Background information
«I’ll fix it someday. I swear I will.»
by Michael Restin
How I want to digitise the contents of my fridge and fail to do so
12.9.2025
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Debora Pape
I've been annoyed for a long time about not having an overview of my food stocks and their expiry dates. I want to finally change that with the "Grocy" app. But despite a lot of motivation and several hours of testing, I gave up: The effort involved simply outweighs the benefits.
Even as a child, I numbered my books and created index cards for them. I still enjoy registering, organising and optimising them to this day. So it's no wonder that I wish I had a digital overview of my pantry: wouldn't it be great to know what food is in there at all times, in what quantity and how long it will keep?
As with almost everything in life, there is an app for this. For example «Grocy». I've tried it out so you don't have to. However, in my testing, I run into unexpected problems. And although I love lists, I gave up after a week, exasperated: It was too much effort even for me.
«Grocy» is a «ERP for your refrigerator»
In fact, «Grocy» is not just an app, but a self-hosted open source system for managing different household areas. The project website describes «Grocy» as «ERP for your fridge» - and that describes the system very well. According to Wikipedia «, an ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning - is a complex application [...] that is used to support the resource planning of the entire company». And «Grocy» is just as complex as it sounds.
Theoretically, I can use it to manage my supplies and recipes down to the grammes: automatically generate shopping lists, scan purchases, manage best-before dates, call up cost overviews and display recipes based on existing or soon-to-expire food. You can find a demo with a browser interface here.
If you really follow «Grocy» to the letter, you are not so much organising your kitchen as running semi-professional warehouse logistics, including stocktaking and product recording using a barcode scanner. Kind of nerdy, but also quite fascinating.
The system is run by a single developer from Germany who runs the project in his spare time. Updates appear correspondingly irregularly. The «Grocy» community is active on Reddit.
Installation via Home Assistant and app setup
«Grocy» requires a server for operation, which I access via browser or app. This was very easy for me: I use Home Assistant and there's an add-on for that that lets you easily integrate «Grocy» - you can find out how here or as a video here. After that, «Grocy» is immediately ready for use
Home Assistant and the browser interface are only the working basis for me. I want to do the actual management on my mobile phone. For this, «Grocy» fans provide free apps. With the Android app, I can easily connect to my Home Assistant installation. My husband also gets access, because stock tracking only works if everyone in the household is on board.
Then it's time to add products, because the installation is empty, of course. I have to enter the name and basic properties of every product I want to manage with «Grocy» in the master database before I can work with it. And this is where the problems begin. What sounds simple at first requires a few considerations and compromises in practice.
How should I track onions?
I take a net of onions as a test. The product is quickly created and a photo is added. Then «Grocy» wants to know which unit I want to use for stock tracking. «Piece» is a good choice: This makes tracking easy if I use one or two onions for cooking.
I quickly realise that I won't get very far with this. The onions are different sizes and a net doesn't always contain the same number of onions. «Grocy» can therefore not know how many onions I have left and when a new net needs to be added to the shopping list, even though the onions are correctly booked out when they are consumed.
It's easy to manage this for identical items. Take chocolate bars, for example. One pack contains five bars, for example. In «Grocy», I can specify exactly that and also specify that one bar is deducted by default when I tap the quick consumption button in the app. It's quick and easy - and «Grocy» knows exactly when the pack is empty. Such products can be managed wonderfully.
Back to the annoying onions: the number of pieces per packaging unit varies, as does the weight. So I would have to track the quantity in grammes - but I don't feel like weighing every onion while cooking. And I certainly can't expect my husband to do that.
A solution to this problem is not in sight. I'm putting it off for now and creating more products to get a better database and gain experience. I'm already realising that a broad database of carefully created products is the backbone of the entire system. The better and more accurately all the food is organised and maintained, the easier it will be to shop and manage. But creating everything is a huge effort.
Converting units and shopping (in theory)
Consuming food is one thing. But shopping is quite another. I don't buy many products in the same unit as I store and consume them. I store these different units in the product properties. For example, in the case of the chocolate bars I mentioned. I buy one pack, but consume «pieces». So that «Grocy» can manage my stock, the programme needs to know how many pieces a pack contains.
In the product master data there is the item «Unit of measure conversion» (ME conversion). There I tell «Grocy» that five units correspond to one pack. Incidentally, I have to define the unit designations myself. It's up to me how much detail I want to go into: Is a pack of yoghurt «» enough for me or do I want to track «cups»? A large list of different units of measure quickly forms in my app.
