Noodle Use, Cook

Well, Free Money Financial started talking about grocery lists with this post. Educating the Wheelers talks about how she organizes her list here. So I thought I would add my method, learned from my mother.

Mom always had a list of possible meals on a recipe card. We tend to experiment with recipes a little more than this, so I skip this, but there are definetely regular meals with two kids in the house! Other than that I will frequently look at various food blogs to get inspiration for meals - taking in mind what' s on sale at my local grocery and the ingredients in my pantry. I have heard of others organizing their weeks by different themes each day- italian/mexican/american/german/asian food nights, or ingredients- beef/chicken/fish/vegetable/leftover, or cooking methods - crockpot/bake/grill/sauted/microwave. I must admit these "themes" do help me come up with ideas when I am stumped.

Now we are ready to make a grid with three boxes horizontally and however many days you are shopping for vertical (I generally do a week at a time). In the top boxes the day is indicated (I abbreviate to just the letter- MTWRFSS, the middle box is lunch, the bottom box dinner. From there I write what's for dinner, including sides (although these some times actually get switched around). Same goes for meals getting switched around - I may switch salmon night to Monday and burger night to Friday since the salmon is fresh and the burger is frozen. Lunches usually consist of leftovers, or simple prepartion items, except on the weekend, when I may cook a larger portion of something so I have it available for lunches throughout the week. I find the dinner squares (on the bottom) are the one's I really try to complete, that way I know there are enough meals at home, and no I do not need to stop and pick anything up.

Under the grid I list the shopping categories - produce, meat, dairy, bakery, dry, frozen, deli. When I need ingredients they get listed below in these categories. I can always look up and see which meal it corresponds to, should problem arise. In the categories there are usually many more things than are listed for the meals (ie - breakfast food/snacks and standards-, milk, eggs, etc.) But the chart gives me a framework to work off of. It also helps remind myself to include plenty of vegetables. Based on Educating the Wheelers post I may start including any "special/unique" ingredient needed for the recipe in the appropriate square as well.

Another tip I have is to print an approximate price next to each item, and then if it costs much more than expected I can decide whether or not I want to get it. I also total each category of food and add them up to figure out the approximate cost of the list. If to high I can take items off as needed before going to the store.

Happy shopping!