Grocery Shopping Woes! | Pad Patter Oct 3, 2018

I've pretty much been a fly by the seat of my pants, willy nilly grocery shopper lol. I've always had a basic list in my head but never really planned out meals or made a list. For the last couple of months, I've tried to do some meal planning and make actual written lists. It's worked out ok, but I never stick to a meal plan at all. I have too many days where I say, "nah, don't want to fool with that today" or "I'm really not in the mood for that" or I just flat out forget to thaw something.

I really don't much like grocery shopping so I try to only go once ever couple of weeks for big shopping, once a month if I can get away with it, and then I hit up the smaller stores when we need bread or milk or something.

 

I keep a grocery list on my phone for things I don't buy every week and then I have basics I usually buy every week like eggs, bread, and veggies.

 

I walk down the aisles seeing what strikes my fancy. This isn’t a good thing because I never, ever have everything I need for a recipe if I feel inspired to cook, which means back to the store I go. But I have about 9 grocery stores within two miles of my house (not counting Target), so I can find just about anything if I need it.

I wish I was better organized like you, Anne! I really need to be. I used to love to cook and bake, but now it’s become a chore. I have such crazy dietary restrictions that I need to cook two separate meals, one for me and one for the family. It ends up I cook one or the other because my meals are so labor intensive to make.

Now that DD is away at college I need to shop a lot less. So, I’m trying to buy just what we need so food doesn’t go bad. That’s the main goal!

 

I’ve taken to doing the same thing! I love my phone for lists, especially when I can go back and see what I’ve bought before I’m dase I’m forgetting something. I am a perpetual list-forgetter if I don’t do it this way!

 

Same here. If I don't remember to put something on my list, I'll surely forget it. I just delete items from my list as I go.

 

Anne, I do something very similar - I meal plan (checking what I have in pantry first) and then I make my list.
My meals - which help remind why I'm buying this and that ... always go at the bottom of my list. I thought I was a weirdo for putting that on my grocery list! Haha! But, sometimes when I'm at the store, I'll look at the meals for the week and then my list of what is needed and realize I forgot to put an ingredient on there. So knowing the meal plan for the week helps sometimes. I also categorize the list of groceries like you do - produce, pantry, milk/dairy. etc.

I have tons of 3x5 index cards that no one uses. I think instead of wasting paper - I'll make use of those. Great idea!

 

I do the same thing for our Costco list! [DH is in charge of "regular" grocery shopping; he and I do Costco together.] It's actually a 4x6 magnetic frame. I write on it with a dry erase marker--easy peasy.

 

Yes, I am very OCD about grocery shopping. I mealplan and then write out my list in order of where it is in the store from front to back. I also put my food on the belt in a certain way so it (hopefully) gets packaged together appropriately e.g. all the cold things together, all the boxes together, all the produce together, etc.

Since I'm currently doing Beachbody, my grocery shopping OCD is in hyperdrive.

 

Lists are the best thing EVAH... I make a menu weekly, and I do the grocery shopping... and I wouldn't have it any other way! I like to cook as healthy as possible and I do like to try new recipes. I don't typically do anything fancy during the week because I work 4 10-hour shifts and don't get home until 6:30-6:45 in the evening. But, on the weekends, I like to spend more time in the kitchen

 

I use Cozi, an online and phone app that also has a calendar. All my family has it, so they all have access to the list. I have headings for Costco, Food Lion, and Target so they can put things under them. Or they can just add them to the top of the entire list. I love it because that way, if the kids run to the store late at night for ice cream, they might also get that one item I need. I even have gotten the hubs to add his Diet Coke to the list when he is getting low.

On the other hand, I am totally an impulse shopper at the grocery store. So I almost always buy more than is on the list. I usually shop once a week.

I too have the magnetic locker white board on my fridge -- but I use mine to list what is in the freezer. My freezer tends to be very full and I forget what is in there.

 

I'm usually a meal planner, and then making a concrete list before shopping. But since I've been here in the new house, it's been a mess. BUT! My kitchen has just finished today. So I am going to plan and shop for groceries soon!
I choose a separate fridge and freezer, because I plan on doing freezer meals and freezer crockpot meals and I need a proper freezer for that. Let's hope I'll actually make my plans reality.

The new kitchen is gorgeous. It's all high gloss white with a lightly (faux) wooden worktop. I'm super excited and squeal every time I pass or see the kitchen.
I have to be careful with water since it's not tiled yet. It needs paint on the wall. And, lol, my ceiling is not in yet. But it's already amazing!

 

DH does the grocery shopping most of the time, but I keep several lists on my phone. When he's ready to go to the grocery, I just pull my phone out and see what I've added. I have lists for all of the stores I go to. I certainly don't have any excuse for forgetting anything. I even have a list for the dollar store because I go there so much.

@AnneofAlamo we've been huge users of 3x5 cards for years. DH still carries some in his shirt pocket. Everybody laughs at him because he still uses them. If somebody tells him something that he needs to remember, he pulls out his cards and his pen (that is also in his pocket). He won't buy any shirt that doesn't have a front pocket on it. I used them in high school and college. That's how I studied. I wrote everything that I wanted to memorize on those cards and carried them around with me. LOL

 

Don't laugh, but i use Excel! On the first sheet is a bunch of recipes with just the ingredients listed. So then I copy one to sheet 2 and leave the recipe title (meal) in column A. Then I cut and paste the ingredients into the correct spot -- meat, dairy, frozen, etc.
Then I order online from Walmart or Kroger and go pick it up. I can print it out and know what I meals that I have the ingredients.

 

I do menu plan weekly & make a detailed list. I've been using Plan to Eat.

I might have to try this!

 

I'm a fly by the seat of my pants grocery shopper and cook. I look at the ad, circle things I want to buy, list things on my phone that we're out of and head to the store. I kinda menu plan if you can call it that, by seeing what's on sale that will go with what I know I have in my freezer or food storage room. And now that I'm working and hubby is traveling so much, our meals for Meg and I have been really simple. Things like cold cereal, nachos, corn dogs, sandwiches, frozen burritos, left overs and fast food. We really don't go through as much food with the two older kids off to college and hubby traveling so much. I've had to dump expired milk and some produce because we didn't eat it before it went bad. I've had to adjust down my shopping and cooking quantities.

 

dang you are organized!!!