In any case: If I now buy three packs of chocolate bars, «Grocy» adds 15 pieces to the stock. To avoid having to search for every product in the stock when entering purchases, I use one of the coolest inventions for smartphones: the barcode scanner. If I have already linked a code to a product in the master data, a scan is all it takes to add it to the stock.
I can register several barcodes per product. Take cat food tins, for example. I buy different types, but they all belong to one product.
I could also record the best-before date when shopping. However, as I want to register and store my purchases as quickly as possible, I usually use default values. When I create a product for the first time, I define a standard shelf life, for example until 30 October, which corresponds to 42 days. «Grocy» then automatically adopts these 42 days for future purchases.
Creating recipes: I give up in frustration
One of my main reasons for trying out the kitchen ERP is the recipe tool. The module can do two things: it shows me the dishes I can cook with the ingredients I have on hand. And, conversely, it puts the ingredients I need to cook the dish I want on my shopping list. If I enter calorie values and prices for the individual ingredients, the recipe even tells me how many calories the dish has and how much it will cost me. In theory, that's very cool. In practice: a huge effort.
I create a recipe as a test. To do this, I have to enter every single ingredient and the exact quantity required. For example, the wretched onions. Recipes for onions usually specify quantities, for example «two small onions». However, if I track grammes - as described above - in order to monitor the stock, I would have to specify how many grammes an onion weighs in the ME conversion. But I just can't do that.
And so it goes on: I agonise over the creation of a single recipe and create a whole list of products for it. And I have to think about how to track each one. What about fresh coriander: bunch or grammes? What about half a teaspoon of paprika powder? How do I track olive oil? I usually tip spices and oil into the pot roughly pi times thumbs.
Two hours later, I'm completely exasperated and about to give up. The recipes aren't going to work out. And maybe not with the tracking either. I don't want to have scales and a smartphone in my hand every time I reach into the fridge.
Then more for the rough stuff: tracking packs
I decide to put recipes and teaspoon tracking to one side and limit myself to tracking whole packs. I skip fresh food altogether. After all, three days after shopping I still know whether I've put yoghurt in the fridge. On the other hand, I don't always know how many packs of coffee beans I still have in the cupboard. After all, it happens often enough that I'm standing in the supermarket doing the weekly shop and ask myself: Do we actually still have any coffee at home?
From now on, I only buy and use whole packs. A packet of tomato puree, a packet of salt, a packet of olive oil. The plan is: Whenever I take a pack from the stock, I subtract one from the stock by «consumption». If it falls below the minimum stock level, «Grocy» adds the product to the shopping list.
This works quite well.
Deathblow for the kitchen ERP: Shopping (in practice)
The system still fails the acid test in the supermarket. This is because we always do our shopping in pairs and have been using the Swiss app Bring! as a shopping list for ages. I can really recommend it. The great thing is that the app constantly synchronises the shopping list with all connected devices. If I remove something from the list, it also disappears from my husband's smartphone. So we can both run around the shop and work through the list.
«Grocy» unfortunately doesn't synchronise. Or I haven't figured out the best way to do it. I can either just tick off products when shopping or tick them off and book them in straight away. The app doesn't synchronise ticking off only. However, I don't want to check them in directly because I often don't buy the quantity on the shopping list. «Grocy» automatically adds the quantity missing for the minimum stock level, for example a pack of coffee. But if coffee is on sale, I buy two packs. I don't want to book in one pack now and one later.
Another problem: Bring! is simply so practical and fast that I want to continue using this app. But then I have two shopping list apps - that's where the «practical» comes to an end.
Last but not least: stock tracking is completely unnecessary if I simply enter the packs I've removed directly into my shopping app. The effect is ultimately the same - only I save myself the hassle of creating and tracking products and don't always have to remind my husband which supplies he needs to track and when.
Conclusion: «Grocy» is great, but also super complex
And so here I am: willing to digitise my groceries, but failing on the hard ground of reality. I couldn't answer too many questions in a meaningful way - and I've only described some of the problems here. The modern overview of my supplies therefore remains just a pipe dream.
But the problem lies entirely with me. «Grocy» is extensive and offers lots of great options. Anyone who manages to build a sensible foundation and perhaps has product management experience could be very happy with it.
What do you think of a fridge ERP? And if you use one: Maybe you have some tips for me?
Header image: Debora Pape
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
Software
Follow topics and stay updated on your areas of interest
Background information
Interesting facts about products, behind-the-scenes looks at manufacturers and deep-dives on interesting people.
Show allThese articles might also interest you
40 comments
later