I know but I don’t know 🤦🏻‍♀️

I never know what I'm going to eat but I always have a steak in the refrigerator if my wife fixes something I can't eat

I eat a pescatarian diet so look forward to grocery shopping. I stop in the produce section, then bakery, then the seafood counter, then get eggs, butter and cheese. Done. Easy peasy.

I rarely stray from the outer corners of the store. The inner aisles are where the confusion lies.

VioletRojo wrote: »

I sit down on Sunday and make a meal plan for the coming week. From that meal plan I can make a grocery list. This system makes it easy to know "what's for dinner" and makes it much easier to stick to a budget.

^This.
I've been doing it this way for 25+ years as a way to manage a small food budget for a family of 5. Stuck to it because it takes the guesswork out of it. When I started on mfp, I just made sure that the meals I chose for dinners were things I could fit into my calories for the day. I DO NOT do well just going home and "fixing something." It works better for me to know what the dinners are for the week and go from there. Just my .02

Obviously you have a routine now. Don't change it all at once. Change one thing per grocery trip and gradually you'll have a new plan without having to spend 2 hours every Sunday overhauling everything.

Maybe switch out a box of hamburger helper for whole grain noodles and chicken chunks with a jar of pesto and fresh grape tomatoes, or even simpler, switch white rice for brown, or white bread for whole wheat, or flavored yogurt for plain. Or add a new kind of vegetable to try.

This is what I did, and over a 2 year period, I went from a college kid living on ramen noodles, to the "house nutritionist" that my gym-rat roommates were asking about maybe starting a "food plan for the house." I'm even better at it now than I was 20 years ago (because I've had to up my game to work around the allergies of my nephews and child's friends), but I think if I'd tried to overhaul EVERYTHING in one week, my brain would have exploded and I'd have had a nervous break down in the frozen foods section. >_< Make healthier substitutions one trip at a time, and that'll give you time to evaluate whether or not the substitution is close enough that you don't mind, or if it's TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT. (Fish is so good for you but I JUST. CAN'T. DO. IT.)

dawn__westbury wrote: »

Thank you for the responses .. It’s my daughter (16) and I at home, you’d think that’d make it easy since it’s just the 2 of us lol, 🤷🏻‍♀️! I will take the advice of buying based on the meals I plan to make .. usually I “plan” 3, other days we just kinda eat. Anyone who has a 16yr old knows they can be ok with cereal dinner (or is it just mine? Haha).

I'm 42 and I'm delighted to have cereal for dinner, assuming I've put down enough protein to accommodate it! My weirdo kid is 9 and will eat brussels sprouts and peanut butter for dinner, so... I never make her anything - I just make sure that whatever bizarre tween concoction she puts together is moderately well balanced.

I nixed the mayonnaise and strawberry jam sandwiches. >_< Thank goodness she went back to peanut butter and jelly. (I had suggested she add tuna to her dinner for protein, and I think she envisioned the tuna IN THE SANDWICH and decided that was a bridge too far. :P )

I stick to boring and basic foods. I eat lots of chicken, green salads with additional veggies for my dinners, oatmeal/fruit for breakfast, and either eggs, plain yogurt, cottage cheese, or peanut butter for lunches, sprucing my meals all up with whatever fruits/veggies I have.
Keep it simple to start off with, incorporating more variety as you go along.

I use the Walmart grocery app, but you could use another grocery store app in your local area. My account includes all my favorites, so before I shop I go through my list to see what I need. This also helps me determine calories and sodium of items I am purchasing, without having to check this in the store. While the app is set up for grocery pickup service, you can still use it as a favorites list/grocery list only. And, as others have stated, pre-planning is key to my success.

The biggest piece fo advice I can give with grocery shopping is don't buy random products or foods without a plan of how they are going to fit into to your snacks or meals for the week, otherwise they won't get eaten. Just buying broccoli without a plan of how you are going to use it and it will just sit in your fridge until it turns to mush. Also, know yourself and your families routines, and cooking/eating styles, because these likely aren't going to change, so instead make your choices fit your life rather than trying to make your life fit your choices. I have a family of four I feed, in general we aim to have produce, lean protein and whole grains at every meal so I shop accordingly (breakfast: oatmeal, wheat bran, chia, plain greek yogurt, eggs, fruits; lunch: sliced rye bread, peanut butter, poultry, eggs, squash, broccoli...; Dinner: salad, soup, poultry, beef, beans, rice, vegetable, etc.; then random snacks for the kids: granola bars, crackers, fruits, yogurt drinks, etc.). My sister is the complete opposite and eats random small meals/snacks throughout the day. Her fridge contains eggs, sliced turkey and avocado. Her cupboards have cereal, peanut butter and english muffins. The rest she buys on the go. If I tried to make her grocery shop like me it would be a complete disaster because it doesn't fit her lifestyle at all.

dawn__westbury wrote: »

If I know what TO eat and what NOT to eat, what’s better etc etc .. why don’t I ever know what to buy at the grocery store?! Do you guys just buy random healthy things you like? Do you think of meals you want to eat & buy from that? I don’t know why it’s so hard to get started when I know what to eat and what not to eat!

Once you are in the habit of cooking regularly it's pretty easy. I tend to make sure I have lots of veg on hand (this time of year I tend to have winter squash, various root veg like carrots and turnips, some greens, and broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and brussels. I also tend to make sure I have some meat/fish on hand. I usually have eggs, greek yogurt or cottage cheese, frozen fruit and maybe some fresh, frozen greens, and staples like rice and pasta and canned and dried beans.

When I cook or plan dinner, I decide the main meat and starch (say, I decide to make roasted chicken with potatoes or a stir fry with shrimp or a chili with chicken), and then I figure out which of the veg on hand to make with it and tend to make a lot. Fruit I tend to have on the side or on occasion as a snack. I have a standard breakfast (now 2 egg vegetable omelet with fruit and/or dairy on the side), and similarly just use the veg I have on hand for it.

Being flexible in the ingredients you use and using what you have is for me the best advice I can give.

ellie117 wrote: »

Wow @peachvine29 that is so organized, I love it.

The app is a lifesaver for me!

Personally, I get overwhelmed trying to plan a whole week of meals. Instead I plan 3 days and do 2 quicker shopping trips. We eat out on lunch Saturday, so dinner is something extra simple like PB&J. Our meals are pretty easy, fast, and boring.

I also use the grocery store app to see what's on sale and download coupons. I will buy ahead on non-perishables that are good deals.

I guess I'm a mix of a planner/unplanner. I use the grocery shopping app Out Of Milk, it has a list of my most commonly shopped for items so whatever I'm out of that I need replaced I select. I eat a very similar salad every day for lunch so the basics for that are needed. I get chicken, turkey, and fish in bulk from Costco so that leaves dried beans, Greek yogurt, and tuna if I'm out. I usually plan at least one pot of beans in the Instant pot and one soup/chili. From there I just see which veggies and fruit are on sale, in season, or look good. I stock up on frozen and canned with sales. I also get Imperfect Produce boxes every other week.