Grocery Shopping - Master Shopping List
Peter Fournier and Catherine Fournier
Grocery shopping is both a science and an art. It is definitely a skill worth learning and practicing. It has direct benefits to your family's health and well-being. One important part of the skill of grocery shopping is the list. With a list, you can plan your menu for the week to take advantage of sales and bulk purchases. With a list, you can plan ahead to take advantage of seasonal abundances. With a list, you can even send someone else to shop!
There are many benefits to a Master Grocery Shopping list.
- Shopping with a master list helps to remember all your family's needs and helps eliminate impulse purchases (which grocery stores are designed to encourage, by the way.)
- A master list standarizes your shopping and reduces the likelihood that you forget anything when writing your list. It can be printed out and posted in the kitchen, so that when you run out of something, the list is there to mark it down.
- Estimating and then including budget limits on each category helps to figure out 'where the money goes', how to use your grocery money most efficiently and when you are getting close to overspending.
This is our family's master list. Yours will be different, depending on how your family lives, where you live, what your cooking and food preferences are. Use it as a guideline to writing your own list. I suggest that you click on this page, save it to your disk and then open it in whatever word processing program you have to change the list to suit your family. Try to keep it on one page, (I have mine arranged in 3 columns) even if you have to make it really small - who wants to shop with a two or three page list?
Baking Supplies: Baking Powder Beverages: Coffee Ready Baked Goods: Bread |
Dairy: Eggs Condiments and Sandwich Fixings: Peanut Butter Herbs and Spices: Canned Goods: Tomatoes Meat: Chicken |
Bulk Purchases; Toiletries and Cleaners: Bar Soap Fruit and Vegetables: Onions |
Return to Stewardship Page.