My Grocery Shopping Method

Planning my family's meals for the week is one way I've found way to cut down on stress throughout the week.  It also ends up saving us money, because we're not so tempted to eat out because we don't have something planned for dinner.  


If you use my method, you may need to tweak it a little, as we have two little ones...and only one of them occasionally joins my husband and I for dinner.  We don't have a meal lined up for every night of the week.  Usually we have leftovers, and I don't cook on a couple of nights during the week.  Those nights are Sunday and Wednesday because of church.  Every once in a while, I will cook something before church so that it's ready to serve when we get home.  


Here's what I do:  I created a document in an Excel type program (you could really use any program, it's just easier for me, as all the columns and rows are already there).  You could even just take a sheet of notebook paper and fold it in half lengthwise.  On one side, I list the days of the week, and the meal for that night.  Then, as I'm doing that, I think of what ingredients I will need for that meal, and then type them on the other side of the sheet.  I find it's much easier to list the items I will need by the store, just to get the shopping done more quickly.  I actually used to just make my list in a notebook, but found it was easier to divide up the items by store on the computer.  Most stores have their weekly ad available online, so you can plan your meals according to what's on sale that week.  And you don't have to fumble with the paper ad.  (Plus you don't have to save it when it comes in the mail...and it won't pile up on the counter because you forget to throw it away).  

Not pictured are the items needed from the other store(s).  Usually, I try to limit my shopping to one other store, usually it's mostly produce and meat that I get elsewhere.  You can see, there's also space on the list to jot down the price of the item if you need to keep track.  Aside from church nights, we also usually have a date night- so we usually eat out for that! ;-)

Then after the ingredients for the meals are accounted for, I list the other groceries or household items we might need for the week.  I find that a weekly shopping trip works best for us, that way we always have fresh produce in the house, plus we have limited space available in our kitchen to store our groceries, so we don't run out of space if we try to stock up for two weeks or more.