Day 6: An Easier Trip to the Grocery Store; Meal Plan and Shopping List

Now, I started dabbling with the concept of meal planning a few months ago.
I was a new mother and had just returned to school and work. I would come home at night and the dinner discussion would go something like this:

                             Me: What do you want to do for dinner?

                             Colin: I dont know. What do you want for dinner?

                             Me: I asked you first.

                             Colin: Well I don't know. What is there?

 and so on...

I finally got fed up with it, and decided that we were going to start meal planning.

We go to the grocery store every Sunday morning. Early. Before everyone and their dog decides to show up.
I usually end up scrambling to finish the meal plan Sunday morning before we leave the house. This ends up in me forgetting to jot an ingredient down, and ultimately causes problems later in the week when I go to make dinner only to find I don't have everything I need.

How to get organized:

• Designate one hour the night before you go grocery shopping to fill out the meal plan and grocery list.

I designate 8-9pm on Saturday nights as my meal planning hour.

 Meal Planning 101:

• Pick your recipes.
•  I usually ask Colin if he has any preferences.
•  Then I pick a few regulars that are simple and easy to make.
•  After that its off to Pinterest to find inspiration

Be sure to write everything down! I can not tell you how many times I have found recipes I wanted to make and forgot to write them down, then had to spend forever hunting them down again.

• After you have picked your recipes for the week, go through, one by one, and write down the ingredients.

Write EVERYTHING down, regardless of whether you think you have it or not.

• Go through your kitchen and cross off any ingredients you already have.

Be sure to check quantities! You want to make sure you have enough of everything.

• Whats remaining is your grocery list.

One Step Further:

I began to ask myself how I could make my grocery shopping experience even simpler.
Do you ever get through your grocery list, only to find you forgot to grab something clear on the other side of the store? I do this all.the.time.

This is my solution.

Organize your grocery list by types of food.
   List all of the meats together, canned goods together, breads together, etc.

Here is my grocery list template: 

Grocery List

Happy Shopping :)


This is day 6 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.