How to Create Effective Shopping Lists

Do you dart around the grocery store like a chicken with its head cut
off? Invest the time to organize your shopping list, and every trip to
come will be a breeze. The most effective lists are based on the layout
of your supermarket.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Set aside a distraction- or child-free hour and take a clipboard to your grocery store. Map out the store's floor plan, aisle by aisle, listing the products stocked on each aisle.

2. Go home and set up a master list on the computer based on the floor plan. Fit your list onto a single page using one column for each aisle. You don't want to hassle with stapling papers and sorting printouts.

3. Make space for quantities before each item; you can fill those in before each shopping trip.

4. Include boxes or bullets next to each item so they can be checked off as you put them in your cart.

5. Underline regular purchases for each aisle. For instance, if you buy skim milk or crackers every week, underline it--you can always cross items off the list if you don't need them.

6. Check your pantry and refrigerator for specific staples such as rice wine vinegar. Add them to the template.

7. Consult your weekly menu (see 297 Plan a Week of Menus) to pencil in ingredients you'll need for nightly dinners.

8. Leave plenty of blank lines for additional items to add as needed.

9. Test your list and make any edits to the master template. Aim for a fluid trip from one end of the store to the other.

10. Print several copies of the master and keep them in your household organizer.

11. Post your weekly shopping list in your kitchen, where the hungry masses can see it. Train them to highlight items that need replacement. See 3 Write an Effective To-Do List and 265 Create a Household Organizer. Add anything you'll need to buy as soon as you notice you're running short.

Tips & Warnings

• Make and post a separate list for discount warehouse chains that includes paper products, cleaning supplies, vitamins and anything else you regularly purchase. See 129 Store Bulk Purchases.
• Create a seasonal shopping list of farmers' market produce.
• Download lists to your personal digital assistant and check off items as you go.
• Some stores have maps. Ask the store's manager or a checkout clerk for one to base your master shopping list on.
• There are dozens of shopping lists available online. Do a search for "grocery shopping list" and select one that fits your needs. You can edit and rearrange it as needed.

on 8/29/2006 When my parents shop, they always go to certain areas of the store in a certain order. Say the place is really big; Looking down upon it (the entrance is at the bottom), there are aisles on the right and left, food and such on the top, and books, furniture, clothes, etc. in the middle. We first go between the right aisles and the middle. I head to the book section. When I get out, my parents are usually at the food section. We go through from right to left, getting anything we need. Then we proceed down the left between the aisles and the middle. That way we can get around to all the places without zigzagging everywhere.