Dearest readers and grocery shoppers,
Thanks for hopping here from The Blended Blog for my “5 Grocery Shopping Organization Tips” post. I have been grocery shopping for about 40 years now…at times for a family of five and at times for just little ole me. There were periods in my grocery shopping past that I pulled one cart and pushed another while managing three hungry little girls ages 5, 6 and 7. So I had to come up with some survival tips for getting out of the store quickly, efficiently, with the groceries my family needed (and a minimal number of Twinkies and bags of candy). During those most stressful shopping days for my family of 5, we were also on a strict budget. While pushing and pulling my way through the store, I added items to my cart and my calculator in order to ensure we wouldn’t break the bank account. Life is easier these days in so many ways, grocery shopping included.
Here are a few grocery shopping organization tips I have found helpful. Beyond the big no-no of going to the store hungry!
#1 Meal Planning and Killing Trees
For years, I was paid once a month. Felt rich on the first two days after payday and dirt poor for the remainder of the month. I am not a great budgeter. And could never seem to manage to save any of my paycheck for the lean last three weeks of the month. So I grocery shopped once a month. Immediately after cashing my check. And for the most part, I still do. Which requires some planning.
I have loads of recipes pinned on Pinterest. A healthy foods board, here. Appeteasers and salads pinned here. Breakfast and brunch recipes on this board. Main meals, here, desserts, here and soups, here. Oh, and the ever-nutritious snack foods, here. Would love to have you follow me on Pinterest, here. Shameless plug. Forgive me?
So I look at my boards and pick out recipes I want to prepare over the coming month.
Then I kill trees. Yup, I print the recipes out. Call me Paul Bunyan. But I like to hold a recipe in my sticky little hands when I am cooking. Old-fashioned that way. However, I don’t print the recipe out over and over and over each time I am going to prepare my bud Casey Rooney’s delicious fall chili, for example (PC’s fav). I keep my printed recipes together in a cabinet over my frig. So after perusing my Pinterest foodie boards for recipes and printing them, I leaf through my printed recipes for any I want to prepare.
Then I have recipes that are floating around in my head. Yeah, scary. No wonder I’m always hungry. Like my spaghetti sauce. Or my recipe for PBJ. No need to write them down when I can commit them to memory. Also scary. So here’s where step #2 comes in.
#2 Making Your List and Checking it Twice
I am a list maker. Sometimes (ok, often) I forget to look at my lists after I create them. Kind of like forgetting to check my agenda on a daily basis. But I love making lists. And when it comes to grocery shopping, I generally remember to consult them while at the store. Have a grocery list template that I use. Found it on…yuppers, Pinterest.
Here’s my preferred master grocery list.
TBB Spring Time Fun Series: 5 Grocery Shopping Organization Tips, 5.22.2017[source]
I consult each recipe and identify on my grocery list the ingredients I will need to purchase. Then I run around the house (getting steps on my pedometer) to check the status of our toilet paper, laundry soap, deodorant, kitty litter, which may or may not be an ingredient for one of my planned meals. And add those items to my list. Finally, I put the list in my purse to be sure I’ll have it the following day when at the store.
#3 Follow the Yellow Brick Road
This tip is something I’ve always done but felt validated in doing it after reading this post by Simplified Organization. Follow the same route – the same yellow brick road – through the store every single trip. Ok, maybe not if you are just running in for milk. But honestly, when do we ever run in the grocery store and come out just with milk?
When PC shops with me, he will ask “Do we have to go down this aisle? Do we have to go down that aisle?” Yes. Yes, we do. Otherwise I might forget something. Something on or off my list. And hitting every aisle makes back-tracking for a forgotten item less likely.
I’ve toyed with the idea of making a master grocery list in order of the departments in the U.S. Army commissary where I shop. For instance, produce is the first department. So it would be the first section on my list. Maybe I will work on it this summer. Don’t you hate it when they move everything around all over the store. My Wal-Mart is doing that right now and my commissary did it a few months ago. It’s a wonder I can find anything.
#4 Sort it Out
As you put items into your cart, keep cold items together, canned foods together, boxes all in the same place. That way similar items will get bagged together, making putting the food away easier. My PC is a master grocery cart sorter and packer. Some days I am so tired when I hit the store after a day in heels at work, it’s amazing I get the food into the right cart. I kind of hurl the packages in its general direction. Forget packing it in some kind of logical order. Guess I need to pack flip-flops for after school on grocery day and take to heart my own grocery shopping organization tips.
