Visiting co-ops, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets is one of my favorite things to do in any town I visit, even if I’m not there long enough to justify buying anything. So it should come as no surprise that the weekly chore of gathering what we use to make our food is something I actively look forward to.
We typically use 3-4 sources for our groceries: the farmers’ market (usually Campbell on Sunday mornings), Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s (both of which are near the market, so it’s an easy loop trip), and Imperfect Produce delivery (use this link to sign up and we’ll both get $10!).
For the Sunday morning run, my boyfriend usually joins me, and I task him with gathering items from different vendors at the market, as well as gathering a chunk of the list at the grocery store. To save time! Or something! And we use one particular tool to help us do this easily: Google Keep.
There are many apps you can use to create shopping lists – and, of course, good old-fashioned pen and paper – but what I like about Keep is that I can share it with my boyfriend (or anyone) so we get all the updates to the list in near real-time, I can edit it from anywhere (including my computer) instead of trying to remember to put it on the paper list, and I don’t forget it at home when we head out. Hell, if we make an off-schedule trip to a different store, boom, there’s the list. It also lets you drag and drop to rearrange the list, so you can organize it any way you want.
My Imperfect Produce box is customizable from Friday through Sunday, so I usually customize on Friday and make my grocery list accordingly. I can’t really get ALL of my veggies in the box, but it’s handy to know which ones I don’t need to pay full price for.
I mean, I could give you advice about using the bulk bins, but doesn’t everyone?