Using grocery shopping lists is one of the best ways to save money and time. Shopping with a list, you are more likely to buy only what you need instead of impulse-buying, and you are less likely to forget something, requiring another time-consuming trip to the store to pick up the stray items. Here are my five favorite ways to manage your grocery lists, from least to most sophisticated:
- The Simple Sheet of Paper: Whether it's a cute narrow lined pad with novelty characters printed on it, or a piece of scratch paper recycled from your printer, simply having The One Place To Write Things Down is the most basic kind of list and is very easy and effective. Just keep paper and a pen stocked in the same consistent place, write things on it when you need to buy them, and you're set! Bonus points for teaching your family to also write things down.
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The Quadrant Method: Draw lines to divide your list paper into fourths. Write down Produce items in one section, Cold items (dairy and freezer) in another, Dry Goods (cans, jars, mixes, and other "center aisle" items) in the third section, and Other items (health & beauty, paper goods) in the last section. Your list might look like this illustration (click image for a larger view). Writing items into the correct quadrant means you skip around less in the store, saving time and steps.
- Dane's Clipboard Method: In December my Twitter pal Dane Findley and I co-wrote a post called Top Ten Low-Tech Productivity Tools, in which he shared his Errand Board idea. He uses a clipboard and places sticky notes on it, one for each store, and writes items on each one based on where he will buy it. When he is leaving to visit that store, he grabs the sticky note off the clipboard and goes.
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Pre-Printed Lists: You can buy a magnetic, pre-printed list pad like the ones we carry in our online store, shown here (click here for info on ordering). These pads allow you to quickly circle or underline what you need from the memory-jogging array of choices. These lists help you remember things you might have forgotten. You can also create your own pre-printed list in a document on your own hard drive, and you can customize it for your own family's typical favorites. If you want to create your own, save a few weeks' worth of receipts to remind you of the common consumables. Some grocery stores offer a map at their customer service desks, and you can use it to create your list in order of the way you walk through the store, knowing exactly aisle-by-aisle what you'll buy. Wow, Ninja Shopping. 🙂
- Go Digital: There are many ways you can use your phone now to help you manage lists. Here are a few free services that you can try– some of them work from apps for the iPhone or Android, and some of them work with just text messaging:
What is your favorite way to manage your grocery lists? I use both the "All-Out-Of" Pads that we sell in our store and the Quadrant Method for writing out something quick from scratch. Share your list-making prowess in the comments!
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I’m a digital girl. I use two apps on my iPod Touch. First I use Grocery Pal for quick entry when I remember something I need to add right away before I forget.
But my favorite app is MealBoard which is a menu planner. You enter the recipes and it exports a list for you!
On the apps, I heard there’s one too for budgeting while shopping. I think it would be neat if you could scan your UPC items with your phone and it keeps track of all your shopping for you (for future budgeting purposes). I thought I’d throw that out there in case any app developers read it LOL.
Me, I’ve been doing lists organized by the store. I shop there so much I know the store better than most the employees. I also know their pricing trends pretty well. So my list is generally in order of the product locations and priced pretty accurate (usually I’m off by change).
BUT, while it’s saving me money, I get home, get hungry for a snack, and nothing sounds good to me. I get stuff for the whole family on my list, but me. I’m going to attempt to break the rule and go listless while hungry and I bet I have food I like to eat here. I’m just waiting until I can budget in a mad crazy grocery bill.
I have a list on my hard drive that I print every week. It’s hanging on a clipboard in the kitchen so that anyone can mark something we’re out of. I don’t have it aisle-by-aisle, because I shop at different stores. But, it is categorized. Has significantly reduced my “forgetting” to buy something, as well as backtracking in the store. Might try the post-it method for the small stores though – bakery outlet, Sam’s, Aldi. I don’t go to those every week, so marking them on the regular list doesn’t really help.
I keep a list on my fridge for smarter shopping; family knows the only hope for getting what they need is to write it on that list! works well with teens!
Love your ideas!
I use something like the quadrant method except split it up in more detail. Top half of the page is “Fruits”, “Vegetables”, “Dairy”, and “Meat”. (All outer perimeter items.) The bottom half is “Personal Items”, “Frozen”, “Dry”, and “Misc”. My wife takes the top half and I take the bottom half of the page and we’re done in about 15 minutes every Monday night. Give it a try!
