A Bright Idea

The other day I picked up a few things for my friend Nicole at Costco. When I saw her grocery list I thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread so I asked her to send it to me so I could use it. I usually keep a notepad in the kitchen where I write down the things I need at the store. Before I go shopping I’ll add items for the week’s menu and then I’ll dissect the list by store. Despite my efforts, inevitably I come home from Costco or Walmart and realize that I’ve forgotten something that I usually buy from that store. Then I have to decide whether to make an extra trip back for that one item or spend a little more by buying it at HEB. Well, hopefully this will not happen to me anymore with Nicole’s template. Since I live in a city with a dearth of grocery stores I have 4 options, Costco , HEB, Walmart & Sun Harvest. So my list has 4 sections and under each store is an alphabetical list of the items that I usually buy there. So for example, Costco has flour, milk, eggs, tortillas, etc. And then others have more specific items like apples, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. So now all I do is print out the list and keep it downstairs…when I run out of something I put a check mark next to the item and then before I head to the store I take a quick inventory of the items on that store’s list. So for example, Costco, I would think through eggs, milk, cheese, tortillas, laundry detergent, etc. and determine whether I’d need any of those things in the next week, 2 weeks, however long it’ll be before I go to Costco again. There’s an Other section at the bottom for rare things and then some of the categories like Cereal have a space to fill in special types or the number of boxes I need. I used it for the first time last week and it worked GREAT. I’m definitely a list person so it was great to come across something to make even my lists more efficient!