Where do you start your shopping list?

Lounmoun

Once a month or every other month, I make a list of 28 different dinners. I assign 7 dinners per week. Each day I decide which meal we will have from those 7 choices.
We tend to eat leftovers or the same thing repeatedly for breakfast, lunch or snacks so I don't bother with a plan for those. I kind of know what we need there.
I keep a notebook in the kitchen and write things down as we run out. Certain things like dry beans, rice, spices, or canned tomato I try to always have on hand. At the end of the week, I add the stuff for the next week's meal plan and food needed for breakfast/lunch/snacks to that running list.
I make a grocery list every week. I group items together like they are in the aisles of the store so it goes a bit faster. No impulse buys. If I forget something usually we do without until the next week.

sydneydeb

I start with what I want to cook, take off what I already have in the house and go from there. I can now write my grocery list according to how the supermarket is laid out, well I could until they moved the isles around

jenilla1

zyxst wrote: »

My physical list starts with items I need to remember to get.

My shopping starts at the produce section because that's right inside the front door. I don't center my food shopping around meals, I shop according to how the store is laid out.

Me too.

RamonaFr

Interesting thread. I don't like shopping for groceries much any more. I do a lot of foraging in the fall, so I have a cupboard full of stewed tomatoes, salsa, applesauce, jam, juice and that sort of thing that I can. It often lasts me through winter. I dried a lot of herbs from the garden this year, and grew shallots because I don't like big onions. I have a bag of dried shallots and some garlic from the garden. Right now I'm canning green tomatoes -- picallili -- with cabbage, onions and bell peppers. I have frozen squash and tomatoes from the garden, too, plus a lot of frozen plums, concord grapes and so on from foraging. We are still getting cool weather greens from the garden. So that takes care of the produce aisle.

I buy meat at the local butcher's shop, they stock locally grown beef, pork and chicken. Free range, you can actually go to the ranches and see the animals for yourself.

I buy cheese and eggs on sale, I buy flour on sale and make my own bread. I buy or cook turkey or chicken for sandwiches. I buy mayonnaise or boiled dressing for sandwiches.

That's about it. I guess a lot of my groceries start in our local community garden.

chouflour

We keep a running list, and when someone's going to the store - we get what's a good deal there. There's always cans of tuna, eggs, starch of some kind and some veggies kicking around. We can make something out of that.

However, we only make normal meals a few times a week. The rest of the time we eat meals like "Korean stuff", which is whatever meat you've got, whatever veggies you've got, soy sauce, sriracha, ginger, garlic and a bunch of kimchi. And okonomiyaki, which is whatever meat/veg you've got plus scallions and cabbage - cooked into a pancake.