Pantry Ninja is intended to help you catalog your food pantry items and easily create a shopping list for those items on which you are either running low or out of entirely.
Categories
Each pantry ITEM is stored under a CATEGORY with an ITEM NAME and a LOCATION of your choosing. Your dashboard shows how many items, categories, and locations you are allowed to have based your user level (free, bronze, silver, or gold). Changing your user level and increasing these user limits is possible through In-App subscription purchases (under the Utilities menu).
Item Names
Each Category holds its own set of names, which you can add to, edit, or delete. This may seem odd at first, but it is necessary to avoid having similar – but different names for the same item. There is no limit on the number of names you can save for a given Category (except for you phone’s storage capacity). Once you select a category for an item you may select an item name from those saved under that category.
For example: If you have a Category called ‘Pasta’ you could create Item Names for pastas such as; ‘Linguini’, ‘Macaroni’, ‘Lasagna’, and ‘Spaghetti’ to represent the types of pasta you normally buy. When you want to add Linguini Pasta to your pantry it is as simple as choosing to add a pantry item from the Action Menu and selecting ‘Pasta’ from the Category menu. Moving to the Item Name menu, you are presented with the saved pasta names … one of which is ‘Linguini’ … simple and fast.
Locations
An item’s location is selected from your Locations List. This list can be customized as you like. There is also a LOCATION search option where you can choose a location and get a list of those items stored at that location.
Pantry Items
The main element is the Pantry ITEM. Each item holds all of the information such as its category, location, name, etc. for that item. In addition to naming an item you may provide some additional detail (for instance, an item name might be ‘Milk’ and the more information detail might be ‘Soy’ to fully identify which milk product). For each pantry item you need to enter the number of that item that you WANT in your pantry and the number you currently HAVE of that item. The difference between the WANT and HAVE values determine the pantry NEED for that item (indicated by the red/yellow/green box shown for each item in the pantry list).
Another feature is the store aisle number where this item can be found. Having the store aisle number allows you to sort your shopping list by aisle to make shopping easy and efficient. You may enter different aisle numbers for each available store in case you shop at various locations. To store an aisle location for an item, simply select a store from the User Info Page, select the item you want to update and change the store aisle value. The aisle number will be associated with that new store.
To add a New Item (go to the ‘Action Menu’ on the Pantry List). After selecting the ‘ADD NEW Pantry Item’, expand the ‘Item Name’ menu box. Next, first expand and select a Category. If a new category is desired, select the ‘pencil’ and add a new category. Once the category has been selected, select an Item Name from the list of available item names for chosen category. If the item name is not available, you can add it to the list of Item Names for that Category. Once you have chosen a category an item name, select a location from your list of locations. Finally, enter the number of items you WANT and HAVE and the store aisle (the store aisle often will be set during your first shopping trip using the app).
Defaults
A default set of pantry ITEMS has been loaded for you when you first download the app. You may modify, delete, or add your own items to reflect your own pantry.
Shopping List
The Shopping List is the heart of this app. Each ITEM in your pantry is assigned a color code indicating the level of need based on the number of items you HAVE and the number of items you WANT.
If you HAVE 75% or more of what you WANT … the need color is GREEN,
- 50%-75% and the color is YELLOW,
- below 50% and the color is RED.
A shopping list can be created based on the NEED by selecting all of a particular NEED – or individual items can be put on the current shopping list by selecting the item in the Pantry Item Detail view. The shopping cart icon shown for each item indicates its shopping list status (GREEN for ‘on the list’, RED for ‘not on the list’).
The color-coded search buttons in the Pantry List screen will sort the list based on NEED so you can quickly see the status of your pantry.
Use the ‘Action Menu’ selections to clear a shopping list, to add all of the YELLOW, or all of the RED pantry items to your list. This is a fast way to create a quick list based on your pantry NEED. To remove individual items from your shopping list, simply go to your shopping list and select the item and press the green button near the bottom of the item detail page. This button will turn red indicating it has been removed from the shopping list.
Store Aisles
Use of the list while shopping is enhanced by sorting the list by Store Aisle. This helps you shop aisle by aisle with the shopping list in hand.
The store aisle number in which an item is found is saved with each item. In addition, multiple stores can be defined and chosen during shopping to customize this aisle information.
To sort the shopping list by aisle, press the ‘aisle’ button in the upper right corner. To sort in reverse (highest aisle to lowest) place a ‘!’ in the store name (on the user information page).
‘Swiping Right’ on an item in the shopping list will update the pantry ‘HAVE’ item count and remove the item from the shopping list. This swipe feature shows a check mark in a green area to the left of the selected item – continue to swipe until the item disappears, indicating you have placed the item in your shopping cart ready for purchase.
Two stores are provided in the free version of the app with additional stores for paid subscriptions.