Let’s be honest here, grocery shopping is never something we relish. Having to traipse around a store and look for all the things that you need is no fun. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could cut down the amount of time you waste on this pesky activity? After all, you surely have better things to do than spend hours choosing your food.
Luckily for you, there are many ways in which you can speed up this, the absolute dullest of chores. If you pre- pare yourself ahead of time, shopping can be as easy as pie. So, where should you start? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here are just six little shopping hacks that are certain to help you speed up your shop. Enjoy.
1. Make your meal plan ahead of time
Going into the store without knowing what you need is a mistake. It means that you will procrastinate, over- spend, and generally make a pig’s ear out of the whole thing. If you’ve yet to plan your meals on a regular basis, you’re making a massive mistake. This small change to your lifestyle is certain to make all the difference to your shop.
Start by sitting down and deciding what you would like to eat for the week. (Hint: You could even plan a few dishes that you can meal prep ahead of time!) Once you have all your ideas down on paper, write down what ingredients you will need to help you along the way.
And if you don’t like writing stuff down, here’s a tip for you. There are actually meal planning apps, such as Cook Smarts, that will help you with this task!
2. Get automatic delivery online
Non perishable items, such as toiletries, cleaning supplies, and the like, are something that you will always have to buy. Rather than lumping them in with your weekly shop, though, you can subscribe and get them de- livered right to your door.
By using Amazon’s Subscribe and Save service, you can make sure that you will never run short of these things.
Just choose the things that you use on a regular basis, such as soap or washing powder, and how often you want them delivered.
Once you’ve completed the form, you should find that you get the things that you need, when you need them.
Trying to lose weight? If you’re really busy, you can consider diets like Nutrisystem that deliver prepared meals to your door every month. This significantly cuts down on what you’ll have to buy at the store, as most of your meals are already taken care of.
3. Make a category-based list
If you’ve gone with the meal planning method, you should try this next hack too. Once you have all your ingre- dients written down, put them in a category-based list. For example, you should write down the things in order of where you will see them in the grocery store.
So, you will need a fruit and vegetables category, a meat category, and a bread category. Having things listed in this way means that your shopping time will be cut down significantly. What’s more, you ought to find that the entire experience is way easier than you imagined it would be.
4. Skip the center aisles of the store
When you head to the store, where do you start? Most of us walk up and down each and every aisle before we’re done. Now, I’m going to let you in on a little secret — the center aisles are usually saved for ‘luxury prod- ucts’.
By that, I mean that this is the place where you will find sweets, ready meals, and chocolates. Basically, it’s where the store staff put just about everything that happens to be utterly terrible for you. Avoiding the aisles altogether will save you money, time, and trouble. You want to head to where the superfoods are instead. Stick to this and it will do you well!
5. Take your own bags!
After you’ve done your shopping, you need to start packing your things up. These days, many stores will actual- ly charge you extra for your bags. Yikes. That’s something that you just don’t need at all.
To avoid this issue, make sure that you take your own canvas bags to the store with you. Doing so will save you time too as it means that you will be able to pack even quicker than before. Plus, when the cashier asks if you need help packing your bags, you should always say a big, fat YES.
6. Never shop when you’re hungry
This final hack is seriously important. If you’re in the habit of heading to the grocery store when you’re hungry, it’s time to change your ways. This is a dangerous game to play. You see, when you’re hungry, you will:
Be indecisive about what you want to buy End up buying too much Linger in the aisles
None of the above is very helpful to your whole shopping experience. Before you go out to get your groceries, make sure that you’ve had a small snack. That way, you will never fall foul to this issue. Clever, right?
