Making A List, Checking It Twice

I promised a post on making your grocery list, and here it is!

Once you've made your menu, you should have a bunch of recipes set aside with lists of ingredients. There are plenty of ways to make your list, but the key is sticking to it! :) We all go to the grocery store, and something's on sale..."Ooo, that sounds good...." so we buy it, and then we come home, and it goes with nothing else we bought, and then it goes bad before we end up eating it. Stick to the list, and this will happen a LOT less often - I can't promise it will NEVER happen, because things sound good, we buy them, they go bad, and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it, but at least it will curb the spending a little bit!

I have an iPhone app that comes in extremely handy for my grocery list. It's called Shopper, and I think it goes for 99 cents. It has a lot of features which I haven't really explored, but the basic list is perfect for me. You can do the same thing on a piece of paper, or in a Word doc...whatever.

Take your recipes that you chose for the menu, and write down all the ingredients. If there are duplicates, say, two recipes call for leeks, make note of it, but don't write it down twice. Once you have your complete list, go through your pantry, and check off (or cross out) all the things that you already have. Maybe you bought soy sauce for a meal last week, and you still have half a bottle. You don't need to buy more! Once you've done that, you have your list!

You'll also learn, with time, how to plan your menus to maximize your purchases. If a recipe calls for fresh rosemary, and you buy a whole pack of it, but don't use it any other recipe, it is bound to go bad at some point. I try and take that into consideration when I plan my menu. Say, there's three different recipes that need fresh rosemary...I'm much more likely to use up my purchase that way, then if I only need one sprig, but buy a whole package. It's okay if it doesn't always work out this way...but if you try and make it a habit, you'll find that you are doing it without even realizing it.

Now, when you go to the grocery store, you have a set list that corresponds to the meals that you are going to make while you are at home. If you are going to make sides to go with your main course (always a good idea!), make sure those items are included in your list as well. I also try and group them in my list by area of the store, so that I can go through one section, while I send my husband off to gather things from another section. It's an adventure for him, I think! :)

I hope this makes sense, and that some of you try it out. Let me know how it works out for you...and if you find that something else works better for you...PLEASE SHARE! I'm always interested in new and fun ways of doing things! If you have questions, totally ask them! If they require a long answer, I'll use it as a post one day; otherwise I'll just respond directly in the comments.