Menu planning / grocery shopping ?

[disykat]

I just did a nicely organized shopping trip - my menu for the week was planned out and all the ingredients I needed put on my list. I have to admit this is not my norm - I try, but I often end up just going up and down the isles getting the basics and going from there.

This made me wonder how most people do it. I have a great menu planner/shopping list that I try to use - but I'm still using the same tablet from 4 years ago and I probably have 1/2 of it left!

How do you shop?

 

[hopemax]

My Mom was the type that always waited to the "day of" to plan dinner, then realize she didn't have all the ingredients and have to go out to the store on basically a daily basis. She never wanted to go by herself, so I would be drug along (down-side of being an only child), and I really hated it.

So every Sunday, DH and I discuss what we'd like for dinner that week, figure out a shopping list from that and whatever I know we've run out of that week, and off we go to the store for the week. The only time we go more than once a week is if there is a potluck or party, I prefer to use fresher ingredients for those, or if we get an occassional late-night craving for ice cream or something. No specially made shopping list/planner though, just a blank piece of paper and a pen.

 

[Meriweather]

We get paid every two weeks, so I plan a menu every two weeks, do major shopping then and then just pick up fruits, veggies and dairy as needed.
Been doing it that way for many, many years.

 

[powellrj]

I use to use lists and coupons and really plan my shopping trips. Now that I am in 3 different grocery stores everyday, (I work for a grocery marketing company) I just keep a cooler in the car and cherry pick my way through the stores. You never know what goodie you will find marked down, and I will get those and make meals around what I have on hand. I really spend about what I would spend when I would plan and use coupon. Because of summer and I am passing lots of farmers markets, I stop and get fresh produce and thats what we have been eating a lot of.