My approach to efficient groceries shopping

Basket by Unsplash

After living together with people who thought the ideal time to buy groceries was after work, every day, I realized how much I disliked that. Not only do I find it a waste of time to go to the supermarket every day, I was also hungry and I knew that after shopping and getting home, the food still had to be prepared, which didn't help my mood AT ALL.

Want to find out what my grocery shopping routine looks like? Keep reading!

Luckily, my partner is a planner like me, and we happily schedule what we'll have for dinner every day of the week. This approach may not be for everyone, but if you're anything like us, you'll probably love it. We use Google Keep, but of course you can use whatever tools you like. 

Decide what to put on the menu
In Keep, we have a note called "Menu", and it has all the days of the week on it. Then we come up with things we want to eat, and put it on a day. To me, this is actually the hardest step, because we try to have some variation in the dishes, but (during the workweek) we want to make food that doesn't take too long to prepare.

Sort the menu
It's already a bit related to the previous point, but we try to arrange the dishes so we're not eating the same kind of things multiple days in a row. (So change up between, potatoes, pasta, rice, meat, fish, vegetarian...)
An added thing that I try to do is sort the meals in such a way that I have to freeze as little as possible. In practice this means we tend to eat more fresh meat, fish and vegetables in the beginning of the week, and "fast food" or food from the freezer by the end of the week. (Or we If you want to avoid this, you could of course go for groceries 2 or 3 times a week, but we don't mind it this way for now.)

Turn it into a shopping list
Just write down what you need to buy for each meal, and check whether you still have a certain ingredient before putting it on the list (potatoes, onions, pasta, rice...) to avoid having to much in your inventory.

Add the rest
Things that are not included in the planned meals, like breakfast (cereals), bread, drinks... Check if you still have enough. If not, put it on your shopping list.

Sort the shopping list
We also sort the list by what we encounter first in the store. That way you can easily just look at the next item and get it, without going from one side to the other all the time.

Cons
Every method has some downsides. Here are some I can think of and have encountered myself, along with possible solutions.

• "You can't go shopping and just buy what you feel like when you see it."
  To me, this is actually a benefit, because I might buy more tasty but unhealthy things, but I do understand that you might like a more spontaneous way of shopping.
  What you can do however is write down what you need in a more general way, like "some green vegetable" or "a piece of red meat". We mostly only do it for a few things, because it can get a bit confusing if you are trying to buy food for a whole week. ("Which dish was the fish for?")
• "You don't buy the discounted items"To be honest, I currently don't take discounts into account very much, although we would probably save money doing so. It's a working point! But, if I wanted to, I could easily go onto the supermarket's website and look at discounts when I'm searching for inspiration on meals.
• You lose flexibilityIt might be true in some cases: you have a meal planned, all the fresh ingredients are there, and then your colleague ask whether you want to grab a pizza after work. Usually I would reply that I already have food and I don't want it to spoil. But this might have more to do with the fact that I am just a planner, and I don't want to leave my partner alone on such short notice. If I really wanted to, I could accept the invitation and freeze the food to eat it later if needed.

Pro's

• Time savings: less and shorter trips to the supermarket
• Efficiency: you're less likely to forget to buy items, and you don't have to go back to a previous point in the store when you suddenly remember another item you should buy
• Clarity: you can easily check what meal you planned each day
• Healthier: when thinking about your meals like this, I find it easier to plan a varied and balanced diet.
• Money savings: I'm less likely to buy (unhealthy) things impulsively when shopping with a list, thus spending less

Bonus tip
When using a shared, digital shopping list that's also easily accessible from your phone, it's easy to add items whenever you notice you'll need a new one or whenever you think of it. (Like soap, toilet paper...) And if everyone in your household can access it, they can just put it on the list instead of telling you to put it on there!

Some people say we're too organized, but I believe everyone should just do what they feel is right for them. So just pick and try what you like, and let me know what did(n't) work for you! Do you have any super-shopping tips and tricks you'd like to share?