The Power Of A Grocery Shopping List

Photo Credit: http://faycglasshalffull.blogspot.com

I hate writing lists, and I don’t particularly enjoy shopping. Not all women do apparently.

Because I’m a disorganized shopper, I find myself in the supermarket more often than I wish, and it just aggravates my hatred for supermarkets. Three days ago for example, I went to do my monthly house shopping. While I actually had a full cart at the end of my shopping trip, I was back there yesterday to pick two things I’d forgotten, ended up buying four (on the second trip I “discovered” two other things that I needed), forgetting one other item which I’ll by later this week.

This month, I realized I need to develop a love for shopping lists, because as boring as it is to list all the things you need to buy, a shopping list helps you focus in the supermarket and tells you exactly what you need. You shouldn’t rely on your memory in a supermarket for reasons:

1. You end up wandering the aisles aimlessly which means you spend more time in the store than you would wish to, trying to remember all the things you need.

2. Spending more time in the supermarket means increased likelihood of buying things you don’t need. Supermarkets are planned to encourage this, by placing the “shiny wants” at eye level, and the “less shiny needs” above your eye level. For example, tissue paper is always on the top shelf, while the fancy colorful wet tissues and dry tissues are at eye level. This is the same for all essential items and their not so essential “sisters”. You want to spend as little time in the supermarket as possible.

A shopping list supplements your memory and without it you’re relying on imperfect memory to recall the staples you’ll need. Do you need milk? How much? How about bread? Cheese? Bananas? Are your friends coming over next weekend? What do you plan to cook for them? What do you feel like cooking this week? Without a proper list, you’re likely to end up with half the ingredients you need for that dinner you have coming up.

With a well-prepared grocery list, you can rely on that and nothing else. You just head for the products you need. Even without developing a meal plan, a grocery list is a useful thing. Just leave it out on your refrigerator and jot down items as you notice you need them. If you have that in hand, then you don’t need to worry about staples, which means you spend less time in the supermarket, staring at shelves trying to remember what you need, and at the end of the day you spend less.

A grocery list is a frugal shopper’s best friend, never go shopping without it.

Do you shop using a list?