#5 Ounce for Ounce
Way back when I was buying groceries for 5, I often had to buy the smallest/cheapest container of whatever it was. The smallest jar of peanut butter rather than the family-sized which was less per ounce but $5.00 a jar versus $2.50. Now days I at least use the price for ounce to compare brands. Skippy at $.23 an ounce or Jiff at $.21 an ounce.
I am so thankful that PC and I have a comfortable-enough grocery budget to allow me a little wiggle room. No longer have to carry the calculator around with me, thank goodness. But still often buy the generic rather than name brand of many items. When we first married, and PC would shop with me almost every month, I amazed him by being able to calculate, often within a dollar, the total price for all of our groceries each trip. Could kind of add things in my head as they came across the conveyor belt up to the register to be rung up by the clerk. So very grateful that I don’t have to do that math any more.
Your Turn
Do you have tricks for managing the grocery shopping in a more organized manner? How often do you shop? Are you a list maker? Would love to have you share in a comment below. Am I the only monthly shopper?
For additional grocery shopping organization tips, stop by to read these posts. “5 Grocery Store Tips“ at Simplified Organization, “6 Ways to Stay Organized When Grocery Shopping“ at PopSugar and “How to Stop Wasting Time at the Grocery Store“ from The Spruce.
Next week will see the conclusion to The Blended Blog’s “Spring Time Fun” series. We will be talking summer plans. Hope you will join us. Have you enjoyed these posts and blog hops?
Linking up today for the “Over the Moon” link party. This great group of gals has been so supportive. Please stop by to see what they are up to.
Have a breezy, beautiful week. Thank you for starting it out with me.
Hugs and kisses,
My hubs does most of the grocery shopping. When I go, I end up wandering around because I’m always forgetting something. These tips are really helpful! A master grocery list is such a good idea!
Jill
Doused In Pink
Thank you, sweet friend. With my Master List, I almost think I could send PC and he’d come back home with exactly what I needed. What a great hubs to do the shopping. Who cooks?
Wow! I can’t believe that you shop once a month! I do more frequent little trips just for what I need at the time. I do wish I were a little bit more organized in terms of meal planning, though. I hope you are having a great Monday, friend! We missed you this weekend!
Hey love,
I do make a few trips to Walmart for milk or produce but pretty much knock everything else out in one monthly grocery shopping spree. Try setting out a few recipes you want to make over the next couple of weeks and I think you will see how that makes a big difference. You don’t even have to kill trees! Just save the recipes in a folder or on your desktop so you can find them easily when you are ready to cook. XO
I used to be much more organized with my grocery shopping, but now I’m a little willy nilly about it!! But since I have all the time in the world now, I guess it’s okay, right?
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Having time to be willy nilly about grocery shopping does make all the difference!! And not having to cook for a family! Lots of times it is cheaper and much easier to just eat out when it’s you and the hubs.
I make a meal plan every week and grocery shop every Friday. I have my store memorized, so I make my grocery list in order of the stores aisles. So, my list starts with produce, then bread, aisle by aisle, cooler, freezer, etc. It works for me! Although, I’d love to go less than once a week… I just haven’t figured out how to do that yet. I love all of your tips! I have also tried going to Aldi’s, but I feel like my time is more important than saving money there… so, I stopped doing that. I am curious about using Walmart service where you pull up and they load up your car with what you ordered.
Carrie
curlycraftympm.com
I think I will investigate the Walmart service soon. If I do, I’ll write it up. My mom was a big bargain shopper and couponer and would go to five different stores to save money. I sure could stand to save money but I sure don’t have time or energy or desire to go to five stores. I can barely stand going to one. I think I will create my own master list that does go in order of my store. Great idea!
Once a month that’s it? Like actually? I am very impressed. I use Any List for my grocery list and I love it. I can add it from any mobile device on the same account. And as soon as I am out of something I add to the list.
I probably go once or twice a week to the grocery store. Sometimes it’s just to grab some extra fresh veggies or fruit that we have run out of. Or milk. Or eggs. Those are staples in our house. Haha.
Oh, boy! I need to check out Any List. You have littles (adorable ones) so I can imagine that you need to make multiple trips to the store each week. But great idea to keep a running list of what you need to buy. Thank you for sharing.
I shop weekly and with a list. I wrote a post on “home organization” tips, and linked your “grocery shopping tips” post to it.
