Groceries: Saving Time and Money

Critically Thinking about Grocery Shopping

I usually cover what might be called “serious” topics (COVID to Climate). That said, it’s hard to overstate the importance of the role that food plays in our daily life. At a minimum, it has a substantial impact on time, money, health, and sociability. Today I’m only going to discuss one important aspect of this: grocery shopping.

My wife has some serious health challenges (e.g., Parkinson’s) so it was necessary for me to step in to help her on a variety of fronts. One example is that I now weekly go grocery shopping with her. To my surprise, we were able to make this somewhat mundane activity into a semi-enjoyable experience.

When I first started I asked her how she put together her list of grocery items needed.

I suspect her answer was like a lot of people: at home, she had a pad where she wrote down things needed as they occurred to her. Then she took that written list to the grocery store and crossed off items as she put them into her cart. After politely going along with her 50± year tradition (we just had our 50th anniversary) a few times, I couldn’t take it anymore.

She would have a general route through the store, but at every different section, she would have to review the 4-5 pages of her notes to see what was needed in this part. This very slow procedure went on and on throughout the store. Then when she thought she was done, she would go through the entire list again (for the twentieth time), and usually say — oops, I forgot to get something (e.g., bread). We then went back to aisle 7 to retrieve that lost sheep.

What was worse was after we returned home (or on the next day or two) she would say: Uh-ho, I forgot to put XYZ on the list. It’s important, so we (I) have to go back again… The bottom line was that everything about this procedure screamed of inefficiency. I’m an organized person, so this was like scraping fingernails on the chalkboard. Maybe it was just me.

In any case, I took it upon myself to come up with a more efficient methodology. I thought things would go much more smoothly (and more quickly) if we had an Excel list of needed items to cross off after they were put in the cart. Of course, the list would be arranged in a way that was convenient for us to move throughout the store (clockwise).

Further, it would be helpful to have a printed-out Excel Master List for my wife to work with each week at home. When she thought of something, she simply would check it off (a lot easier than writing out “6 oz can of Starkist Tuna in water”).

Even more beneficial would be that before leaving for the grocery store, she would do a quick scan of her Master List to see if she should add anything else that did not occur to her during the week. (Note: this happens frequently.)

The last step before departing to the store would be to quickly delete all the unneeded items, and print out just what was left. Typically this came out to be one page of items-to-be-bought on this trip. We put this on a clipboard, and keep it in the cart. As items are put in the cart, I cross them off. (BTW, as we are going throughout the store, we still keep a sharp eye out for special sales, etc., that are off-list items to add.)

One result is that the grocery expedition now takes 45 to 60 minutes in the store, compared to 90 to 120 minutes before. We also have not had to make any second trips back to get forgotten items.

The only time-consuming part of this method is in the beginning: create a list of frequently purchased items and sequentially arrange them (per the store).

I’m going to make this much easier for you, by giving you a downloadable, editable Excel version. To see what it looks like, see the PDF version of my model Grocery Shopping List. At the bottom of each list, I’ve added notes about how to get started.

If you have any suggestions for improving this process, let me know!

PS — Just so you don’t get the idea that my wife is completely disorganized: prior to grocery shopping she writes out her planned menus for the next week. This is very helpful in deciding which grocery items we need to get. Kudos to her for that!

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Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?)

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