Meals, groceries and chores64 items
Grocery checklist
A one-page staples checklist, grouped by store section, with a checkbox beside every item and a blank line after each group. It is for people who do not want to write the same list every week.
- Type your details or print blank
- Print or PDF, Letter or A4
- Free, no sign-up
On this page
What prints
A portrait page headed Grocery Checklist, with Store and Date lines. Under it, eight sections run down three columns. Each item has a checkbox, and each section ends with one blank checkbox line for anything not already printed.
The sections and their items:
- Produce (14): apples, bananas, berries, grapes, lemons or limes, lettuce or greens, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, carrots, peppers, broccoli, avocados, garlic.
- Meat and seafood (7): chicken, ground beef, pork, bacon, deli meat, fish, shrimp.
- Dairy and eggs (7): milk, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese.
- Bakery (4): bread, bagels, tortillas, buns or rolls.
- Frozen (5): frozen vegetables, frozen fruit, frozen meals, pizza, ice cream.
- Pantry (14): rice, pasta, pasta sauce, canned beans, canned tomatoes, soup, cereal, oatmeal, peanut butter, flour, sugar, cooking oil, spices, coffee or tea.
- Snacks and drinks (6): chips, crackers, nuts, granola bars, juice, water or soda.
- Household (7): paper towels, toilet paper, dish soap, laundry detergent, trash bags, toothpaste, shampoo.
That adds up to 64 printed items.
The settings
- Heading. Custom title field, 40 characters maximum.
- List. Checklist of common items, or a blank list by store section. This page opens on the checklist.
The items are fixed, so you cannot edit them on screen. Write in your own on the blank lines.
Using a list you did not write
The trick is to tick only what you need, not everything on the page. Walk the kitchen with the sheet and a pen. Open the fridge, the freezer and the pantry. Tick an item when you are out of it or will be before the next trip. An unticked line means you have enough.
Because the page is printed, mark it in a way you can read in a store: a firm tick, and a number beside the box when you need more than one. Cross out the items you checked and decided against, so you do not wonder later.
Use the blank lines for the week's special requests, such as ingredients for a birthday cake. If your household buys other things every week, such as baby formula or pet food, write them in the same blank line each time.
Worked example: a quick restock
Suppose you are low on milk, eggs, bread, bananas, onions, pasta, pasta sauce and trash bags, and you want chicken for the weekend. Tick those nine boxes. Write "2" beside milk and "6" beside bananas. In the blank line under Pantry, write "birthday candles". Under Frozen, tick nothing.
That is a short trip. You should be able to scan the sheet in a minute and walk through the store in order, from produce to household, without a detour. If the trip is bigger, start from a weekly meal planner and add what the dinners need.
Keeping it useful
Print a stack and keep them on the fridge. For store-specific or one-off shopping, the blank grocery list is more flexible. MyPlate has ideas for filling out the food groups if the checklist looks heavy on snacks.
Sources
- USDA MyPlate myplate.gov