Type A Tip of the Day

Organize your grocery shopping list based on store layout.

If you're anything like us, you dread grocery shopping and want to make the trip as quick and painless as possible. You already know that we limit our weekly shopping to once a week by writing our list based on what we're eating for that week. What I also do is organize our list based on how we shop the store (I say "we" because both B and I go together. Since we both hate grocery shopping so much, why should only one person suffer?). For instance, we always start in the produce section and move our way through the store, ending in the dairy/frozen area. Produce items go at the top of my list, meats/condiments/bread/beer in the middle and dairy and frozen products at the end. There's nothing worse than thinking you're done shopping and then realizing you forgot something all the way on the other side of the store. It also saves you time from having to continually scan your list to see if there's anything else to get in the area you're in. This method isn't completely infallible. I've forgotten to write down items before or when writing the list, I don't leave enough room and need to add items at the bottom. 99% of the time though, it's worked very well. Having a pen to cross off items is also helpful.

Happy shopping!