Through the years, I have come up with a system for planning my grocery shopping. It works well for me, and takes very little time, once you get used to it. Today I’m sharing with you how I plan out my weekly grocery shopping. For those of you with kids, you especially need a system to make this go quickly. I hope this helps you, especially when this chore seems overwhelming. With this system, you should be ready to head out to the store in less than an hour. So, let’s get started.
- My absolute best tip that I ever heard was to make a month of menus. I started by making a list of my family’s 28 favorite dinners. Then I put them into a blank calendar (see Lifetime Month Of Menus free printable), moving them around so that each week had a good, healthy variety. I also put quick dinners on the days that we’re usually busy.
- Then when I make my grocery list, I look at the month of menus and pick the week of the month that we’re in, and those are our dinners for that week. Then, of course, I write all the ingredients I need for those dinners, using this printable, Lifetime Grocery List .
- Then I write what we usually need for breakfasts and lunches. I don’t plan exactly what we’re having for breakfast and lunches, because at our house it’s every man for himself, except for dinner.
- Then I add in snacks, which is usually some fresh fruit, yogurts, cookies, crackers, popcorn. I try to get healthy snacks but, honestly, we also like a few treats.
- Then I add to the list the basic household items we use like paper products, cleaning supplies, pet food, toiletries, and things like that.
- Now that everything is on the list, I rewrite the list. Why? Because it helps me to fly through the aisles once I get to the store. It won’t be in a perfect order, but it will at least have “like” items grouped together. Since I’ve gotten into the habit of doing my list this way, it drives me crazy to try to grocery shop with an unorganized list.
- Then at the bottom of my list, I write down any other errands that I need to do while I’m out. That way I can try to get all miscellaneous errands and grocery shopping done in one afternoon.
A bonus tip for shopping on a budget: If you’ve read my other posts, you know I’m trying to spend less this summer and, of course, food is a major budget buster if we’re not careful. So, one day I tried to figure out a way to get everything we need and still stay on our budgeted grocery amount. I took our weekly budget and broke it down to each category listed above to an amount that I thought was reasonable. I basically allocated a certain dollar amount to each category, and I try to stick to it. To be honest, though, it usually doesn’t always work out according to plan, but it’s closer than if I hadn’t tried at all. Progress is better than nothing, right?
So, according to the steps above, I have an organized grocery list, with a budgeted amount for everything, and an additional planned errand list. Then, when I get to the store, all I need to do is go aisle by aisle, and try my best to stick to the list. With this organized list, I can usually get through the grocery store in about 30 minutes plus another 15 minutes in the checkout.
I hope this helps with your next grocery trip, especially if you’ve got kids shopping with you. For more details on streamlined grocery shopping, see a previous post, Menu Planning And Grocery Shopping. If you’ve got more great grocery shopping tips, pleeeeeese leave comments below.
Enjoy your shopping and have a wonderful summer day!