I use GroceryIQ.com. It is one of the tabs I leave open in Chrome on my desktop computer. I can add to it as needed and since it is multiuser so can my husband and son from their computers. I can also scan bar codes and add items from my phone as I run out. It can be as generic or specific as I need it to be. I have multiple stores and can break it down nicely for where I will be shopping. When I head out I open up the app on my Droid X and everything is there. No more forgetting my lists at home on my desk 🙂 I add prices as I shop so I have a pretty good idea of what my total will be when I reach the checkout… or I can cut back if I am to near to my weekly budget number. Love this app!
I’ve always used the simple list, kept on my fridge door, but I have a bad habit of leaving the list at home, so I’m trying cozi now. I already use the calendar, just not the list. I like that I can check it from my phone, because I always have that with me.
I love it! These tips are real time-savers… and angst-savers, too (nobody enjoys that feeling of arriving home from an afternoon of errands, only to realize that a key ingredient has been forgotten)!
I keep two pre-printed lists in my car (for the health food store, and the regular grocery store) and my post-its on the clipboard are for those specialty items that I only purchase once in a great while.
Thanks for another helpful feature, Lorie!
{ twitter = @danenow }
This inspired me to write my own post about my grocery lists here http://blog.kia-glitz.com/?p=1167
I have an exel spreadsheet that I post to a board near the kitchen- all week as we run out of stuff we jot it down in sections- produce, meats, grocery (food non-perishable), frozen food, cleaning supplies/paper products, tolietries/meds, baby stuff, and dairy/breads. I shop at different stores depending on the week and it helps because I just look on the section I am in, no guesswork. At the top of the list I write my menus down for each day of the week, as I plan them I write things I need down. Additionally to this I stockpile foods, so my planning is a lot easier. Today I looked and saw what meats I had frozen, and while my family drove to the zoo we talked about what we would make that week, and wrote it down, we knew most of the ingredients of the top of our heads. Then when we got back home I dropped off my husband and daughter, and went grocery shopping. The planning process took less than 5 minutes, and the shopping itself was really fast.
I probably should use a web app to sync the list between our iPhones, but when it comes to list-making, I’m very much a “write it down, cross it out” person.
We use an 8×5 notebook, listing the meals for the week from the top down, and the shopping required from the bottom up.
Now for extreme shopping, like the pre-Christmas-baking trip, it gets a little more elaborate. 🙂 But for day-to-day, a simple, cheap notebook is perfect for us.
For my grocery list I have a preprinted list hanging on the refrigerator that I use to check off the items when I need them. For my other lists for stores like Costco and Target, I have a dry erase board hanging on my refrigerator that I keep my lists. Then when I am ready to head to these stores, I snap a picture of my lists with my cell phone’s camera, save it as a wallpaper image and then just pull it out when I am shopping. I also have a dry erase board hanging on my bathroom mirror so I can write down things that I notice while upstairs.
I have found that if I don’t have my lists in my kitchen and if they aren’t handy then I forget things. It is also easy for me to tell my kids and husband to “add it to the list”. 🙂
I hung up two 8×10 picture frames – one for grocery items and the other for Target purchases – and use a dry erase marker to write items I need to purchase at the store.
I use one basic grocery store for the majority of food shopping and set up my list and coupon box as their isles are set up. Saves more time and energy that way. The weekly ad comes on fridays and I compare next weeks to the current week and pick the best sales when I go shopping on Saturday night. After 8pm, you’ll find more manager specials. Keeps everything organized and easy to adjust if I need to shop at another store, too.
When shopping for my small catering business, or for home, I use a 5×7 ARC notebook (@ Lori’s suggestion–love their flexible design). I list all dishes I am preparing on the left side, and as I do, I list all ingredients I need to buy on the right, along with quantities. When finished, I go back and note where I will buy them with a capital letter circled by each ingredient. Then I can plan out the order of shopping, based on what I need to buy, how long it will take, weather and refrigeration needs. I cross off each item as I buy, which prevents me from forgetting something. This system really helps me maximize time vs cost savings. Sometimes I can eliminate a trip to one store based on the cost in time and gas to get there even though the items may be a little more expensive. As Lorie has preached often, the time I spend in organizing this way saves me significantly in time and money!! Thanks Lorie…LOVE my membership on Clutter Diet
I use http://shopglider.com
They offer easy to use and intuitive way to manage all the grocery shopping lists and recipes online, converting them to “store trip list” by picking the ingredients from the lists. You can also share your lists with family and friends and see it all with a mobile app which is synced with the web account.
Great tips! I’ve even heard of a woman who made a map of her local grocery store — and would write down what items she needed in the area where she knew it was located!
I don’t know if I’d go that far — but you have to give her points for being creative!
For me — handwritten lists work best — I like to cross things out as I get them.