Do you ever feel like you spend way too much unnecessary time (and money) at the grocery store? I feel like there are weeks when I’m running to the store every other day! If you’d like to grocery shop less often, a pretty realistic goal could be shopping once a week. In this post, I’m going to show you how to grocery shop for a week so you don’t have to do any mid-week trips to the store.
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How to Grocery Shop for a Week: 5 Things to Try
I think it’s common for people to feel like they grocery shop once a week. After all, most of us who work during the week head to the store over the weekend for our main trip to the store.
But how often are we still stopping into the grocery store on a Wednesday evening to pick up a loaf of bread and then walking back out with three bags of groceries? Keeping your grocery trips to ONLY one day a week can save you time AND money.
If you’re finding it hard to grocery shop for a week at a time, here are some tips to help you avoid mid-week trips and ultimately grocery shop less often:
1. Keep a Running Grocery List
The first thing you can do to significantly reduce the chances of a mid-week grocery run is to keep a running list of things you need. That way, when you’re getting ready to sit down and write out your grocery list, you won’t forget those things that popped into your mind three days ago.
It’s so helpful to have a place for your kids to write things down as they’re running low on items. This could be as simple as a list on the fridge, or it could be a shared digital grocery list. No matter what you decide to do, just make sure that you’ll set up a running grocery list in a place that you’ll actually notice and use it!
Our family uses a shared list in the Reminders iPhone app. I created a new list, labeled it as our family grocery list, and then added each of my family members as collaborators. That way, they can easily add things to the list throughout the week. If they try to verbally add to the grocery list by saying “Mom, I’m running out of hair gel,” as I’m packing lunches in the morning, I just remind them to add it to the list.
2. Create a Meal Plan
The next step is to create a meal plan that you will use for the week. I have written a post that goes into more detail about how to meal plan or you can also watch this video with my meal planning method.
But to summarize, a meal plan is just outlining the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that you’re going to be making on the days between grocery store trips. I use what I call the A-B-C-D-E method to do this:
A – Start by looking at what you Already Have in your pantry and fridge. Are there things that need to be used up soon? Do you have ingredients that you can use instead of buying more?
B – Then you’ll look at the Bargains in the store circulars. By centering your meal plan on sales, you can save a significant amount of money each week!
C – The next step is to look at your Calendar. Do you need to bring snacks to the soccer game on Saturday? Is there a day that would benefit from a slow cooker meal or no-prep dinner?
D – Once you have all of that figured out, it’s time to decide on your Dinners for the week. I start with dinners first because that is usually the most ingredient-intensive meal of the day. Often, we can use our dinner leftovers for lunch and breakfasts are usually pretty predictable.
E – Finally, you’ll plan Everything Else and get the ingredients for your breakfasts and lunches on your grocery list.
3. Consolidate Ingredients for Grocery List
Once you have your meals figured out, it’s time to consolidate the ingredients that you’ll need for each of those meals. For example, if two of your recipes call for tomato sauce, you’ll want to total the amount of tomato sauce you’ll need. It sounds simple, but I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve written “tomato sauce” on my list, purchased one can, and then remembered I actually needed two (or three!) for the week.
Now that I use Plan to Eat (referral link), the consolidation happens automatically and it saves me so much time on this step of the grocery planning process.
4. Be Strategic
One of the biggest hurdles to meal planning is the actual execution of the plan. There are so many things that can impact the plans you’ve made and trigger a mid-week grocery store run. So it’s important to be strategic with things like:
- Your Schedule: Don’t plan a huge, involved meal for a day that you have a stressful meeting planned at work. Unless cooking is how you decompress, that’s just a trip to the grocery store (or drive-thru) waiting to happen.
- Your Ingredients: Certain ingredients just last longer in the fridge than others. For example, make sure you use recipes using berries earlier in the week. Otherwise, when you go to make your meal with fresh strawberries, you’ll discover that they’re already moldy and you’ll need to run to the store for more.
- Your Leftovers: I am a huge fan of using leftovers to prevent meal planning mishaps! If I know we’re going to have a busy evening, I’ll plan a meal with a lot of leftovers for the night before. (For our family, that’s red beans and rice.) That way, I don’t have to cook at all on that busy evening…we can just reheat our meal from the night before.
5. Grab Some Shelf-Stable Extras
Finally, we all know that plans can change at the drop of a hat over the course of seven days. That’s why I always suggest grabbing some shelf-stable and freezeable extras that you can use for a meal when you’re in a pinch. That way, you don’t have to rely on a last-minute run to the store for fresh produce, meat, or dairy in order to get dinner on the table. If you don’t like the planned meal for the day, you can just use your shelf-stable extras instead of running to the store for something else.
Here are some things that I love to have on hand in my pantry at all times:
- Canned Beans: As much as I love how cheap it is to use dry beans, I always have every variety of our family’s favorite canned beans in the cupboard. That way, I can quickly make a taco soup or chili with pantry items if I’m ever in a time crunch.
- Pasta and Sauce: This is a go-to fallback dinner that keeps us out of the grocery store mid-week.
- Brownie or Cake Mix: I love to keep some mixes on hand for the inevitable 5:00pm realization that we need to bring a treat to youth group that night. It also helps with the mid-week grocery store or drive-thru runs when I’m craving a “little treat.”
- Canned Fruit and Vegetables: For a quick and easy side dish. (I also keep bags of frozen veggies on hand for the same reason.)
- Cooked and Frozen Chicken and Ground Beef: I love to grab some pre-cooked meat from the freezer. It saves so much time when the motivation to cook is low! My Copycat Chicken Rice-a-Roni is a go-to shelf-stable meal that I use with frozen chicken and shelf-stable ingredients.
By coming up with your own list of pantry must-haves, you’ll be able to have a bank of last-minute dinner options when your meal plan falls through for one reason or another.
The Best Tool for Your Weekly Grocery List
One of my favorite tools for saving time on grocery shopping each week is the Plan to Eat app. This amazing app makes it so simple to make a meal plan and an organized grocery list. That way, I can make sure we have everything we need for the week.
I also love the feature that adds our planned meals directly to my iPhone calendar, so I don’t even need to open the app to remind myself of the plan! This keeps the meal plan at the top of mind and avoids the “what’s for dinner” panic trips to the store.
If this sounds like something that can help you keep your grocery trips to once a week, you can sign up for a free trial! It’s a no-strings-attached free trial, meaning they don’t even ask for your credit card information. Thanks for using my affiliate link to tell them I sent you! (Plus, you’ll get 20% off your first annual subscription if you decide to upgrade.)
Save These Tips for Weekly Grocery Shopping
Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily find these meal planning tips whenever you feel like you’re spending too much time at the grocery store!
