Updated Sep. 6, 2019. Originally published Sep. 28, 2009.
Why Should I Have a Master Grocery Shopping List?
It will save you time. If you don’t have a master shopping list, you will have to do the same work all over again every time you prepare to go to the grocery store. With a master grocery list, you do most of the work just once. It only takes a few minutes every month for me to mark off what I need on my master list.
It will also help prevent your forgetting things. The only things I forget to buy are those I haven’t yet added to my master list, because the list itself serves as a reminder. A master list is also (slightly!) more likely to be used by the rest of the family to help you stay on top of what’s been used up.
So How Do I Make My Customized Master Grocery List?
There are multiple ways you could do this. I’m going to explain how I created my own list, because it’s what works for me. If it doesn’t suit your needs, you can use it as a starting point.
List Everything You Buy
The first thing you’ll need to do is make a list of the things you normally buy. This is the time-consuming part. You might want to start with someone else’s master list (you can get mine farther down the page.) and/or your old grocery-store receipts. Don’t worry about perfection. You’ll probably want to make up the list and then refine it over the course of the next few trips to the grocery store.
Sort the List
Now sort your list. You can sort it by categories, if you like, but I prefer to sort by aisle in the store I usually shop in. If it’s sorted by categories, I find myself going all over the store and then having to go back and look for things I missed. If it’s sorted by aisle, I can go straight up and down whichever aisles I need to, and not skip over things by accident (usually).
If you decide to sort your list by aisle, it will be slightly more time-consuming initially, but should save you time in the long run. There are a couple ways to do this.
The first time I made a master grocery list, I made the list without aisle numbers, then took a trip to the store to write down all the aisle numbers. When I got home I reorganized the list.
Then we moved and I had to reorganize my list again. The second time I took my digital camera to the store with me when I did my shopping. (This was before the days of cell phones; folks probably thought I was crazy.) I took pictures of each of the aisle signs. I still had to do some fine-tuning, but those pictures provided me with a pretty good idea of what was on each aisle.
Format the Final Grocery List
Formatting your list is the final step. I’m going to provide my own list at the bottom of this page in a couple different file formats. One is in PDF format in case you just want to see it. The other is in DOC format. That’s the file I created in Microsoft Word and should be editable if you want to use it as a starting point for your own list.
Get my list in DOC and PDF formats.
If you’re interested in formatting your list like mine, but don’t have Word or a compatible alternative (like LibreOffice), this is what I did:
My list is printed on standard 8.5×11-inch paper, sideways (landscape). The top and bottom margins are set to .25″, the left and right margins at .46″. The list is 4 columns. This allows me to fold the sheet of paper in half and work with only half (8.5×5.5 inches) at a time. That’s much easier for me to work with in the store, especially if I have my children with me. (And of course you can look at the PDF to see what that looks like.)
How Do You Use Your Custom List?
Mark What You Need (Obviously)
When I’m ready to go to the store, I put check marks in the blanks of the items I need, or the number of items I need, or initials of those who need the item (in the case of toiletries). In other words, I might put a check mark beside milk, 2 lbs. beside cheese, and an M and/or R beside shampoo.
Plan Ahead for Pricing
I also write estimated prices to the right of each item. I save my old receipts (not forever! just for a few months) and used to have to look all of these up, but now I remember most of them. I add everything up on my calculator before I leave, and make sure I’m within my budget. If not, I can decide right then what adjustments to make, rather than having to do it “on the fly” at the store, which can be really stressful. I always estimate high and my bill is never as much as I anticipate it to be.
I also make a note beside an item if I have a coupon to use for a given item. (I put a lowercase “q” inside a circle — kind of like a copyright symbol.)
Keep a Running List
Something I haven’t done, but which may be useful for some of you, is to print out a copy of the list when you first get back from the grocery store, and post it on the fridge, with a highlighter nearby. When a family member uses an item up, he can highlight that item on your list so you’ll know to pay special attention to it prior to the next shopping day. It leaves your blank, blank, though, so you can decide how much you need (or if you really need it).
If You Need Something from a Different Store
If there are items I always buy somewhere other than my regular grocery store – for example, Sam’s Club or the health food store, I list those in a separate category toward the end of my list (or on the back). I don’t mix them in with the main part of my shopping list. I also used to have a set of blank lines at the end of my list to write in miscellaneous items. Since I shop at Wal-Mart, these miscellaneous items could even include things like printer paper.
If you regularly shop at multiple stores — say, your regular grocery store and the warehouse store, a discount store and a “coupon-friendly” store, or the health food store and the discount store, you can also make up the actual list to have two (or more) separate sections, breaking it down by store before breaking it down by aisle. (This works better if you pretty consistently buy the same items from the same store, and don’t have a lot of overlap/duplication.)
Get my list in DOC and PDF formats.
(By the way, some of you are probably wondering why there are some things on my list in italics. The things in italics are things that I rarely buy, but which I always have trouble finding when I do buy them. I listed them in italics to help me remember which aisle they’re on.)
Your links to your grocery list are not working. I would love to see how you do your list could you please fix them? Thank you
I’m so sorry! Thank you for going to the trouble to let me know the links were broken. I think they’re working now.