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I don’t know about you but If I do not start with a grocery list, I end up buying items that I do not need and that do not even make an actual meal. My family and I make a trip out of it each week (My husband, a 2-month-old baby, a 4-year-old and myself) but I first take the time to brainstorm meal ideas with my husband. We have a whiteboard that we use that allows us to breakdown the week day-by-day to what meals we want. Using the recipes for these meals, I write down all of the items that we do not currently have in our house. I do try to utilize meal items that have some similar ingredients, so I am not purchasing more than I need to.

For instance, if I have an onion in one recipe, I will try to use it in another before it goes bad. We also keep track of groceries we are low or out of on the whiteboard and I add these to our list. I use the menu whiteboard for dinners only as we are able to sit down and eat dinner together every day. For the other meals, I do have to pack our breakfast and lunches for all members of our family every morning before I go off to work. Often times we eat leftovers for dinners but not for lunches, so we go to Costco to buy easy lunch items. I go through my coupons before I head out to the store either on the app I use for my grocery store or the coupons that are sent to me in the mail. An important tip is to shop on the perimeter of the store rather than in the middle aisles. This will have your fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products.

As much as possible, try to avoid the middle aisles as they contain the packaged products. Although the packaged products are convenient, they are full of fats, sugar, sodium and all else that is unhealthy. Another fun option that we recently tried out was the click-list at Fred Meyer. I know other stores are starting to offer this as an option too if you like to avoid trips to the store. The downside to this option is that you might not be as intentional about staying away for the processed product as you would by shopping in person.

The trip can be fun for the whole family (of course if the kids cooperate) but the click-list can give you an hour or more of time back to do other fun, family activities.