Friday, August 14, 2009

Getting Ready for Vacation

The family is leaving on Saturday for a one week vacation in cottage country. We've rented a cottage with a few of our friends and are looking forward to a fun and relaxing week. This will be the third year that we've gone to a cottage with Steve and Ann and the kids but the first year that we're going for the full week - and the first year we've been heavily involved in the planning (normally we just kind of tag along). This was the year that I got introduced to the spreadsheet.

This group, they like to cook and they like to eat and on vacation - they eat well! Since I myself am also in that category and not wanting to be a slacker, I got pretty excited when Steve showed me the proposed menu:

Steve has taken the time to work out this fantastic spreadsheet that then takes the menu and, after entering the recipe information, figures out how much stuff you need to feed a group your size this food for the week. Using a pivot table, Steve then organizes a shopping/pack list of food for each of the folks coming. In this way, he assures that - even though I need some butter for the pancakes and he'll need some for the pasta, that we don't each bring up a pound.

Here's the recipe spreadsheet:



And here's the post-pivot table shopping and packing list:


I'm sure nobody else but me gets excited about this kind of thing but MAN do I love a good spreadsheet. And a spreadsheet about FOOD is even better! I can't wait to apply my new knowledge of pivot tables to my wedding cake worksheets. Whee! I also love that we know that there won't be doubles of a bunch of things. Even something as simple as butter (and even though in the above shopping list an amount isn't listed) it's easy to see how much we need and for what. We'll be space saving! We'll not be wasting food! And holy smokes are we gonna be gaining weight!

YAY STEVE!

Talk to you soon,

B.

1 comment:

Jesse said...

Too cool! That is some serious planning! Have a great time!