It’s Saturday morning and you’ve just dropped your kids off for their sports activities. You know they need to be picked up in an hour and a half. And because you have plans for the afternoon that leaves you about an hour to do your grocery shopping. You didn’t have time to make a shopping list and you already know that some of whatever you’ll end up buying will go bad in the fridge before you’ve had a chance to use it. Or, you’ll be missing a key ingredient for a recipe you want to make. Really you have no idea what you are buying ingredients for but you think you’ve got to have food in the house. In reality, you may well end up ordering pizza one night, Chinese on another and on Friday night your kids beg for French fries.
When the week is over you are frustrated and angry with yourself because you know none of this does your waistline any good and even though your kids love it, it’s not really the example you want to set for them either.
I’ve been there, I know how it feels when despite best intentions you end up eating things you didn’t want. This is why I invented the “running” shopping list and I use it as a basis for my master shopping list. My running shopping list makes sure that I don’t forget anything and by adding to it as I think of things, a lot of the work for my master shopping list for my once-a-week grocery shopping is already done. I add what I need for what I want to cook and group everything in the order the items are arranged in my supermarket’s aisles, so my fruit and vegetables are always first on the list.
It might take a little more time for putting that list together, but the time and frustration saved during the week are so worth it: no more not knowing what to cook, no more wasting time trying to figure out what to cook with the things I randomly bought, no more frustration over eating things that aren’t good for me. Not to mention so much less wasted food.
Take a piece of paper right now and write on it “Running Shopping List”. If you can think of anything right now that needs to go on that list, add it. Otherwise put it in your kitchen in a visible spot, together with that pen, so you can add to it as you think of things. You are not reading this article at home? Set yourself a reminder on your phone to do it when you know you’ll be home for sure. If you are somewhere you can print this article, use the back of that piece of paper for your first running list.
If you would like me to show you how to apply this to real life, don’t hesitate to contact me.
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