How do you complete your weekly food shopping? Is it a mad trolley dash to be completed as fast a possible? If it is, you may find yourself having to shop multiple times in the week simply because you always seem to forget something.
But, thankfully this can be a thing of the past with a little organisation!
Many people dread food shopping because it’s often difficult to think what you want to cook a week ahead of time – maybe you don’t know how many nights you’ll be home, and therefore how much food to buy. It can be challenging!
Here are a few tips:
- Can you use a monthly events planner to map out where you’ll be, and when?
- Then try using a simple meal planner for those times when you know you will be home.
- If you do plan to be late home a few nights during the month, can you cook meals ahead of time and pop them in the freezer for such occasions?
Make a shopping list
If you find you buy roughly the same items each week, there’s no point writing out a new list each time. You may want to create your own weekly shopping list, using Excel, or try searching for a free online version. Creating your own version can be quite useful, since it allows you to plan the list according to your normal route around the shop.
Get organised by having these trusty items at hand:
- Kitchen notepad, or checklist on the fridge door – so that you can jot items down as you run out of them.
- Freezer bags and freezer pens – to keep your freezer tidy, and organised, and to help you rotate freezer stock more efficiently.
- Airtight plastic containers – absolutely essential, and great for storing all sorts of food items.
Finally, a round up:
- Try using a menu planner – work out how much time you have throughout the week to cook, and choose your meals accordingly.
- Get into the habit of recording what foods need to be replaced as they finish, encourage other family members to do this also.
- Check your fridge, freezer, and pantry to see what you already have.
- Make a shopping list of the items you will need to shop for, try to shop on the same day each week.
- Think about using online services for shopping, if available.
- Cook extra meals for busy nights when you know you’ll have less time.
What are your tips for organised food shopping?
To transform the lifestyles of a diet-obsessed world by teaching people how to eat healthy and make healthy eating a habit for life.
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ah melanie think I lost previous comment I made on this site.really enjoying not feeling guilty at computer. torn ligaments have a use sometimes. brill site. read this article with some amusement. I was menu planning 29 yrs ago when I first married tho more for a way to save money and secondly to not duplicate meals too often. so yes, it does work and your less likely to eat garbage food!
keep up the good work!
Hi Ruth,
Thank you for commenting, how exciting!!
Yes, I think menu planning can be very useful in helping to save money. Have you any tips on how to successfully plan?