We’ve been talking about 7 Habits of Eating at Home in a brand new series for the last couple of weeks. Our goal is to make the habit of eating at home low stress and high success–without spending hours of time in the kitchen preparing or cooking food. You can read the first habit about picking recipes that fit your schedule here. This week we’ll be focusing on some quick and simple grocery shopping tips.
I went on Facebook Live and talked about all of my favorite tips and tricks, and demoed one of our favorite 15-minute meals! If you didn’t catch that, you can view the replay here.
Habit #2 – Keep grocery shopping quick and simple
Grocery shopping can be time-consuming and tedious sometimes. Without a plan, it’s easy to come home with much more than you intended (and go over budget) or forget essentials and hvae to make extra trips. Here are a few ideas to make grocery shopping faster:
1. Organize your list by aisle of the store
If you’re an Eat at Home Meal Plan member, this step is done for you and it’s color-coded too so you know which ingredients are for which recipe. If you’re not a member, go through the recipes you’ve chosen to make during the week and add all the ingredients to the list in the categories you’d find them in the store.
My lists (and those we create for members) have these categories:
- Produce
- Canned/Dry
- Dairy
- Meat
- Bread
- Other
2. Keep a running list of things you run out of during the week
I’ve learned that the best place for me to keep this list is in my planner, but you may like keeping a piece of paper on the fridge instead. You might also have a chalkboard or dry-erase board in the kitchen you could use. However, you keep the list, get in the habit of adding items to it as you run low on them.
3. Shop with purpose
Once you hit the store, shop with purpose. This means have your list in your hand, grab your cart and go. Focus on the list and don’t get sidetracked by other items and aisles. Move quickly through the store and check those items off your list!
4. Work from the back of the store to the front
5. Try online ordering with store pickup
Many grocery stores now offer this, including Walmart. I can’t sing the praises of this service enough! It’s such a time saver. I put my Eat at Home grocery list in one tab and have the Walmart site open in another tab. Moving between the two to add the items to my cart only takes a few minutes to complete the order.
Schedule a pickup for when you’re already out doing errands. It’s so convenient and easy! If you haven’t tried it before, you can get $10 off by signing up here.
6. Check out Amazon Pantry
The prices aren’t always comparable to in-store prices in every area, but sometimes you can snag a great deal on pantry staples and have them shipped right to your door! I haven’t tried it myself, but I have a friend who uses it regularly and it saves her time and money! You can order other household staples and fit up to 45 lbs in a box. Each month, there are featured items and if you buy five of those, you get free shipping too. She uses this to stock up on toiletry items, band-aids, and cleaning supplies as well as pantry basics. They have a nice variety of organic and gluten-free options as well. Keeping an eye out and buying things you need anyway can make Prime Pantry a great time-saving choice!
