I created a shopping list that saves me a tremendous amount of time when shopping. It’s organized by store, and by aisle in the store.

At home when I use something up, or will need something in a recipe, I write it down in the aisle where it will be found. Then, when at the store, on my old shopping lists, I’d have to scan and re-scan the list to see if something I need is in the aisle I’m in, but now I just look in the section for that aisle. Simple!

This also saves money because I only buy what’s written down (with some exceptions for things I know I’ve forgotten, or stuff I find on good sale.) Without a list, I’d often just “browse” to fill the pantry, and buy a bunch of stuff we didn’t use often.

Over the several months I’ve been using it, this list has really saved me time, and made shopping easier. I never have to backtrack in a supermarket to get something from an aisle I’ve already been through because I just noticed something on a list. Saving that frustration alone, makes this list worthwhile.

I’ve attached the current version of my shopping list in both Word and PDF formats. Obviously you’ll probably have to modify these for your stores, but it’s a start…
MS Word Format: shopping list.doc

PDF:

Note about the organization of the list: I mainly shop at three stores, and they’re represented in different spaces on the shopping list. I tried to arrange the stores in the actual order of the aisles to make it even easier. You’ll note that the “Whole Foods” section is just one big box. This is because I usually buy everything I can at Vitamin Cottage (where it’s 10-20% cheaper than Whole Foods), and then if I can’t get something there I buy it at Whole foods. The “Whole Foods” box is just for the few things that I know I’ll buy there.

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