Food Shopping Organisation

I’m ridiculously proud about my organisation skills when it comes to doing the weekly food shop. I recently shared how I do it with a couple of my friends and they were pretty impressed by it, so I thought I’d share it with you guys to see if it could help you too!

J and I used to do click and collect at Asda because it was easier, but since an Aldi opened in Brighton with a car park, we started shopping there and found that a lot of the items are cheaper, although we have to try to stay away from the middle aisles ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

We go shopping on the same day every week which really helps me to keep organised!

Getting set up:

I use an app called One Note that J and I both have access to. I like One Note because you can create categories and pages within those categories, plus you can create tick lists ๐Ÿ˜€

In our food category, we have one page called meal planner which is a list of dinner ideas that have links to the recipes. They’re all separated into different categories like chicken dishes, vegetarian meals and air fryer recipes to make it easy to see. The chicken noodle stir fry in red is something we’ve tried and don’t really like and the risotto in yellow is a meal that’s “okay”.

On a second page (called dinners) there’s a weekly menu table at the top of the page so I can easily see what we’re having for dinner for the week.

Underneath we have a tick list of items we usually buy like milk, pasta, veg, food for lunches, condiments etc. This used to be separated into categories according to our kitchen like fridge, freezer, larder etc, but we found that the aisles in Aldi didn’t correlate that well, so I changed the categories slightly so that we could walk up and down each aisle in turn without having to rush off across the supermarket to pick up something. (And yes, that does say parsnipples ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚)

 

There’s even a section for J if I’m out at a blog event so I know if I need to get him something easy to cook (his fibromyalgia can make cooking difficult).

How it works:

The night before we go shopping, I’ll choose 6 meals to eat over the next week and I copy and paste them into the weekly menu.

I then go through each recipe to see what ingredients I’ll need and what I already have (after doing this for a few weeks, you’ll pretty much know what food you have in the house). Sometimes when I run out of inspiration I’ll just put something like “check deals in Aldi” or “decide next week” then we can choose something on the day!!

I then make sure all the items on our tick list and unticked. Once that’s done, I go into the kitchen and bathroom, ticking off any items we already have or anything we don’t need that week because it’s not on the menu. Anything we do need, I’ll leave unticked. (If there are any one-off items I’ll add it just for that week, for example if we wanted frozen onion, I’ll add them in the frozen veg section and delete it the following week.)

Once I’m left with a list of unticked items, I can go and sit down to relax because I know exactly what I need to add to the trolley the next evening ๐Ÿ˜€

Going shopping:

Because the tick list is set up for Aldi, all I have to do is start and the beginning of the list, walk up and down each aisle in turn, adding what I need to the trolley and ticking it off once I’ve got it!

If they’re out of something, there’s a section at the top (Thursday pick up list) that I can add items to for J can pick up after work the next day ๐Ÿ™‚

The end result:

We generally spend around ยฃ35-40 a week, which isn’t too bad for a family of three (me, J and Mr Bear of course), mostly because I know exactly what we have and don’t end up buying chicken breasts only to find there are three bags in the freezer when we get home!! We also check the price per 100g or 1kg to find the cheapest items which also saves money!

I hope this little insight into how I organise my food shopping has been useful for you ๐Ÿ™‚

Do you organise your shopping like me or are you a “go when there’s no food and throw anything in the basket” kind of shopper? Let me know in the comments below ๐Ÿ™‚ x

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14 Comments

  1. This is a great way to go shopping Holly. We usually plan our meals for the week but going shopping for dinner each evening. This is because space is very limited! So buying more than we need for that day or bulk buying is not possible unfortunately. Meal planning is an invaluable way to help save money.

    1. Oh that really sucks ๐Ÿ™ Meal planning is still great though, as you’re still only really buying what you need for that evening’s meal, right?

  2. This is actually awesome planning. Iโ€™m a gluttonous mess when I go shopping โ€” literally throwing all sorts of crap into my trolley. I tried to stop that by doing online shopping and having it delivered, but I buy more that way because I donโ€™t need to lug it home. I canโ€™t win ๐Ÿ™„

    I wish I had your organisational skills!
    Great post!

    Kim | https://www.ukwordgirl.com

    1. Thank you ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ˜Š We still add random crap that we don’t really need but we try not to do it that often lol!
      Ahaha I like your reasoning ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

  3. Iโ€™m impressed! I love food and I love organising so this is the perfect post for me. I shop in Aldi too but I buy pretty much the same things every week (and our Aldi is tiny) so most of the time I donโ€™t need a list, unless Iโ€™m buying something we donโ€™t buy that often like toiletries or condiments.

    Nicola
    http://nicshealthylife.co.uk

    1. Thank you! I love being organised!
      Just after I got the list sorted according to the aisles, they bloody changed them ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

  4. Thatโ€™s a good way to do the food shop! Weโ€™ve been getting into food prep so I make a big batch of something for my lunches during the week (usually soup) and something for dinner each night. We pick something exciting so we donโ€™t mind eating it all week, but itโ€™s got us eating much better so we donโ€™t go for something fatty and quick, weโ€™re saving money and freeing up lots of time in the evenings for other things. We tend to go to the supermarket and see what looks good, and basically plan a meal in the shop, so your way might be something for us to try, so we donโ€™t impulse buy extra stuff or forget the milk! Thanks for sharing!

  5. This was a really interesting and helpful post, will definitely be pinching your list idea thank you!

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