Shopping at the grocery store can be pretty bothersome and time-sucking, which can make it difficult to go unless you absolutely need something. The amount of money that you spend can also be difficult to justify, making it even worse to be in the grocery store for very long, especially in these times of inflation.
According to Spend Me Not, the average grocery store trip takes 41 minutes to complete. That’s a big chunk of time in a day, especially if the average person is going to the grocery store more than once a week.
Your time is valuable, so it’s important to make sure that you’re spending as little time as possible in the grocery store. This is especially key because you should be able to commit your time to things you actually enjoy, unless you enjoy being in grocery stores.
So what are the best ways to spend less time at the grocery store? Should you be using meal delivery services instead? Should you make a list? Should you truly avoid going to the store hungry?
Table of Contents
Take a List
It’s much easier to spend less time at the grocery store if you already know what you want or need before walking inside. That means it might be helpful to plan your meals before heading to the grocery store, write down key meal ingredients, and then take your created list to the store.
That way, you can spend less time in the store overall, especially if you’re the kind of person who waits until they’re in the store to figure out what you’ll be eating in the next several days. If you aren’t sure if you have ground cinnamon, you can simply check your pantry instead of making a guess at the store.
Not only does this save you time at the store, but it also saves you money in the case that you already have particular ingredients at home. Additionally, in the case that you guess incorrectly and are caught short a couple of ingredients, you save yourself from having to take another trip to the grocery store.
Get Your List Organized
While it might not be the first thing you consider, organizing your list based on their categories and where they are in your typical grocery store could also be extremely helpful.
If you decide to organize your list in this way, even very loosely, it can be helpful to keep you from running between many aisles at a time. You can avoid reading through your entire list after every item is placed in your cart.
In addition to keeping you from running around, this could also keep you from having repeat items on your list. That will ultimately reduce the redundancy of your list and keep you from thinking you need to run to another aisle even further.
So the next time you’re at your favorite grocery store, take a quick note of the order of each aisle number and the popular item categories on the shelves. This can help you better create a plan of attack the next time that you’re heading out to the grocery store.
Consider Meal Delivery Services
Meal delivery services are slowly becoming more and more popularized as people are growing further interested in convenience and saving time. If you’re really interested in saving time at the grocery store, it’s possible to use meal delivery services and avoid needing to go to the store as often.
Theoretically, using meal delivery services could even keep you from needing to go to the grocery store ever again.
However, suppose you wanted to try out meal delivery services without committing to that choice for the rest of your meals at home. In that case, you could also choose to only get a handful of meals delivered to you, which also reduces the amount of time you’re spending at the store.
If you know that you already have five meals accounted for in the upcoming week, that’s five fewer meals that you would need to prepare. That makes it far easier on you in terms of meal planning and how long your grocery store trip will be.
Don’t Go to the Grocery Store Hungry.
If you’re going to the store hungry, you’re likely going to wind up spending more time in the individual aisles and spending far more money than you were planning on.
Consider it! How often have you been hungry and looked at way more different food items in the grocery store aisles? You’re considering different brands you’ve never heard of or scoffed at in the past, looking at other kinds of food you’ve never entertained before, and spending way more time in the grocery store.
Unfortunately, it looks like the rumors are true. If you want to save time at the grocery store, don’t go when you’re hungry. That’s much harder said than done, especially if you’re only willing to go to the store when you’re hungry and ready to restock the fridge.
Recycle those plastic grocery bags
Recycle the plastic grocery bags when you get home. See the different ways you can reuse them.
Conclusion
With these great ideas, you are sure to save on your next visit to the grocery store.
- Take a List
- Get Your List Organized
- Consider Meal Delivery Service
- Don’t Go to the Grocery Store Hungry
Another important thing to remember is to watch where you shop, check out your local discount grocery store as that is another great option.
Don’t have time to go to the grocery store? Consider shopping for groceries online.
Featured Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels
