What's on Your Grocery List??

Previously, I would plan meals week by week and get everything I needed for the week in one trip. I'd try to plan meals with the fresh produce early in the week because it tends to go bad by the end of the week. The later week recipes often need frozen produce instead.

Recently, we've started making large trips to Walmart/Sams to buy in bulk and then I create my meals based on what we have in the pantry & freezer. I still make weekly trips to the store, but that's usually just to get the items that can't be kept for long - like fresh produce, milk, bread, etc. I'm trying this month and next to plan meals as far out as a month to see how that works. (I like posting the menu on the fridge, so I'm no longer asked the annoying question of "what's for dinner?")

My husband and I split the cooking (he does 4 nights/week, I do 3), so planning in advance it key. Over the weekend, we both plan what we will make that week--we each usually cook about 2 recipes/week, then do leftovers or something easy like omelettes the other 3 days. We make a list, which sometimes involves a little coordinating (e.g. "I call those onions in the fridge, if you need some buy more!"). Then on Sunday afternoon, DH takes DD shopping, and I get an hour or so to myself! The planning really doesn't take too long, and makes the week MUCH less stressful, 'cuz we always know what's happening for dinner. It also saves us time and money, since we only buy what we plan on eating, and only go to the store once/week. We both work full time, but don't do takeout or prepackaged foods for health reasons, so this system works well for us! GL figuring out what works for you!

I am at the grocery a lot because sometimes I want to try something different, etc. I shop mainly at Market Street and Tom Thumb. About every 3 months or so I shop Costco for some good stock up items such as butter, cheese, and some canned goods. Once a month I shop at Hirsch's Meat Market for top quality beef, pork and chicken. I will also buy chicken at the grocery or Costco if I see a good deal.

I'm not a coupon shopper, I just purchase basics if I see a good deal at the store. I stock up on sugar, flour, pancake syrup, condiments, peanut butter, jelly, spices, cereals, noodles, pickles, juices, canned goods, etc. My freezer is stocked with meats, chicken, frozen veggies. Basically, anything that we eat that does has a long shelf life gets purchased.

I am fortunate to have a huge walkin pantry which is great for this storage. I keep it stocked at all times and try to have at least 3 months worth of food for us to eat if we had nothing but pantry or freezer choices.

I am still at the grocery a lot for little things. Lunch at Market Street is a favorite so I'll be at the soup and/or salad area there very often.

Interesting post!!! Happy New Year

I've always got spices, flour, oil, and Crisco, dried beans, tomato products - sauce, paste, chunked, chopped, you get the idea, potatoes (instant and real), spaghetti, canned veggies, canned fruit, Onion Soup Mix, Taco seasoning, lots of noodles, lots of cream of soup, and cheese.

I buy meat when it's on sale, and usually have some in my freezer. A pot roast, some pork chops, turkey bacon, and ground turkey are common.

I menu plan on Friday night and shop Saturday for dinners.. lunches are imaginative left overs and "throw togethers".

S.

Alexandra,
The best I can manage is to plan 2-3 meals completely ahead. So I know what I am cooking Monday and Tuesday when I go to the grocery on Sunday, etc... What really helps is to buy enough so that when you cook Mondays dinner you have enough left over to freeze a meal. Then in a week or two have the same meal again, but this time you only have to make the salad and vegie!

I try to keep in stock the itmes I use on a constant basis.

When I shop I buy chicken the the family pack and then seperate the meat into two pc's per fozen zip lock baggie. We are a family of Mom, Dad and Toddler...so this works fine. For dishes like Chicken and Dumplings I put three pieces of chicken in a baggie and mark it with a 3 so I know. So when I am ready to cook for the night I pull one baggie out to thaw.

I buy frozen veggies (the kind that steam in the bag), fresh bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and fruit. Organic minced garlic in the fridge on hand.

As for making pot roast I buy the meat the day before...but I buy the pot roast kit that comes complete with veggies and spices - can be found at wall mart.

My weekly list includes:
Milk, Soda, Gatoraid, Goldfish crakers, lunch meat, bread, OJ, Apple Juice, tomato sauce, Fresh fruit and veggies, crackers.

I keep in stock in the pantry: Instant Mash potatoes (differnt flavors), Rice A Roni pkgs, chicken seasoning pkgs, pasta, diced tomatoes in a can, tomato sauce, mushrooms in a can, rice boil in a bag type.

This helps to make a wide range of dishes.

We cook a lot of Chicken in our house. Rarely things with ground beef.

