It has to be done: the weekly grocery shopping trip. For me, it’s the difference between chaos and order for the entire week.
Here are the steps to follow to get this chore right.
During the week:
Give yourself a place to jot down any menu ideas you have while you’re working during the week. Get a hankering during your staff meeting for your favorite enchiladas? Make a quick note to yourself. This makes menu planning on Friday evening so much easier. I use the “note” feature in Apple’s Mail for this, since I’m pretty much always near a computer.
On Friday evening as you get ready to sit down with a glass of wine:
Step 1: take a quick cruise through the refrigerator and toss anything that’s old. Makes all the difference to do this every week. Who wants to run into moldy old cheese unexpectedly? This should take less than 3 minutes.
Step 2: get your notepad out and get ready to make your shopping list. Also, make a separate sheet with the days of the week listed and ready for this week’s menu.
Step 3: mentally run through your “I need these items every week” list. Jot down those things that you’re running low on. For me, these are things like breakfast cereal, coffee, creamer, etc.
Step 4: Make your weekly dinner menu. I’ll be doing a separate post on ways to make this very easy, but, for now, just know you need a plan for meals for each night, including side dishes.
Step 5: From your menu, list the items you need for those meals. It really helps to make your shopping list coincide with the layout of your grocery store. You probably have the aisles memorized anyway. If not, you will.
Saturday:
Step 6: Shop. Try to stick to shopping at just one store to save time. I also find it useful to “power” through the store, that is, go through as quickly as I can. I don’t have to stop and think because I already have my list. I go through the store in the same order every week and go up and down every aisle, quickly glancing to see if there’s anything I need that I didn’t have on the list. Done right, this shouldn’t take more than 40-45 minutes. Consistency is key here.
Step 7: Once home, immediately put everything away. No leaving a few bags for later. Push yourself to get this done within 20 minutes.
Step 8: Clean and prep some fruits and veggies for easy lunch-making and snacking throughout the week. Prep anything else, such as rotisserie chicken, etc.
That’s it. This bear of a chore can be turned into a kitten with some smart planning. Happy shopping!
- Review: Menu Planning Website Relish Like you, one of my most time-consuming weekly chores is...
- Tip for small space living: the Quarterly Cleanout Given that my family and I live in only 1,100...
- Why do I own 1,000 pencils? A solution for vanishing school supplies My kids, aged 10 and 14, are great students,...
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I have created a “Family Binder” out of a standard 3 ring binder and pocketed dividers. It contains all of the following: Yearly Calendar, weekly Menu, grocery list, take out menus, medical releases for the kids to give to the grandparents before overnight baby-sitting, a printed excel spreadsheet of our address book and phone lists, medical info for each family memeber with all our Dr.’s contact info, an on going home repair/to do list, gift ideas/wish list section with each family members current sizes and a section for each child. It has been my lifesaver and it makes it so nice for my husband to have one spot to go to to find all the info he may need. It has eliminated the “what’s for dinner” question as well as “what do we have planned next weekend” question. It also helps him with great gift ideas for me for holidays and special occassions without me having to buy it myself
) I even jazzed it up with a family photo on the cover and a lable on the spine. I have taken a lot of teasing from family and friends for this binder but in the end they are the ones that are always looking for something or can’t find an address, know what they have planned next month or spending a fortune at the grocery store without have enough items for one complete meal….
Helpful hints if you are thinking of making your own binder: Make yourself templates on the computer that you can go back to and update and reprint as information changes and always use a pencil so that way you can erase instead of crossing out itmes. This will help keep your binder neat, clean and organized so you can find what you are looking for at a glance.
What a great idea, Kim! I love to do this kind of thing.
I love that you say “I’ve taken a lot of teasing from my family and friends for this binder, but in the end, they are the ones that are always looking for something…”
Isn’t that always the case? They want to tease us for being organized, but then they benefit from it. Sigh. Luckily, my husband seems to understand that he benefits greatly from my organized ways.
I totally hear you on that! All Penelopes do!
I liked this post, Meredith!
I’m reading more and more about these family binders that everyone seems to have…maybe I need to make one too. 
My power grocery shopping goes like this: I look through all the catalogues for that week, go through my menus and cupboards, write down my list per shop name/product/price that week and give it to my partner. He now does the shopping because I end up coming out of the shops with extra things! If he has any doubts he calls me to discuss it… just in case. He’s the kind of person that stays 100% focused on the task at hand + doesn’t become easily swayed by the barrage of supermarket advertising. It’ll take him 20 mins to shop while I’d take an hour!
Just what i was looking for i am very thankful for this article. A Very nice page of knowledge.