About Food Storage Planner

[BackBlast]

http://www.foodstorageplanner.com/images/logo4.jpg (http://www.foodstorageplanner.com)

Food Storage (http://www.foodstorageplanner.com/) Planner is the #1 best-selling food storage management software. It's the most comprehensive software out there as it helps you track your usage, manage rotation and location, plan and budget for purchases, and even plan meals based on your current inventory and recipes--enter your own favorite recipes or choose from the program's more than 250 pre-entered recipes.

There will no longer be questions on exactly how much food you have, or how much you need to complete your supply goals. Given time it will even track your usage history so you can tune the numbers more closely to what you actually eat rather than staying reliant on the guesses.

If you're like me, you may have a hard time running a paper or spreadsheet management system, and consequently, you may have only vague notions of how long the food will last based on someone else's guestimate and you don't regularly update the inventory list because of it's cumbersome nature. This software can help you solve that problem. Or if you are short on space and store things in unusual locations, you can track those locations and expiration dates in a convenient fashion with reports to allow you avoid spoilage.

There is a demo available: fsp5.exe (http://www.foodstorageplanner.com/fsp5.exe). Which allows you to preview some of the functionality, style, and layout of the program.

The GLO discount code will be $10 off full retail versions, GLO7883.

[prairiemom]

We have this program. It's very useful, although, like any inventory system, you do have to make sure you keep it up to date, and that's not always easy, esp if you have kids and others who are taking things out of storage. My biggest complaint about it is that there is no Mac version.

[BackBlast]

I'm glad you like it! There's not much I can do about kids. Mine ravaged my shelving labels the other day, dumped out a vial of gun oil into a pile of salt, among other things. If yours are just taking the food, then that's not *too* bad.

I have a few ideas on how to keep a physical inventory and electronic in sync even after slips and mistakes. I don't think I'll get them online for a few weeks yet, but they are coming...

I acknowledge the labor required in maintenance, even with an aid like FSP software it requires a bit of time. Though much less so than other tools I've seen and tried to use. Anyway, I do plan on making FSP even easier to use if I can manage to do that. I won't be specific as I hate advertising what isn't reality yet, and I don't think that's good for sales either :D Though I plan on making the next few updates very inexpensive.

A mac version may be in the works for this year. No promises, but it's on my list. Unfortunately it's a long list and a new baby and new dog make free time hard to find unless I sacrifice sleep.

[Dolcezza]

let me know! I bought 10 copies of that programme and gave them to the LDS bookstore and they are not selling. the owner also gave me an OLD Mac version for it, full of problems.
As I have a Mac, the PC version is no good for me.

as for the rest, it looks like a good programme!

Dolcezza

[prairiemom]

Backblast, I didn't realize you were part of developing FSP. :thumbup:

I did a bulk order for my stake about 3-4 yrs ago. You should consider that a compliment because I really truly hate, hate, HATE doing bulk orders (everyone changing their minds, not getting money in on time, not picking it up when it's in, etc) but I thought it was an important enough program to make available to our members. I also mention it at least once a year in the monthly newsletter.

Yes, I know it's not FSP's fault I can't get a handle on the actual inventory/record keeping. I look forward to seeing what ideas you have on doing it better.

A few years ago I talked to someone there about improvements/changes I'd like to see. (Maybe it was you?) I'll give me opinion again, if you don't mind. I'd like to see an equivalency or exchange mechanism. For example, there's a recommendation for X lbs of protein, X lbs of grains, etc. Now my family is never going to eat TVP, but we do have canned and dried meat. We have lots of wheat, but we also have barley, corn, oats and rice. Is there some way to calculate the total lbs of grains, the total servings of protein and then the program tells you "Whoa, you've got enough protein, don't need any more tuna." Or "You have enough carbs for your family's needs." In other words, a sort of pie chart (like you do to show how close we are to getting each item) that shows we have 90% of our protein needs, 80% of our fruit needs, etc.

[BackBlast]

Backblast, I didn't realize you were part of developing FSP. :thumbup:

I purchased the rights to FSP from the original creator a little over a month ago. His life is moving in a different direction and so now it's me in the driver's seat for good or ill, though I hope many find it to be good :D


I did a bulk order for my stake about 3-4 yrs ago. You should consider that a compliment because I really truly hate, hate, HATE doing bulk orders (everyone changing their minds, not getting money in on time, not picking it up when it's in, etc) but I thought it was an important enough program to make available to our members. I also mention it at least once a year in the monthly newsletter.

A fine compliment to it's usefulness I'd say! Hopefully the discount code makes it more available without the whole organizing a group buy and managing the money. I can possibly ease this process further if you do any in the future, just ask. At least if you don't mind electronic versions. If everyone wants a disc, the best route will remain the single order and single payment that's a pain on your end.


A few years ago I talked to someone there about improvements/changes I'd like to see. (Maybe it was you?) I'll give me opinion again, if you don't mind.

