Grocery List Template

It's a snow day today in every sense of the word. The drifts are high around the house, and it's lovely to see our ground-level windows banked with snow. Since Kardelen's ECFE class was canceled due to the thirty-to forty-below windchill, the girls and I stayed warm and cozy at home. It was a carefree morning, playing together and doing whatever we found to do.

One of the projects I looked forward to working on is my printed grocery list. For the last few weeks, my grocery list has looked like this, and it's driven me crazy:
I wanted to get back to my old way of writing things down as I think of them on a pre-printed list, organized according to the store aisles. The list was always ready to grab at a moment's notice for an organized, sane shopping trip. (Unlike the Wal-Mart + holiday season + disorganized list equation, which always results in disaster.) I first wrote the template last winter, when I was grocery shopping for two weeks at a time. It made the huge trip go much faster!

As my last copy is gone since we no longer have the software it was written on, I sat down this morning and made a new one. It still needs some fine-tuning, but I'm happy to have my nice organized list back! Click here to see how it turned out. (You'll notice there aren't many things on the list, but remember these are the items we buy frequently, not our entire grocery list. I always write in items throughout the week.)

For those who live in my area and shop at the same Wal-Mart, feel free to use my list if you like. (To print it, scroll your cursor over the iPaper button next to the small Scribd logo.) I'll even e-mail it to you in a non-PDF document if you'd like to suit it to your family's needs (just e-mail me).

Here's how I made it, in case you'd like to make one.

1. Make a list of the aisles in your store, and summarize the items found in each. For example, Aisle 13: dish soap, ziplocs, cleaners, paper goods. You'll probably want to actually go to the store to do this. You can use the signs hanging above each aisle if you like, but feel free to skip listing some of the items if you never buy them. And feel free to add in ones that aren't listed, but will be on your shopping list frequently.

2. Add to it. Once you've typed these into a word processing program, begin adding frequently-purchased items under each aisle number. I figure that if we're going to buy peanut butter every few weeks, I'll save time by typing it on the list, then simply circling peanut butter when we need it. Then I won't have to write the words over and over again.

3. Fine-tune your list. If you regularly buy two kinds of milk, simplify to just one entry by writing milk (whole, skim). When you need skim milk, just circle the word skim. Another way to save space: combine aisles under one heading if there are very few things you'll buy from them.

If there are aisles that flank the side of the store, write the items sold there under the number of the nearest aisle. You'll see on my list that lunch meat is listed under Aisles 9 & 10, even though those aisles hold snacks and cereal. Remember, it's all about how you'll walk through the store on shopping day. You want to make it as easy on yourself as possible.

4. Print and enjoy. Hang the printed grocery list on your fridge (or wherever you'd like) and begin using it. Circle the items you need and write in those items not listed under the correct aisle number. If you use a pencil, you'll be able to re-use your list many times before you need to print another. Just make sure you have an eraser handy after each shopping trip.


Do you have any grocery shopping tips to share? I'd love to learn them!