The internet has a wealth of information about grocery shopping and how to shop better. We ourselves are contributing to that with articles revealing some of supermarkets’ psychological tricks, and the mental benefits of making a grocery list. There are also tonnes of handy printable list templates out there. But sometimes, maybe all you want is an easy printable grocery list to lay a solid foundation for your regular shopping?
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Contents
Overview
It’s great to have a ready-to-print grocery list to download straight to your computer. But the scope of such lists’ contents vary greatly and might not necessarily fit your grocery needs. So, we would like to help you create your own template.
But wait? Aren’t we a grocery list app? Don’t we want you to be using our app instead?
We’d love it if you would download and use Listonic. But as shoppers ourselves, we know that everyone has their own tried, tested, and optimum way of doing the groceries. Some might prefer to use our app, whilst others might want to use a printable grocery list instead. Some will also prefer to stick to making a grocery list with good ol’ pen and paper.
That’s absolutely fine! It works for you, then that’s the best way for you to do your groceries. But we want to try and improve things for people who use a printable grocery list or write their own.
Why?
Because we think the knowledge we’ve put into our grocery list app to improve and develop it, might actually help those using more traditional methods. So, let’s talk about some great ways to build your own free printable grocery list template, and how to write an even more effective list. However, you can skip straight to our free printable template.
Create Your Own Printable Grocery List Template
Organize By Aisle
Everything is very nicely sorted in supermarkets by categories. Those categories are laid out in aisles. All the bread is in one place: so are the fruit and vegetables. Baking ingredients are batched together, and tinned food nicely stacked in one particular place.
Therefore, we think your shopping list should be written like this too.
But why do this?
If anything, it saves us time. This is because if you put everything into the same categories as supermarket aisles on your list, you can pick up everything you need from that particular place in one go. This saves you from zig-zagging around the store in the order you have things on your list.
Furthermore, you’ll easily be able to see everything that you need from that section in one glance. This means you’ll be less likely to forget it, or have to run back to the section to pick it up later.
Many free printable grocery list templates use quite traditional categories: meat, produce, frozen, etc. But building your own means you can create custom categories that reflect your unique shopping experience and the specific layout of your grocery store of choice.
Put the First Aisle or Category You Come To At the Start of Your List
To make your grocery shop even quicker and more effective, be sure to make your grocery list mimic the route you take through the store. Some printable blank grocery lists have things grouped in categories, but the order they’re put in won’t necessarily match your shopping route.
There are some universal layout elements at most supermarkets, such as fresh fruit and veg being the first thing you see when you enter. But everything else is in a different place from store to store. What’s more, some might have multiple entrances. This means the first aisle you see will be different depending on whether you enter from the parking lot or the street.
Organizing your categories and aisles into the order you come across them in the store makes the list work for you. It’ll mean you can move through your grocery list and the store logically and quickly. Doing so will save you time and prevent you from buying impulse items.
But be aware! One of supermarkets’ sneaky psychological tricks is to change the layout every so often to make you wander around more than you usually would. This will mean you’ll also have to change your grocery list category order when this happens.
Leave Space For Item Details
The problem with writing general items on your lists is they can be a little vague. This can be made worse when you’re faced with a barrage of choice inside the grocery store.
What can certainly help is writing the items you need a little more specifically, ie “Cheddar cheese” rather than just “cheese”. But you can go a few smaller steps further by leaving space on your printable grocery list to add additional little details.
These details don’t have to be over-complicated. They should just be a few short words to make sure you get your shopping right. These can include information like quantity, weight, or volume, or how ripe you want your avocados.
You can also use this space to let you know or remind you that there’s a coupon to use for this product. This can help you get these ready when you reach the checkout, or even to bring them shopping with you before you leave!
If you’re feeling a little arty, you can also add little pictures, much like internet sensation Era Golwalkar, or Renaissance artist Michelangelo!
Stick a Price On It
Grocery lists can also be a great way to help budgeting. One of the details you can add to each product is a maximum or ideal price for items. This way you can even total up your projected spending whilst making your shopping list. Then, you can add or remove items to ensure your shop stays within your budget.
Having prices written on your grocery list can also help you whilst shopping, too. You’ll be able to instantly compare the items you’re after against what you’ve written down. This will make sure that the items you’re buying stay within budget. This quick comparison will also let you know when you’re saving money whilst at the store.
Top Rated Shopping List App
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Number Of Lists With Others Instantly
Hard-wire Your Most Essential Items
This is more for people who want to create their own grocery list template based on our ideas, rather than just print the ready-to-use grocery list template.
70% of the items that are our grocery lists are the same items as the last time, and the time before that, and even before that!
So, if you’re creating your own printable grocery list template using a computer, or making photocopies of a master list, why not put these items in permanently? This means they’re already written in when you print out/copy a new list to use. The best thing about this is it will save you time as you won’t need to write favorite items in over and over again for every new list.
Start Creating And Using Your Free Printable Grocery List Template
Below is your free printable grocery list template. You can even download a printable shopping list PDF here. But we do encourage you to create your own template following the ideas we’ve set above, so it’s as unique as you and your shopping.
Do you use your own printable grocery list template when you do your grocery shopping? Do you have any other tips about to make your shopping list more effective? Let us know in the comments.
Here are some more templates you can print out and use for free!
