The Easiest Way to Write a Shopping List

Do you delay making a shopping list just like I used to? One of the days that I used to dread in my home was making our weekly shopping list. I knew that I would likely forget something and need to make an additional run to the store. Plus, there is so much to think about each week. Having a list definitely helps to ease the burden! So we started making a shopping list just a little differently to take away some of this stress.

Would you like to know our secret?

I decided to simplify the process. Here, we take you beyond just meal planning and sorting foods. I found many sheets where the lists have groups of foods, which really helps when you are in the store. But what about when you need to make the list? How does grouping foods make creating the list easier? If anything, I think it makes it a little more overwhelming.

A New Way to Divide Your Shopping List

Start by dividing your day by meals, snacks, and essentials. Then type up a list of the usual foods that you eat and the ingredients or products you need for each food.

On your typed list, include the most common ingredients for your breakfast foods. Then include a separate section for lunch, which is drastically different with the kids home from school. Next, have a section for your dinner staples, especially meats and vegetables. Then have a section for your most common snack ingredients, or packaged snacks, that you keep in the house.

Finally, include an essentials section for anything that doesn’t fit into one of the meal sections. If you are a big make from scratch family, like us, you’ll definitely need this section. This allows us to hide a few goodies in the kids’ meals and snacks. Getting as much extra in the snacks is amazing, as they gobble these down without thought. These are ingredients you tend to buy in bulk, so often times forget when you are planning. We include spices in our essentials list too!

Making a Shopping List by Meals

Now that you’ve got your shopping list divided a little differently, how do you actually create it? Well, try to keep it as simple and easy as possible.

Start with the daily meals at the top: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. Then add the common ingredients that you buy under each meal. We try to group together ingredients that we only use for a specific recipe. If they are ingredients that we use often, we tend to put these near the top or bottom of our list.

For breakfast, we may include cereals, eggs, pancake mix, oatmeal, English muffins, bagels, jam, bread, etc. Lunch tends to be a little different since we like to repurpose our dinner often. However, we do include bread, jelly, peanut butter, lunch meat, tuna fish, mac n cheese, etc. Our dinner tends to have the most since this is our most varied meal selection.

Having the ingredients written out makes it super easy to highlight, circle, or check which ones you need to replace in your home. No need to write them out and try to remember. Simply check your cabinets or refrigerator, plus you will tend to forget things less. It’s super easy circle what you need, the double check your current supplies, merely crossing anything out that you have on hand before going to the grocery store.

Make Your Shopping List Even Easier

For even more simplicity, you can group your ingredients by where you tend to find them in the store too. This combines the two different types of grocery lists. Simply write the different places along the sides. We tend to use Produce, Meat/Deli/Bakery, Aisle, Refrigerator, and Essentials. This step isn’t necessary, but can be helpful.

This step can also make double checking your supply super easy. When you are looking in your refrigerator, you can look at each item across that row. Same goes for your aisle or cabinet foods and even your freezer. A little extra speed is always appreciated.

Categorizing Essentials when Making a Shopping List

The essentials section tends to get a little overwhelming, so I tend to break it down. I keep a section for kitchen essentials. This includes things like paper, plastic or foils that we might need. Spices and bulk items can be included here or separately.

We also keep a cleaning essentials for any cleaning supplies. We tend to group our cleaning supplies all together because we use common cleaners around our house. However, you can easily separate your cleaners by area of your home or even types of cleaners needed.

We have a medicine essentials for any medications we might need. This includes things like Band-Aids, gauze, creams, ointments, allergy medication, and anything you can buy over the counter. You can easily add in your prescription medications here too so you remember to call in your refills.

Finally, we keep a bathroom essentials for things like paper towels, toilet paper, and hygiene and washing products. Don’t forget to include any specialty or bulk products that you buy as well.

Since our kids are super smoothie driven right now, we also keep a list of our most common smoothie ingredients. These are generally fresh fruits and vegetables, but we have some not often bought items because we buy in bulk. These tend to get forgotten without this category.

Keep the Shopping List Handy

Place a copy of your shopping list in a place you will see it easily when you are cooking. This copy makes it super simple to circle ingredients that you use the last of or are running low on while you are preparing your meals. Without the handy shopping list, you will forget what you need. But if you list is around, you are more likely to take a moment to add the ingredient so you don’t forget.

