I simply cannot say enough about
Bento. It has/is changing everything on this boat in a good way. If you're a Mac using sailor (or quilter) trust me you want to get this program. And if you are aren't - well maybe you should become one. I'm building a database that covers pretty much everything in our boat and Mark has switched all of his spreadsheets into it as well. What's great about it is that you can have multiple databases that all link into each other. I'm probably going to spend a couple posts explaining what I've done or am in the process of doing and hopefully get a few screen shots up here.
First and most important is my food inventory. I've set up a form that contains an item. At home I probably would have used specific item names but because I can't always get the same items out here I've chosen to use generic names and group items. For example instead of having Ritz and Saltines I just have crackers. I also give the item a category and subcategory that I might use to find an item. For crackers the subcategory is the same as the item but if the items weren't grouped it wouldn't be so that is why it is repeated.
The next important thing is that I have two slots for how much I want to maintain on the boat. The first is a unit quantity (30 packages). This is usually easy to calculate. The second is a weight quantity (3kg). I'm coming up with these numbers as I go. As I'm entering my purchases I'm entering the weight and this is giving me an idea of what weight is good to carry. This will help for countries that sell smaller packages and items I'm not used to. The weight is also important for items like rice and flour that are typically always sold based on weight. There is also a pull down menu (Kg Liters Units). The first row of input items is always units. 1 jug, 3 boxes, 4 packets etc. The second can be weight or units depending on your needs. In some cases I have no weight and just put units into both rows. We can get into that later.
Right now I'm putting in numbers for provisioning for the next 6-8 months. I plan to track when we actually run out of stuff. How much more we buy and what we actually consume. Then I will calculate how much we use in a month. Later I plan to change the numbers I've put in down to a months consumption worth so that I can then input the number of months we are going out for and it will give me the appropriate quantities. This way if I'm only shopping for two weeks I can put in a .5 and get an appropriate shopping list. This will also be helpful because you can leave needing to have provisions for 6 months but as the months go by you can lower that number and see if you still have enough or you are dropping to quickly in an area. Giving you the opportunity to keep your eyes open for the products in a store before you actually need it. But that is a step that won't happen for a few months. Or maybe I may work on that a little now?
Second step was to make a purchases database. This is where the type of item (Ritz), quantity (3 rolls), weight, expiration and purchase location are entered. It took me a while to realize that this was the best way to do this. Initially I tried to do everything in one database but then I needed to make all these crazy cells and it just didn't work. There is also a used column so that as we go I can keep the number that we bought in tact and still know how much we have consumed. I basically say the item is consumed as soon as I open it. If I take a roll of crackers out even if there are some left it no longer exists. This is where one area where the weight comes in handy. If you have a couple of large cracker rolls and a couple small cracker rolls your units go down by 1 no matter which you take out but your weight goes down proportionally so you have a better understanding about what you have on board.
I also enter the expiration date. When I'm shopping I try to pay attention to the dates on the packages I'm buying. First, I want to find the furthest date out I can. Second, I try to buy as much as possible with that same date. This way I only have to do one or two entries and not 10 and it is easier to track because I don't always have to check the dates when I take the items out. I just like to know when and where I've bought something. One good reason is if I were to get bugs in some of my grains I would know where it came from and could check other items from the same location. I usually just add the location to the pull-down menu so I don't always have to type it out.
The data from the purchases is automatically calculated and pull-up into the Provisions database and the amount needed to buy is then calculated. The great thing about this is that if my units or weights to buy goes above 0 the item is added to my shopping list via the smart collections options. You can set this at any number. I also have a smart collection in my purchases that pulls items that are expired or close to expired so that I can use them first or replace them. This brings up one shortcoming in Bento. You can't search related databases or see related databases in the list view therefore in the expired collection I can't see what the item is. I have to click on it. But that is probably a pretty minor concern in the grand scheme of things.
Okay that is probably enough for today. If this is interesting to anyone let me know and I'll keep going. If not well I'll probably keep going anyway but not for as long or detailed.