No, that would have been Van Evans and he didn't really pass much along to me in the vein of feature requests other than the occasional call for a Mac or smart phone version.


I'd like to see an equivalency or exchange mechanism. For example, there's a recommendation for X lbs of protein, X lbs of grains, etc. Now my family is never going to eat TVP, but we do have canned and dried meat. We have lots of wheat, but we also have barley, corn, oats and rice. Is there some way to calculate the total lbs of grains, the total servings of protein and then the program tells you "Whoa, you've got enough protein, don't need any more tuna." Or "You have enough carbs for your family's needs." In other words, a sort of pie chart (like you do to show how close we are to getting each item) that shows we have 90% of our protein needs, 80% of our fruit needs, etc.

You want nutrition information integrated so you can see obvious holes. I've thought about this a bit myself. The problem with this is that it requires yet more information about the products, which increases personalization and setup time. Setting up your supermarket with the products you have in storage is already a task if it's significantly different than the defaults. Though it is useful and does make the program more powerful and I also suppose it's easy enough to disable and run as it currently does, I'll see what I can do.

[arbilad]

I know that you have limited development time, because you seem to have this sleep habit that you don't want to break :lol:, but if you produced a smart phone version I would almost certainly buy your product. There are a lot of cool things that you'd be able to do with a smart phone version. For instance, bar code scanning. There is a licensable bar code scanning technology for iPhone that works very well. One of my apps uses it to scan food items you are considering eating and telling you the nutritional information. What they don't have in their database other people can add.
So, for instance, if you were to make a smart phone version, you could let people scan in all the stuff they have that has bar codes. That would make data entry much, much quicker. And for stuff that isn't already in your application, there could be a public database where some person with a lot of time on their hands could, for instance, enter the nutritional information for an MRE shortbread cookie.
Imagine how much quicker just those two things, bar code scanning and an public database, could make data entry into your application.
As a future feature idea, you could even have your application scan an item and search various preparedness websites and give you pricing. That way if you're using a can of TVP, and you want to re-order, your app could tell people where they could get the best value.
I'd be willing to help you test such a thing. I am a professional Quality Assurance Engineer :-)

[Cowboy]

Being in the software development business myself you need to listen to the customer. But within reason of course. Sounds like some good ideas for future releases.

[BackBlast]

I know that you have limited development time, because you seem to have this sleep habit that you don't want to break :lol:, but if you produced a smart phone version I would almost certainly buy your product.

I don't doubt that many probably would. But one thing I'm completely unsure about on the platform is what prices are acceptable? I'm under the impression that most users balk at even modest prices. Perhaps it's a bad impression, but, I suspect the current PC price levels would be unacceptable to the larger smart phone marketplaces.


There are a lot of cool things that you'd be able to do with a smart phone version. For instance, bar code scanning. There is a licensable bar code scanning technology for iPhone that works very well.

I have seen it, well, at least their demo video. I don't presently have the capital to do that. They are asking a LOT to resell the technology, and I have not been particularly impressed with the speed even though redlaser claims to have the fastest surest one out there. It may happen, but in a hypothetical phone release, I don't think I could include the bar code scanner initially due to my low capital.


One of my apps uses it to scan food items you are considering eating and telling you the nutritional information. What they don't have in their database other people can add.

That could go well with nutritional features.


So, for instance, if you were to make a smart phone version, you could let people scan in all the stuff they have that has bar codes. That would make data entry much, much quicker.

I think I could make an entry GUI that is faster than a camera based smart phone bar code scanner... I'm just not really impressed with them. But we'll see when I get a chance to actually play with it.


And for stuff that isn't already in your application, there could be a public database where some person with a lot of time on their hands could, for instance, enter the nutritional information for an MRE shortbread cookie.
Imagine how much quicker just those two things, bar code scanning and an public database, could make data entry into your application.

That privacy thing screams to me. Many users are pretty paranoid about OPSEC. It could happen though. User data entry can certainly expand some functions.


As a future feature idea, you could even have your application scan an item and search various preparedness websites and give you pricing. That way if you're using a can of TVP, and you want to re-order, your app could tell people where they could get the best value.

Probably a no-go unless I combined with "partners" to allow reordering through the system, I can't see myself re-writing froogle. Well, unless froogle has an API.. Still, relatively poor validation there for what would be required.


I'd be willing to help you test such a thing. I am a professional Quality Assurance Engineer :-)

Thank you for your offer :D

[MtnGrama]

Overall, I like the Food Storage Planner program. I told our local CERT directors about it and I know they passed the information on to others that might be interested.

It does take a lot of time to do the initial data entry, and I know maintenance will be an ongoing challenge, but I totally think it is worth the effort and this program is certainly better than anything I could have devised on my own.

