Hello! We had such an amazing time yesterday. I plan on sitting down and getting you a full recap ready for tomorrow, but for today I am bringing you an awesome guest post from Anna! We are off to send most of our family off and then start on the REAL packing! Going to be a busy week!
Take it away Anna!
If you are anything like me, heading to the grocery store is a weekly event. We have a local grocery store here where I live and I could spend hours in the store strolling around. It is a Farmer’s Market themed grocery store, similar to whole foods. I get lost in there looking at all of the new healthy or creatively marked items.
For a while there I would spend over an hour in the store and never come home with everything I went to get. I would come home, unpack my groceries, and realize I had forgotten a key ingredient for one of the dinners I planned for the week ahead. Multiple trips to the grocery store in one week got old, so I had to teach myself how to create an effective grocery list. Not to mention, a grocery list keeps me from buying $70 in new products to “try” each time I go.
Here are my 3 tips for creating an effective grocery list
1.) I plan all of my dinners out for the week. I use a lot of recipes from magazines or recipe books throughout the week for dinner. I flip through the pages of the books or magazines trying to find recipes that incorporate things that are on sale in the weekly ad. This helps me save a few pennies because I am building the week’s menu centered around sale items. I list out the days Monday-Friday/Saturday and write down the recipes I will follow *TIP: write down the page # and source (book title, magazine title, blog URL, etc.) It will save you time during the week when you get ready to make your meals.
2.) After I create my menu, I take the time to create a list. I used to never create a list, but it has helped me save so much time grocery shopping! I take a piece of note book paper and section it off in to 1/4. I title each box…Produce, Meats, Bulk, and Other. Our grocer has a bulk section with seeds, nuts, and grains. You could easily swap this out for dairy or freezer. I found this was most helpful so I wasn’t searching through an entire list while I was in the produce department. It helps keep it organized. Other for me is the aisle of dry goods such as tomato paste, oatmeal, spices, etc.
I then go through the ad and my pantry and write down any additional items I will need for the week that are not included on my dinner list.
3.) When you are making your list for recipes if the quantity/measurement of something is specific, write it down. I cannot tell you how many times the recipe called for more than I had actually purchased at the store. I don’t do this for all items, but if it something I think I will need to buy a specific amount of I will write it down. For example if the recipe calls for 3 oranges or 24 ounces of tomato sauce, I write that down. It takes the guess work out of what is actually needed for the recipe while you are shopping at the store.
Along with writing a grocery list, I would encourage you to see if your grocery store has a mailing list to sign up for. I get several emails with coupons from our favorite grocery store and I found their e-mailing list on their website. Also, check to see if they run a double ad on a certain day. A few grocery stores in our area run a double ad on Wednesday. This makes your shopping trip and savings more efficient.
If you have any other tips for creating an effective grocery store list, I would love to hear from you. Also, if you have any good tips for saving money on grocery store buys that would be great too! I hope you found this helpful!
Don’t forget to go and check out Anna’s blog! You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.
I’ll see you all back here tomorrow!
How do you plan our your grocery shopping?
Do you meal plan?
Great tips, Anna! I especially love the points about writing down the page number/ URL and the quantity, where it’s specific. I read somewhere yesterday the percentage more food people buy without a list, and it was shocking!
Absolutely agree with all of this – shopping for a family of four with two working parents and two teenage boys over 6′ tall requires planning or it would become more than our mortgage!
The biggest thing, as you say, comes down to planning. So aside from all of the great tips you have, here are a couple more:
– Keep a ‘public needs list’, where anything running low is added. That way things that are common use but less frequent buys – laundry detergent, TP, etc – are remembered.
– When you choose a recipe from a book / magazine, like you say keep note of the page number. But when you actually EAT it – decide if it is ‘smash / trash / try again’. And if it is a hit, move it to your permanent recipe list storage.
– Balance multiple stores versus your time and energy. Sales and coupons are great, but standing in line for 20 minutes each at 3 stores is not! We get meats at a local butcher (grass fed, natural and organic … at great prices), then use a local grocery store and/or Walmart for the rest.
I always make a list when going to the grocery store, however I never actually meal plan. I travel 100% of the time for work, so I don’t get to cook as much as I would liked to.
I think I’m in the very small minority in that I eat pretty much the same things every week, so grocery shopping is easy since I buy almost the same things every time. I will make notes throughout the week for random things I need that I don’t normally buy.
This only applies to other Midwest folks, but my other tip is sign up for mPerks if you live by/shop at Meijer! So many people seem convinced it’s a credit card when it’s just a way to earn rewards and easily use coupons.
Thanks for the tips, Anna! I really try to be good about making lists before I go shopping, but I detest grocery shopping and cooking so I tend to kinda wing it. I like the idea of writing down the amount of each ingredient that you need so that you have enough.