Tips for Healthy Grocery Shopping - Ahead of Going to the Store

Grocery shopping is the first step in planning for success in the kitchen. Keep these helpful tips in mind before you do your shopping.

1. Spend time putting together recipes (buy a cookbook or reference your favorite recipe websites for ideas) and plan meals for the week. With these things in mind build your grocery list.

2. Avoid impulse purchases by setting a budget for the shopping trip (and stick to it!)

3. Choose one or two days a week for shopping. Shoot for the day when stores will be best stocked and least busy.

4. To save money, use coupons, check the weekly grocery ads, and incorporate sale foods into your list.

5. Plan to shop at the same store(s) each grocery trip. This helps to increase your store knowledge and awareness as well as decreases unplanned buying and how much of something you buy.

6. Plan to shop when you have enough time. Budget your time accordingly to make your trip a low stress success.

7. Take a picture of your list, if it is handwritten, so when you (inevitably) forget it you can still shop. Or when you just happen to be near the store, but don’t recall your list by memory, you have a copy of it.