However, there are challenges in the program itself – this is my latest one:

For some ingredients, the Ingredient summary shows the wrong amount in the ‘month usage’ column. The problem is compounded when that info is used to compute the ‘period usage’ and ‘need to buy’ amounts. For example: my beef goulash recipe that serves 4 calls for 1½ pounds of stew beef. I set the ‘times per month’ to 1 and the Ingredient summary shows 3 for the ‘month usage.’

What am I doing wrong?

[MtnGrama]

I think I found out what was wrong.

I had forgotten to set the ‘recipe factor’ in the item detail for the beef stew. When I made that correction, the numbers compute!

Must be that is why the problem was only on some of the ingredients . . .

[Cletc]

I'm thinking about buying this.
Is anyone willing to tell me about it in a nutshell?
Do I enter all my FS items I have already, and goal amounts?

I don't want to do recipes.

[BackBlast]

I'm thinking about buying this.
Is anyone willing to tell me about it in a nutshell?
Do I enter all my FS items I have already, and goal amounts?

I don't want to do recipes.

Recipies are optional, you need not enter them. It is recommended that you enter your inventory to get the maximum benefit.

I'm working on version 6 that will hopefully come out soon. One of my primary goals is to minimize the time required for entry and maintenance.

Brandon

[prairiemom]

I'm about to put out another newsletter/blog update and would like to mention FSP. Anything new to report? Updated versions? New features? Where to order? What else would you like people to know about it?

And I'd like to put in another request for a Mac version. We've had our Mac now about 15 mos and no FSP installed yet.

[BackBlast]

I'm about to put out another newsletter/blog update and would like to mention FSP. Anything new to report? Updated versions? New features?

Yes, actually I'm a few days to a week away from letting people start to look at the next PC based version (6.0). It is not ready for prime time really, not feature complete nor terribly polished and thus not even really a beta. But many have been really anxious about some of the features and it is quite useable so I would like to get it out there. I'll create a thread when I've got the download page squared away.

Some of the newer features include

* Bar code scanning
* Specific meal planning for those who desire it
* More calorie oriented general planning rather than vague item totals given or that you have to calculate yourself
* Pantry item filter (IE show me items I have in excess, or I have too little of)
* Recipe filter (IE find me a recipe that uses something that expires soon in my storage, or find me something that uses coconuts cause I have a craving)
* Goal oriented planning (IE water storage, get home bags, evac bags)
* Can link a recipe back into your pantry, which is convenient when you want to combine items into a kit or in canning/bottling stuff and placing it back into storage.
* Recipes will utilize entered nutritional information, showing you roughly how many calories you're getting in your meal.
* Maintains a good (and changeable/fixable) item purchase and use history, one of the more glaring weaknesses in the current version.


Where to order?http://www.foodstorageplanner.com


What else would you like people to know about it?Anyone who has ordered since last April will get a free upgrade to 6.0 when it's released. There's a lot of relevent information on the website as well as the users guide.


And I'd like to put in another request for a Mac version. We've had our Mac now about 15 mos and no FSP installed yet.I'll make a mac port official available shortly after the PC version 6.0 is complete. The pre-release will technically run on the mac if you have some computer skills, but I'm uncertain about putting in the effort to publish a pre-release installer on the platform to smooth out it's use at present.

[sherry]

Common sense tells you. each person would need to eat 3 times a day, then calculate how much water for drinking and washing is needed per person, and don't forget to have warm clothing on hand, as it will no doubt be cold at night. Survival kit / survival back pack, for each person is good to have with enough survival food, water and survival supplies to last three or more days. notice and take essentials with you. You probably will not have the opportunity to shop or search for the supplies you need. www.survivalfoods911.com (http://www.survivalfoods911.com)






http://www.foodstorageplanner.com/images/logo4.jpg (http://www.foodstorageplanner.com)

Food Storage (http://www.foodstorageplanner.com/) Planner is the #1 best-selling food storage management software. It's the most comprehensive software out there as it helps you track your usage, manage rotation and location, plan and budget for purchases, and even plan meals based on your current inventory and recipes--enter your own favorite recipes or choose from the program's more than 250 pre-entered recipes.

There will no longer be questions on exactly how much food you have, or how much you need to complete your supply goals. Given time it will even track your usage history so you can tune the numbers more closely to what you actually eat rather than staying reliant on the guesses.

If you're like me, you may have a hard time running a paper or spreadsheet management system, and consequently, you may have only vague notions of how long the food will last based on someone else's guestimate and you don't regularly update the inventory list because of it's cumbersome nature. This software can help you solve that problem. Or if you are short on space and store things in unusual locations, you can track those locations and expiration dates in a convenient fashion with reports to allow you avoid spoilage.

There is a demo available: fsp5.exe (http://www.foodstorageplanner.com/fsp5.exe). Which allows you to preview some of the functionality, style, and layout of the program.

The GLO discount code will be $10 off full retail versions, GLO7883.