Making and using a grocery list will help you buy only necessities and/or sale items so will help you save money. It will also get you out of the store quicker as long as the list is organized.

An unorganized grocery list can actually keep you in the store longer; here's an example: I used to make my grocery list by writing the first item at the top of the list and working my way down in no particular order. At the store, I'd be in a particular area, read my list over in a hurry and miss one or two items in that section. I would then have to run back to that section later when I noticed I missed items. Every time I went shopping I'd spend a good part of the time running back to a particular section to pick up something I missed. I decided there had to be a better way.

What I came up with is a pre-printed sectioned list made on my computer. The list has headings for each section of the grocery store such as 'produce', 'meats', 'breakfast foods', etc., just like you'd see in a coupon organizer. Now, as I'm making my list, I just go to the section on the pre-printed list and write in the item. Then, when I'm grocery shopping and in a certain area, I can see at a glance ALL the items needed in that section. Another benefit is that it's very easy to search for coupons since the list headings match the coupon headings.

I made this list by opening up a new document in my Wordpad program; any word processing program will work. Then all I did was type in the following headings three across in a row, then four or five returns down to make the next row of three across. The returns provide space for to write in items later. These are the headings I used:

PRODUCE
BREAD/BAKERY
CONDIMENTS
BAKING SUPPLIES
PACKAGED MEALS/SOUPS
SNACKS/POP
FROZEN VEG./JUICE
FROZEN MEALS
FROZEN TREATS
MEAT
BREAKFAST ITEMS
CLEANERS
PROCESSED MEAT
PET FOOD
TOILET PAPER/TOILETRIES
MILK/DAIRY

After the list was finished, I printed out a few to keep with my grocery ads in a binder. When I need more, I'll print more.

I took my list shopping and found out, an organized shopping list does make all the difference.

Reprinted with permission.