Forums / Tips & Tricks

jwhite.rtm

I've been reading through how different people use RTM for grocery shopping, and thought I'd chip in with what I do.

General Methodology:

Placeholder List:
I keep a list of items that I shop for titled "Shopping, Grocery". In it, I have all the things that I might buy from the grocery store in a particular month.

Dish tags:
I tag an ingredient with the names of the dishes it's in. I usually go through a recipe and tag the ingredients, not consider an ingredient and try to remember what it's in. :-)

Preparing to shop:
When I'm going out grocery shopping, I decide what I'm making first. I pull up a search for that tag. Select all, then duplicate. None of the duplicates will be selected. Modify all the selected ingredients to indicate that it's for a specific shopping trip. Creating a list that gets used for one trip seems like overkill, so I usually add a tag with today's date like "shop-20091104." If you need to create a smart list based on the tag, that's fine. If you want to create the list before starting then move all the duplicate items to the list that's fine too. The point is that you have a copy of the item in your Placeholder list AND one that's marked up for your actual shopping trip. Important note when adding a tag, most likely everything you have doesn't already have an identical tag. You want to preserve the existing tags and add a new one, so make sure the tag is "Multiple, MyNewTag" to _append_ your tag, not wipe out the existing tags.

Repeat with each dish you're shopping for.

In-Store:
Since you have a copy of the ingredient in your placeholder list, it's fine to complete the item as you put it in your shopping cart.

Example Run-through:
I want to make lasagna and hummus this weekend, and am swinging by the store on my way home. I search for the ingredients (tag:lasagna or tag:hummus), select all, append my "shopping today" tag, and I'm off to the races. While at the store, I can use either my mobile device or a paper printout of the items.

Refinements which you might or might not find helpful:
1) Tag ingredient with store.
I can't find Lee Kum Yee soy sauce at any local shop but Cost Plus World Market. Hence, it gets a @costplus tag. You can create a separate Smart List if you like (I tend not to).

2) Brand Preferences
I use "Cooks Illustrated" taste tests of staples to guide my shopping (Along with RTM, one of the few premium content services I find worthwhile). So I list the various Highly Recommended and recommended brands in the order they appear in the taste test in the name of my items. Thus, I don't have "dijon mustard," I have "Mustard, dijon - Grey Poupon, Maille; Jack Daniels". That I used Cooks Illustrated as the basis for my preferences isn't important (though you should check out their free trial). That I have multiple options _is_. I'll take both Pepperidge Farm or Orowheat whole wheat bread, whichever happens to be cheaper. I'll take Welches or Smuckers Strawberry preserves (not jam or jelly!), whichever is cheaper. And so on. I list that in my item name when appropriate.

3) Aisle/Section sorting
When I've got long lists, I might not want to retrace my steps dozens of times, so it helps to have "like items" grouped together on my list(s). Prefix the name of the item with the section:
CannedVeg - Tomatoes, Diced - Muir Glen preferred
CannedVeg - Tomatoes, Sauce
Dairy - Cottage Cheese, Nonfat
Dairy - Yogurt, Plain

4) Quantity
How much heavy cream did you need? I tagged each dish item with the dishes name. I can also add the quantity as a note to check out in the store. For those who are willing to spend more prep time at home to speed up the shopping process, you can copy the quantity into the description after duplicating and tagging for the shopping trip. Remember, this is a duplicate entry of the item, not the original, so marking up the description doesn't have a lasting effect.

5) Coupon based shopping
When you shop a couple cycles like this, you can identify (in completed tasks) which items you buy a lot. Start tracking the price in the notes section of your placeholder item, then start comparing that price to the sale prices in the weekly flyers. That way, you'll have a list of items you buy a lot and what you've paid for them. Buy lots of service deli items? Helps to know that when you see smoked turkey is on sale this week for $5.99/lb. Is that a good or bad price? How often do you use it? If it's worth it, tag it with a date-coded tag: "coupon@Ralphs-20091111" Now you can look at your ingredients list while searching for coupons to see whether a specific dish is worth shopping for this week.

6)Analysis and bulk shopping
Search your completed list to see what you're buying all the time that isn't perishable. Canned corn is cheaper by the case in a big box store. So is rice. Maybe you do buy enough 2% milk to make 2 gallons at once a good idea. Ground meat is on sale? You might use enough to make buying a lot and freezing a good idea. Based on how often it's purchased and how much the product costs, you can save money by shopping differently. This area is wide-open.

This is working really well for me and I'd love to hear any feedback or tweaks others might have.

Posted at 3:44am on November 5, 2009