Natalie
https://natalietheexplorer.blogspot.ca/
Thank you so much for adding my link to your organization post. I need to stop by and read it. Having my granddaughter and working has slowed down my blog reading to next to nothing. I haven’t worked out in a blue moon either!!
I’ve done things all kinds of ways. Now that the family is smaller and we have changed the way we eat a lot, I shop at three different stores: Freshfield Farms for produce and meat, Aldi (or Trader Joe’s) for some other foods and Publix, Winn Dixie of Walmart for everything else. I used to shop in just one store so then I had a master shopping list set up for that store but I no longer shop like that. ONCE A MONTH?? Do you go back for fresh stuff? I shop weekly and sometimes even biweekly if we need more produce.
I do go back to the grocery for fresh stuff! And milk. But that’s about it. We don’t have many choices in grocery stores in the northeast part of El Paso so unless I want to go 20+ miles to our new Whole Foods, I am stuck with Walmart or the commissary.
We are “label readers” so if we are checking out new items, it takes longer to shop. For the most part we have favorites in the canned or jarred items. The produce section is our favorite and between our garden and stores (Meijer and Fresh Thyme Farmer’s Market) being close (3 miles), we keep fresh produce as the basis for our meals. Once a month or so we make a Costco run and add in Earth Fare or Trader Joe’s (bourbon vanilla!) for certain items. There is a local farm (Tyner Pond) that sells grass fed, organic meat and they deliver…yay! Hubs found this item on Amazon and we have it on our list. Looks like a good idea and has lots of good reviews. Lotus Trolley Bags -w/ LRG COOLER Bag & Egg/Wine holder! Reusable Grocery Cart Bags sized for USA- fits all grocery stores. Eco-friendly 4-Bag Grocery Tote. Cut and paste into the search bar on Amazon…there are other bags as well.
Oh, label reading takes forever! I occasionally scan food with the Weight Watchers App to check out points and compare points for similar items. Takes forever to get through the store. Then I would write the point value on the items I was buying. Oh, heavens. So much easier to be chubby and eat poorly. We don’t have a Trader Joe’s – boo! Except 250 miles away in Albuquerque, NM. Ha! Wow, how nice to have organic meat delivered. I will check out the grocery tote on Amazon. Thank you. This post has given me so many ideas for additional posts through everyone’s great comments.
These are all great tips! My grocery store has been going through a remodel for almost a year – and it has been an absolute nightmare to be an efficient shopper. (Also, just wanted to mention the link from TBB is not working – gives an error.)
Lisa
Daily Style Finds
A year-long remodel? Oh my stars!! Sounds like the grocery store manager can’t make up his/her mind where to put things. Good gravy. Our Walmart had everything turned upside down when I was trying to shop for my granddaughter’s visit. Things were even covered in plastic ‘blankets’. Couldn’t find a banana to save my soul.
I hate grocery shopping! But if I let my husband go, he comes home with three times more than we need. So off I go! These are great tips and I love the master shopping list. Missed you last weekend!
I hate grocery shopping, too. But unlike your husband, my PC would come home with only bread and milk. We would eat toast everyday. XO
great tips! I really like that master grocery list. It would be a good idea to make one in the order of my local store too. 🙂
I am going to work on updating my master list for my store. And adding things I buy that aren’t on the list. And removing tomatoes from the list because they are slippery and seedy and yuck! Thanks for coming by!
Oh Leslie!! Did I ever need to see this!! Since I’ve been away, I’m currently living on peanut butter and jelly on crackers and school pizza!! LOL I will say that I am an ounce for ounce shopper though and am totally pinning that master list!! YIKES!! Take care…we missed you this weekend!!
Thank you, Katie. I could eat pb all day long, sandwiches, on a spoon or my index finger. School pizza, not so much. Thanks for pinning my master list and for coming by. Take it easy on that toe, sugar foot. XO
These are great tips, and some that I need to follow! I am a fly by the seat of my pants, Get one meal planned and then do whatever the rest of the week…translation, order out, hehe.
I don’t plan the days I am going to eat things, necessarily. But I try to figure out the things I want to make for the month. Some recipes are just in my head, of course, but I plan for the ones that aren’t so familiar. Lots of times, I am fly by the seat of my pants, too! Even with the best of intentions. XO
Good tips! I really need to organize my grocery shopping better.
Thank you! Having a master list has really helped me. Hope you will try it. Thanks for stopping by.
These are great tips, Leslie! I never thought to go down every isle but I always forget things and realize it when I’m home.