Then put another copy in a place you are most likely to see it when planning your meals. I like a copy here so it is easy to reference while I am meal planning. This helps me double check that I didn’t leave off an ingredient, but also makes it easy to circle what I need while I make my meal plan.

I love to print the list and keep it in a page protector hanging on my refrigerator and an extra copy in my recipe box. This way I can easily mark something (or write it in) whenever we are running low or out of something. My children can also add to the list. This is super helpful when they like specific foods, but also when they need things for school or extra curriculars. If it doesn’t get added to the list, they learn that they will need to wait a week. Consequently, they have become really good at adding anything they need. Visit my store to get a copy of my shopping list.

Meal Planning One Meal At a Time

Have you tried meal planning yet? If so, do you plan out by day or by meal? I prefer to meal plan for the week one type of meal at a time.

For me, it helps to think about breakfast ideas for the whole week, then all the week’s worth of lunch, then dinners for the week, and finally snacks we need to replenish this week. By thinking about one meal at a time, I’m able to think of the common foods we eat. When your mind starts brainstorming in breakfast mode, you can plan out all 7 days of breakfast instead of switching between meal types. Then check that you have all the ingredients for the breakfasts based on your list.

After breakfast is planned, then work through lunch, dinner and snacks in the same way. Having your shopping list organized by meal type, allows you to quickly circle what you need for this week based on your meal plan. This method makes it very simple to keep a record of the quantities needed too! If you are using chicken for three meals, mark this right on your shopping list.

It’s also easy to add something to your list because if we run out during breakfast, the item is probably under the breakfast heading. No need to search the entire list.

Tips for Meal Planning

Make an easy to review list of the meals that you make. I keep a list of common dinner ideas because this is our most varied meal, but you could easily add a list of common breakfast, lunch, and ideas too. These lists help greatly with meal planning which is a must before going shopping. When you sit down to make your grocery list, you no longer need to think about everything you can make. Instead, take a peek at your list to brainstorm meals for the week.

On your meal list, group meals together that use common ingredients. If you have too many common ingredients, you can reference one meal from the other to show that they use a similar ingredient and you should plan them together in the week. This prevents you from having so much waste and may even let you mass cook you meat one night to avoid cooking the next. Any time saving is appreciated!

I always begin by thinking about my schedule. If you have a busy night, you might need a quick meal. If you know that this weekend will be busy, you might want to plan more on the go meals. Starting with your schedule will help you ensure that meal planning actually helps you during the week.

Shopping Tips

Be sure to plan for your special treats too! By planning for a treat or two, you will keep yourself from needing to buy a bunch of extra sweets or snacks throughout your shopping cart. Ever find yourself grabbing that bag of chips or m&m bag that you really don’t need? Then once it’s in your house, you might as well eat it. Yeah, I know, us too! So now we plan for our treats and snacks so that we can avoid this behavior in the store.

Have a meal or snack before you shop. Have you ever shopped on an empty stomach? I know I have and that’s when all those unnecessary items end up in my shopping cart. So to avoid those indulgent purchases, take a few moments to eat something before shopping.

Use the store sales ads. We love to check these out before meal planning. This helps us to buy the foods on sale and even build up our freezer stash. Chicken on sale? Need enough for 2 meals, buy enough for 5 meals and freeze the rest in meal size portions. Then bring the ad when you are shopping so you can find the right products. If you cannot find something, use the ad to ask a sales associate. Often times you can pick up a rain check is something is out of stock.

Finally, know which stores you will buy each at. If you only shop at one store, this is easy. However, if you tend to stop at 2 or 3 stores each week, know where you will buy each item. You might make 2 lists, one per store or organize your list by stores. Additionally, you could mark the first letter of each store next to the items you will purchase there.

We’d Love to Connect with You

Looking for tips on school supply shopping? Check out our post on Back to School Shopping Tips and Back to School Shopping Made Easy. And now that you’ve got shopping down, I’m going to share the secret to getting your kids to eat the meals you prepare. And of course, don’t forget about motivating your children to actually help around the house by keeping kids rooms clean.

Have you tried out this new way to organize your shopping list? We’d love to hear what you think. Drop us a comment below and share with us your favorite shopping list organization tips, apps, and programs you use to make this task a little more manageable each week. We’d love to invite you to join our growing family. Take a moment and subscribe to our newsletter below to receive practical tips for real life problems and a few freebies each year too!

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.