I am a pretty organized person by nature. It's just part of my personality, and I have always been that way, even as a child. My daughter shares this trait with me, and it brings a smile to my face when she gets excited to clean out our toys, sort through the books on her bookshelf, or go through her closet to switch clothes for the next season.
While I love finding new ways to stay organized, I do not love shopping. It is just not my thing. On a beautiful, sunny day, I would much rather be home doing just about anything than at the grocery store, mall, or Target.
Of course, with a family of four, there are certain things that we need to buy and as a stay-at-home mom, doing the shopping is really part of my job. So, I have found what seems to me to be the most efficient and organized way to accomplish the family shopping. Today's post will focus on grocery shopping, but I will talk about other errands in future posts.
Top 7 Things to Make My Grocery Shopping Efficient
1. Create a Meal Plan. I always try to sit down on the weekend for about a half hour and plan my upcoming week, which includes meal planning. I know some people plan out all of their meals, but I usually just plan dinner. I literally take a piece of loose-leaf paper and write the days of the week in the left margin. Then, I just write the dinner next to it. We usually have a main course, starch, and two veggies (or fruit).
I take out my calendar and see what we have going on for the week and how much time we will have to prepare and eat dinner each night. This might sound strange, but I also check the weather forecast. If the weather looks really humid one day, I might not choose to use the oven (we do not have central air conditioning) or if it looks like a very hot day, we might end up taking a day trip the beach, so we might not have much time for dinner. Obviously, the weather changes, but at least I have a basic plan.
One more thing about meal planning---I keep meals simple on week nights. I choose one night to make breakfast for dinner, one night for pasta or homemade pizza, usually a couple of nights for chicken or fish, and one night for ground beef. On the weekend, I try to cook one special dinner and then usually one really easy night, like leftovers or sandwiches.
2. Flyers and Coupons. Next, I take the flyers for two local grocery stores and make a list of what is on sale that our family uses. When something is on sale that keeps for a while (like cereal or even orange juice), I usually buy 6 at a time to stock up.
I also keep a coupon file (small, purse-size one) in my kitchen. Before grocery shopping, I look through my coupons to see if any are due to expire and if I want to add those items to my list.
3. Printable Grocery List: I have created a grocery list as a Word document on my computer. It is organized the way our local Market Basket is organized, so it keeps me organized once I am in the store. It is written in a check list style, so I print it out (3 pages) and walk through our kitchen, checking off what we need. I have lots of extra margin room on the pages, so I can write down sale prices or other notes.
4. Shop Once and On Weekdays: I normally do one big grocery shopping trip once a week, usually on the same day each week (right now, that day is Monday). I almost always go when the kids are at school or at night, avoiding daytime on the weekends whenever possible. Our store is so crowded on weekends that it is just not an effective use of my time. It literally takes twice as long, and I usually leave the store exhausted and weary.
5. Get Ready: If my printable list has a lot of notes on it, I might re-write it onto a simple vertical notepad. That way, it is very pared down and a smaller size, so it is easy to hold while shopping. I put all the coupons I am going to use in my wallet, put my list in my purse, and have it all ready to do once my son gets on the bus.
6. Post-Shopping Review: Usually, once I get home from grocery shopping, I do a quick check over my list and make a note of the items I could not get at Market Basket, our primary grocery store. If there are a few things we really need, I will then know that I need to make another trip, this time to Stop and Shop. I usually go there another day of the week.
7. Keep Shelves and Storage for Stocking Up: We have shelves and an extra refrigerator in the basement, where I can keep extra items on which I have stocked up. To me, that is one of the biggest money savers---when items go on sale, I always try to stock up. You just need a space to keep those things, so we have made a small space for this in the basement, which has really worked for us.
