Grocery shopping: love it or hate it? As you might guess, I absolutely love grocery shopping. I mean, it involves several of my favorite things: lists, food, and bargain-hunting. What’s not to like?

You can laugh if you want, but developing a good grocery shopping routine is actually beneficial to your health—having a meal plan and a specific list helps prevent those impulse purchases (put those Teddy Grahams back on the shelf!), which in turn prevents junk food consumption, which then reduces your Calorie intake…you get the idea. Plus, savvy shopping also  limits over-spending, which I find to be very beneficial to my mental health

So here are a few tips to make sure your grocery shopping habits are helping rather than hurting your health.

• Plan your meals. You don’t have to plan out every bite that will enter your mouth for the next week (unless you’re trying to lose weight, which is a topic for another post), but map out a general plan at least for the dinners you’ll be preparing for the week. If you’d like more information on how to make a meal plan, check out this tutorial.

• Make a list. Be as specific as possible with the items and their quantities. I use a shopping list template so that I can get all my produce at once, all my dairy at once, etc. I found this one on Pinterest.

• Set a budget and prioritize. Establish how much you’re willing to spend each week. Also determine which items you’d be willing to give up until next week so that you can stay within that budget. I usually have a general tally in my head of how much all the items will cost at check-out, and if I think I will be over-budget, I cross out/put back the items that are non-essentials.

• Be willing to shop around. I typically go to my local SuperTarget first to get as much as I can for a reasonable price. I then head over to Harris Teeter to take advantage of their BOGO deals, awesome coupon policy, and fill in with more obscure items that Target might not carry.

  These pictures are from a particularly “big shop” in which we needed to re-stock on a lot of staples (e.g., whole wheat pasta, cereal, and frozen vegetables).

Then you can haul it all home. Oh, and don’t let your dog go unsupervised with grocery bags…

Fully stocked produce basket = order restored.

What are your tips for grocery shopping?

Filed under: How To