in the yard?  I even put in a Pink Lady tree because one of the relatives said it was their favorite and since I like to grow fruit I'm up for variety.  We have the same exact apples growing that she bought.  The difference?  The apples at the store are shiny.  It's called wax coating my dear daughter.

 

Getting back to the inventory.  I've been buying things on the sly and putting them in storage in an extra closet...yes I do have extra closets around here.  It's not that I don't want Army daughter to use them, I would love it if she did, but she uses the newest stuff first.  She'll buy a jar of peanut butter and then use the new one.  What about the four or five that are in storage?  I looked at my inventory sheet the other day and realized that I don't really have a clue what I have on hand.  I know that we could eat for a year or so without any trouble but I'm not sure what kind of variety we'd have.  Before they moved in I could tell you that I had 6-40 oz. jars of peanut butter plus the one that's open, or that I had 6 containers of laundry detergent that would last for five months each.  Now, I just don't know what we have.  I can't even get to some of it because they have their stuff in the way.

 

Since they are moving out in 6 weeks I decided that today was as good a day as any to start reinventorying.  I was going to start on the cleaning supply inventory but instead figured that since school started last week it would be a good idea to inventory what I had on hand for school supplies. The last time I inventoried this was last September.  http://whatifitistoday.blogspot.com/2010/09/whats-in-your-drawer.html My office supplies are in one cabinet and two drawers, which has expanded from one cabinet and one drawer last year.  The grandkids went through a lot of stuff last school year.  They are very hard on notebooks and backpacks.  I told them that I wasn't buying them backpacks this year.  They could buy them themselves.  I did buy each of them a cheap backpack for our trip so if they want they can use that.  I don't expect that one to last more than a couple of weeks because they load so much junk into them.  

 

The school supply list for fourth grade went like this: 6 pencils - not mechanical, 2 red pencils, 2 erasable pens, 2 white board markers - one black, 1 highlighter, 3 packs of 125 sheets of wide rule paper, 10 subject dividers, 1 wide rule spiral notebook, 1 two and a half inch or three inch three ring binder, eraser, pencil sharpener, crayons, and scissors.   For fifth grade I have no idea what is required.  Girl said she had it all and the teacher didn't give a written list.  And no, I don't believe that she has it all or that the teacher didn't provide a list.

 

How are we doing on school supplies?  What if I wasn't able to buy any more school supplies?  I suppose they wouldn't be attending school at that point so my focus on their education would be different.  Let's look at it from the money saving perspective.  The prices keep going up unless you buy the super special almost free stuff that they lure you into the store with.  I do buy at that time but this year we were gone when they had the super sale.  Good thing I had stuff on hand.  We have about 200 pencils and about 50 colored pencils.  I don't have any erasable pens and will have to go buy some.  The ink in them doesn't last very long so it's not worth buying them in bulk.  I have four or five packs of white board markers.  I have about 30 packs of paper.  If they both need about 3 per year then I have five years worth.  Subject dividers?  They are recycled from last year.  I have a box of tabs so I can make more if needed.  Binders?  Every chance I get I collect the ones they are going to throw out at work.  I have a collection of binders from 1 inch to 4 inches.  Crayons and scissors...lifetime supply.  In case the children forgot, I remind them that used crayons work just as well as a brand new box. 

 

I also have regular pens, sharpees, hole reinforcements, staples, thumb tacks, clips, paper clips, post its of all sizes, different size envelopes, and just about everything one can think of.  It's kept orderly and in one location.  I have a supply (which takes up a plastic bin) that I keep in the trailer.  It has more notebooks and pencils and less of the highlighters and such.  What's your office supply inventory look like?