Simplify Your Grocery Shopping

The kitchen is the center of every home.  It is where our nurturing meals are prepared, the meals that bring us together.  Yet keeping the kitchen stocked and organized can be such chaos that we dread grocery shopping day.  In order to make your week a little bit more pleasant, I will share with you some of my tricks for a smooth and simple grocery shopping and weekly menu experience.
The biggest help to making this errand more pleasant is preparation.  I find that if I just try to make a grocery list, it does not get any easier.  I actually have to prepare to prepare comes a list of meals for the week before I plan the grocery list.  I usually plan for five dinners, which allows for leftovers to be consumed and some meals to be ad-libbed.  I personally enjoy the freedom to be creative some nights, but would be overwhelmed if each day I had to think about what I had in my pantry and how I could use those ingredients to create a meal.  What's the trick to make it simple to pick dinners for the week?  I keep a running list of meals that my family enjoys.  The day before we go shopping, we sit down and brainstorm which meals we'd enjoy.
Once you have a list of meals, it is much easier to make a shopping list.  Some recipes will call for the same ingredients, so make sure you write how much of each thing you will need.  When making your list from recipes you can write on your grocery list precisely how much of something you will need.  I have learned to make detailed lists stating that I need 7 onions and 2 packages of mushrooms (for example) to prevent wasting food.  When this method is the backbone of your shopping, the rest of the experience is much smoother.  Want to make it even easier?  Use a narrow list notebook.  On the left page, make your list of meals and the list of ingredients that you will be purchasing on the right.  That way you can look at them both with ease.
Keeping a regular routine about your shopping will make it much easier as well.  In my family, grocery shopping is something we all do together.  We treat it like a weekly scheduled appointment: it always happens the same day of the week at the same time, immediately following my yoga lesson.  I am sure that just like us, if you have the time blocked out it will take away some of the hassle of finding the time.  I suggest you also set aside fifteen minutes or so for the list-making.
As we all know, not all items are weekly purchases.  If you keep that notebook accessible throughout the week, then as you get low on pantry staples you can add them to the list.  During the 15 minutes you've set aside for making your list, do not forget to consider whether you need household items: cleaners, shampoos, soaps, etc.  Life is much simpler if you pick these up during the same trip.
I have one last major hint to make your voyage more streamlined: rewrite your list.  It might sound like extra work, but I know that if I didn't rewrite my list each week it would lose my mind.  If you're like us, you stop at more than one store in order to make the most of your money.  In order to simplify each stop, I separate the list not only into which store the purchase will be made, but group items so that following my list takes us on one trip through the store: dairy items are listed together, as are produce items, baking items, etc.  Believe it or not, this can cut our shopping time by about 60%!
So as you get ready to go shopping, keep these ideas in mind.  Remember, they are just suggestions.  You should only implement the ones that actually assist you, although I do strongly suggest giving them all a try.  You have nothing to lose by taking some of the frustration out of food, and we can always use more time to spend together relaxing.  Use that time to create a meal as a family.  Our new favorite is pizza night: I make the dough while my husband is at work and when he gets home we all get together to do the toppings.  Pizza night works well with a movie.  Togetherness is vital to happiness.