Comments on: Save Money by Building a More Effective Shopping List

By: Personal Finance Links (Bon Bini Aruba Edition) | thesweetmagnolia.com

Personal Finance Links (Bon Bini Aruba Edition) | thesweetmagnolia.com — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:31:24 +0000

[...] Pay Less For Food shares this frugal tip: save money by building a more effective grocery shopping list. [...]

By: Frugal Food Tips | Pay Less For Food

Frugal Food Tips | Pay Less For Food — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:45:42 +0000

[...] Save Money by Building a More Effective Shopping List included in the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by Taking Charge. [...]

By: Charlie-PayLessForFood

Charlie-PayLessForFood — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:59:49 +0000

Nancy,

I’m impressed. Most people have trouble planning for one week not to mention two weeks! I betcha it saves you a lot of time AND money. I like the sticky note idea.

By: Home Finance Tip Blog » Carnival of Personal Finance 223: Financial meltdown, a year later

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:30:59 +0000

[...] Less for Food explains how you can spend money on food by creating a more trenchant mart shopping [...]

By: Charlie-PayLessForFood

Charlie-PayLessForFood — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:23:37 +0000

Lulu,

I think the smart phone is an excellent way to keep your list. That way you can ensure that you always have your list with you instead of leaving it on the kitchen counter. The same with keeping coupons in your purse. I can’t count how many times I’ve been shopping only to realize that I left the coupons at home on my desk shelf.

By: Lulu

Lulu — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:49:21 +0000

I used to do the running list on the refrigerator and paperclip coupons to it as I went along. It really helped me to stay on track and then when I got my smartphone I simply keep the list on the phone. I put an asterisk in front of any item that I have a coupon for and since I keep my coupon book in my purse it is easy to go through the list and pull out the coupons I need before I go shopping.

By: Lonzo

Lonzo — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:52:31 +0000

Another interesting thing you can do with your shopping list is to arrange the items by aisle so that you can quickly find everything without spending all day in the store.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:56:49 +0000

I plan my menus 2 weeks at a time which translates to 2 large shopping trips/mo. I’ve done this for 5+ years so I have a system figured out that works for me. I’ve found that it saves us $ (substantially) and it simplifies my life. I work full-time so I hated spending part of every weekend at the grocery store before I started doing it this way. I place an empty sticky note on the current menu plan that is hanging on the fridge and the family members know that when they use the last of an item they need to write it on the sticky note so it will get transferred to the new shopping list. Also, I start preparing my list and menu on the Thursday before my shopping day (Saturday) which allows me time to really think about what is included and reduces the risk of forgetting something.

I use this grocery list -
http://donnayoung.org/household/fullsize/ffiles09/kifiles/grocery.pdf

and this menu planner -
http://donnayoung.org/household/fullsize/ffiles09/kifiles/menu.pdf