When grocery shopping is done right it should make your life better. Primarily by saving you money and helping you eat healthier. However, for most people a trip to the grocery store just adds stress to their life. It can be a chore to go, you end up unsure what to get, and most of the food you buy ends of going bad and getting thrown away. Well, let this article be your “there has to be a better way!” moment when it comes to grocery shopping. In the rest of this article, I’ll share a few tips to help you spend less time in the grocery store and throw less food away a few days later.

Have a “shopping template” in mind

The purpose of using this method is to have certain categories in your head that will guide what you end up putting in your shopping basket. There are two specific ways of doing this, shopping by meal and shopping by macronutrient, that I will now discuss further.

Shopping by meal

This works best if you have a specific meal that you eat every day or at least you will eat every day after this specific grocery shop. This is less effective if you are using it for one specific meal that you won’t make again the next day or the day after that. Let’s take a look at an example. Say each day for breakfast you plan to eat 3 eggs, 1 bagel with cream cheese, and some type of fruit. You could get an 18-pack of eggs, a 6-pack of bagels, a small container of cream cheese, and a carton of fruit. Doing this you will likely get use of every ounce of food you buy for 6 days straight.

Shopping by macronutrient

With this mental template, you are looking to fill four different categories. A protein source, a carbohydrate source, a fat source, and a source of vitamins and minerals (i.e. fruits or vegetables). If each meal we eat has one source of each nutrient mentioned, then you can just pick and choose from what you chose to buy whenever you are making a meal. For instance, let’s say the protein sources you chose are eggs, chicken, and shrimp (you’d likely want to freeze some of these); the carbohydrate sources you chose are potatoes, whole wheat bread with jelly, and rice; the fat sources you chose are nuts and avocados (keep in mind cooking oils are pure fat as well); and finally, the fruits and/or vegetables you chose are broccoli, strawberries, and blueberries. Whenever you go to make a meal, just pick one food from each category and include that in the meal. The amounts of each category you’ll want to add will vary depending on what your goals are- for more information on that, check out our article Everything You Need to Know About Nutrition. Another caveat to this strategy is if you choose a protein source that also has a high fat content, such as high-fat beef or salmon. In this case, I recommend not adding another fat source since you will already have a good amount of fat in that meal.

Keep your meals simple

There is a much greater chance that you will have to throw away food if you are consistently making meals that require multiple different ingredients. This is also often how foods get forgotten about at the bottom of the refrigerator. In general, the less ingredients your meals have, the greater chance you have of using all of the foods you buy. It also tends to mean a lesser clean up after cooking which is also a plus.

Stock up on long lasting cooking items

Certain foods and other cooking items have a very long shelf life, so buying them in bulk can make life easier. Seasonings and cooking oils are good examples of this. Pasta and dry rice can also last a long time if you eat them frequently enough. Freezing your meat when you buy it is also a good strategy, most meats can be good for 3-4 months when frozen soon enough. The idea here is really to try to use the luxury of time to your advantage.

Consider meal prepping

This is another close to sure-fire way to utilize all the foods you buy. For instance, if you buy a pack of ground beef and make 1 serving for dinner, the act of cooking again can act as a barrier that stops you from using the rest of the pack. Whereas if you cooked the entire pack and stored it, the chore of cooking is no longer in your way. You don’t have to meal prep all of your meals in a day, but preparing one meal a day for 3-4 days can be a big advantage. For more tips on how to make meal prep easier, check out our article How to Meal Prep the Easy Way.