The Perfect Grocery Shopping List

Jane Alais is the creator of DeclutterBeFree.com and the author of “Get Organized-Get Happy, A Step-By-Step Guide to Organize Success in Your Home and Your Life,”  and continues to learn and teach the skills to become clutter free and organized.  Visit her web site at http://www.declutterbefree.com/

Discover how to organize the perfect grocery shopping list so you can reduce your grocery bill by 20% and save hours of time every week. A good grocery shopping list prevents impulse and over buying, keeps you on track with your food budget, gets you organizing your meals and makes you a better comparison shopper plus eliminates the need for expensive take away. It can save you hours a week by making your shopping quicker and prevent those time consuming expensive one off runs to the supermarket because there is nothing for lunch tomorrow or you are missing one ingredient for dinner tonight.

Take an A4 paper and make ten small columns or make a permanent copy on your computer that you can print out. Once you have made your columns follow these five organizing tips for the best grocery shopping list ever.

Create food categories and organize your food into groups to make sure you include everything you need. Some common categories are: Fruit, Vegetables, Dairy and Eggs, Meat, Bread and Cereal, Pasta and sauces, Deli and Condiments which are any thing that add flavor to food such as spices, ketchup and mustards.

Mentally walk through your supermarket and write down your categories in the same order you find them in the store. This alone can reduce your shopping trip by half an hour and eliminate back tracking, running around and looking for things as well as forgetting items.

Add categories for those special items you buy in specialty shops. If you like to buy bread at a special bakery or fish at another shop make a category with the shop’s name and add the items you want to buy there to your list.

Fill in your regular purchases ASAP. Most families require the same things in the same amounts every week, such as milk, bread and cereal so as soon as you make your list add in your regular purchases as soon as your new list is made.

Set limits and amounts as you fill in your grocery list. Start to think in how many bags, boxes, pieces and amounts you need. Left over items you buy less of the next week, items that were eaten and enjoyed you can buy more of. Don’t over buy perishable food but larger amounts of dry goods may be cheaper in the long run. Just looking at amounts can reduce wasted food, lets you tailor your grocery list to your family’s needs and makes your money go further.

Put your grocery shopping list on your fridge so anyone can add a food item that has just run out. Add to your list when you think of something you will need to buy so when it comes to your grocery shopping day your list is almost done and completing the list takes minutes. Make a perfect grocery list for you, so life can be a little easier and shopping for food is a pleasure and not a chore.

Need help with organizing? See http://www.declutterbefree.comand get a free report.

Jane Alais is a professional organizer, the creator of Declutter Befree and the author of Get Organized-Get Happy A Step by Step Guide to Organize Success in Your Home and Your Life. She writes about strategies and solutions that make life easier by deluttering, organizing and energizing your home and your life.