I probably make things more complicated than others...but here's how I do it. First of all, the grocery store is a huge chore for me, so I try to go as little as possible. Secondly, we aren't huge fans of overly processed foods (like instant mashed potatoes, flavored rice, hamburger helper, etc.), so our cooking is sometimes a little more involved. Thirdly, we are frugal people. We may go out to eat once a month, but there are several months we haven't gone out at all. I usually wait until the sales papers are delivered and decide which store seems to have the best deals for us that week. I try to work around what meats are on sale that week - but be careful stores are getting really good at making sales sound great and then you do the math and realize it isn't so terrific. I plan my menu and write down the meals for about eight days on a dry erase board. This list stays posted on the fridge. This way I know what I definitely have on hand for the week. Then I go through each meal and write down the ingredients needed for each one. Then I take it one step further. Since I don't enjoy the shopping process...I usually re-write my list by sections of the grocery store (all the fruits and veggies go together, breads, meats, etc.). This saves me from bouncing all over the store. I have items that I will stock up on when they are on a good sale - broths, tomato sauce, tomato paste, crushed tomato, frozen veggies,meats, etc. When it comes to cooking...I usually cook the stuff in order of how long it will last. This took a little practice, but now we rarely throw anything out because of spoilage. My menu usually has two or three nights of "easy" meals (pita sandwiches, salads,soups, etc.) and the rest may take 30 - 45 minutes to prepare. I try to have frozen meals on hand for those night I don't want to cook - right now I have a lasagna, baked ziti, chili,lumpia and some soups ready to go. My family likes a wide variety of foods, so it is rare that we have the same thing in a two week period. This usually works well for us, but there are nights where NOTHING on the menu sounds good, so we make a quick trip to the store.

I'm a stocker. What I mean by this is I buy the ingredients like soups or stocks when they are on sale and keep them on hand. I buy frozen veggies based on sales (i.e. frozen potatoes). I have also recently learned to buy fresh spices and freeze them (cilantro, basil, parsley, etc...)

As for meat, what is on sale usually determines what we are going to eat for the week. So I determine recipes we like for different meat types and cycle through those recipes based on what is on special at the grocery store. I also freeze family packs of meat. It's only my husband, my 18 mo daughter and myself, so the family pack of chicken breasts (5 pc) will feed us 2 or 3 times depending on the recipes.

I hope this helps.

I have a post it inside my cupboard with different categories like hamburger, chicken, sausage, seafood, frozen meals etc. And under each one I list all the recipes I make for each type of meat. For example chicken, I make garlic chicken, rice krispie chicken, chicken enchiladas, rotisserie chicken (which I buy at the store but it's a good reminder to have on the list). Then I plan my menu out about 2 weeks in advance and switch around what meat I use and check my list for ideas on what to make with that meat (instead of digging thru my recipe box all the time). We have a magnetic dry erase calendar on our fridge with all of our activities and this also includes our menu and a grocery list. When we use the last of something, it gets written on the list. Lately though, I received a magnetic notepad so I'll write my list on it instead and place things on the list in the order that they're in the store (my husband does the shopping so this helps him out). That way I don't have to rewrite the list later. I keep a lot of those meats on hand and in the freezer as well as frozen veggies, soups, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, breads, cheese, lettuce etc. I subscribe to a cooking mag and when I feel like trying something new then I add to my list but I try and make things that I usually keep on hand as staples. I also cut coupons but don't have the time to go from store to store. I remember when I was in college and my friend was married and I was amazed at how stocked her pantry was and wondered how it got that way! Now, I have no problem keeping it stocked because once you start cooking, you tend to cook with the same ingredients and just keep replenishing them. We make tacos a lot so I buy 3 things of shells and seasoning at a time so we don't have to buy it too often and therefore we don't have to go to the store too much.
HTH!

I have stocked my home with ingredients that will be used for all products - spices, veggies, flour and sugar, coffee, tea, cheeses, eggs, milk, bacon and sausage as an example. When you use the items you place the needed things on your grocery list and buy them at the store. You make up your meal plans and pull from what you have on hand. I used to make a maal plan for 37 days. The extra 7 days was for meals that were made up from leftovers from the other 30 days. These meals were placed on the frig for all to view (mainly hubby as kids were little) and if it were Thursday you knew it was stew or Friday was left over night. Email me if you would like more info on making lists and meals. The other S.

I buy non perishables every two weeks, and just go back weekly for fruit and milk.
We make the list out before the bi-weekly shopping trip and buy all the ingredients we'll need for the 2 weeks worth of meals. Also, I always have one or two ready-made meals for those nights when we just don't have time or energy to cook (no matter how well we plan, these nights happen!): frozen pizza, stouffer's lasagna, chicken viola...you get the idea.

Here's this week's dinner menu:
Monday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans
Tuesday: Pork BBQ (in the crock pot) with cornbread pancakes and slaw from Diskey's BBQ (I can't make it that good)
Wednesday: Ham, beans, rolls (other stuff -- we're hosting a party today)
Thursday: Chicken, rice, asparagus (green giant frozen asparagus, steams in the bag)
Friday: sausage spaghetti, salad (the kids won't eat salad the regular way, but one kid will dip fresh spinach and carrot sticks in ranch, and they eat cucumber slices, so their salad is sort of in pieces, and I buy with that in mind...)
Saturday: chicken fajitas with mexican corn and rice
Sunday: roast with carrots and potatoes

We serve fruit with every meal, so I buy fresh fruit, but also keep canned on hand in case we run out before I go to the store again (and we usually do). I stock fruit mainly based on what's on sale, but the staples are: apples, grapes, bosc pears (they're sweeter than bartlett), kiwi (son could eat his weight in them), blueberries, and canned mandarin oranges and pineapple todbits.

Lunches are simple -- sometimes leftovers, often sandwiches or hot dogs (with chips and fruit), chicken nuggets (with green beans and fruit, maybe rolls or bread too). One great lunch idea I got from a friend is to roll lunch meat slices and cheese into crescent rolls and bake them. Kids love them! Of course, when they're at daycare, they take care of lunch!

Next week, the meats will probably be the same, and there's one night we'll eat out, and I try to keep enough vegetables (canned and frozen) on hand that we should be able to make the next week's menu without a special trip to the grocery store. However, since I have to go back anyway to buy fruit, I can pick up any extra stuff while I'm there.

I also shop once a week, but before I do we decide on the week's menu this way I buy what I need during my weekly shopping trip.

My household is combined, we have My Husband, My son (7 months) and me and then my sister and my two nieces 7 and 9. We HAVE to plan. We shop every two weeks or so, (when the paychecks roll in). Before we go, my sister and I sit down and plan a menu for 10-15 days. Then we make a list from that and add lunches and snacks. After we are done with that, we clip coupons that match up and we go through all the adds to see what is on sale so we can price match. Its a LOT of work, but we save so much and still eat healthy. With the menu, we don't assign days. We just place the menu on the fridge and whoever is cooking that night sees what choices they have and cook. It works really great. My husband has the kids three nights a week and this just makes it easy for him. I hope this helps!

I keep my freezer stocked at all times with the meats needed to cook all the meals I cook and I rebuy them as I use it. For example, if I make tacos one night, I add the taco kit and ground beef to my grocery list so it'll be there the next time I need it. I go to the grocery store once a week. On the weeks where we have pay day (my husband gets paid every other week), I stock up on everything we need and the stuff I've used. On the non-payday weeks, I only get what can't wait until payday and the "fresh" stuff like bread or milk or produce that I can't really buy in bulk. I make sure to have all the ingredients for all the foods I make on hand at all times. Luckily, I have a huge walk in pantry and a deep freezer which helps. It also allows me to stock up on meats and other non-perishables when they are on sale. I plan my meals when I make my to do list for the week and plan accordingly. For instance, I pick easy clean up meals on days we have sports, crock pot meals for days I can be home all day,etc..

I keep a good supply of sauces, herbs, and seasonings on hand so I have them ready. Every week, I buy meats, veggies, fruits, breads, and whatever I'm out of. I don't actually plan out what we have each night, but I make sure I have a variety of stuff to make. So even if we eat chicken 2-3 nights a week, it's different flavors and veggies to go with it. I also buy frozen pizzas, canned soups, and other quick meals for nights I just don't feel like cooking, or when I don't have much time. I don't stock up for several months, only for a week or 2. We're on a pretty tight budget, and this seems to work well for us. Occasionally, I'll make something that I have to buy extra ingredients for, but I do plan ahead for those. As I run out of a certain seasoning/sauce, I write it on my list so I have it for next time.

Before I go to the store each week, I come up with 3 meals I want to serve for the week and put all the ingredients on my list. If I have a recipe that calls for something that spoils quickly, then I usually make that meal that night or within a day or two. The rest of the week we make sandwiches, pizzas, BLTs, hotdogs or anything that's easy and fast. We usually go out for dinner at least once a week.