Meal Planning

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Update! I’ve created a new version of my Grocery Shopping List to coordinate with other documents I’ve recently made.

I made these weekly meal planning and grocery shopping papers to help me plan our meals and make my grocery shopping trips as efficient as possible. I love grocery lists that are organized by product type and store location because I hate to grocery shop, and I enjoy it even less when I reach the end of a trip only to realize the last item I need is at the other end of the store where I started. Ugh. By this point, my 15 month old is usually pretty fussy, and I can’t blame him. He enjoys grocery shopping about as much as I do. I like to avoid meldowns at all costs (my kids’ and my own) so I organize my lists by types of food. This way I’m able to grab everything I need as I go and get out of the store as soon as possible.

Another great feature of these lists, they increase husband efficiency too! I love to have my husband at home as much as possible because: 1) I love his company and 2) I’m a stay at home mom so any help and relief I can get is much appreciated. The sooner he can get home from an errand the better.

Once I started using these I realized they solved another problem for me too. Before creating this chart I would frequently write down the meals we were going to have and then the shopping list below. I’d take the paper with me only to promptly throw it away once the shopping was done. Um… what were we having for dinner again? Oops. Now I plan my meals, list my needed items, and before I go to the store I cut above the circles and “Shopping List” title. That portion stays on the refrigerator while the list accompanies me to the store. Now I always know what we’re going to have for dinner.

I made a general list:

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I’m always looking for better and faster ways to do things so I’m curious, what tips and tricks do you use to meal plan and keep grocery trips as short as possible?