The friendly guide
How to make a shopping list that actually works
A good shopping list is the difference between one calm trip round the supermarket and three frantic ones. Here's how we'd write one, step by step.
1. Start with your meals
The best shopping lists are written backwards. Before you write a single item, decide what you're actually going to cook this week. Even a rough sketch helps: a roast on Sunday, a curry midweek, pasta on the busy night.
Then walk through each meal and note the ingredients you'll need. A meal plan does the heavy lifting here, because every recipe on the plan hands you its shopping list almost for free.
How the app helps
Food Plans are made for this. Your saved recipes are a click away, so building the week's plan is just picking dinners off a shelf, and the ingredients gather themselves into one list.
2. Check what you already have
Open the fridge, the freezer and the cupboards before you shop. Half the money people waste at the supermarket goes on things they already own: a second jar of paprika, a forgotten bag of spinach wilting in the drawer.
Cross off anything you have enough of, and make a note of anything running low. This one habit is the difference between a list that saves money and a list that just moves the clutter around.
How the app helps
Once your list is made, shopping the kitchen is quick. Open it at home and tick off everything you already have, and what's left is the true shopping list. No second jar of paprika.
3. Group your list by supermarket section
A list in the order you thought of things sends you back and forth across the store. Group yours by section instead, keeping fresh fruit and veg, fridge items, cupboard staples and frozen food in their own groups.
Keeping similar things together makes the list easier to scan and helps you find what you need without working through one long, jumbled list.
How the app helps
Every list in the app is already grouped by supermarket section. Fresh, fridge, cupboard and frozen items stay together, so you never have to sort everything yourself.
4. Be specific with amounts
"Chicken" is a guess. "2 chicken breasts" is a plan. Write the amount you actually need for the recipes you're cooking, and you'll buy what the week requires rather than what looks nice under the lights.
If you're cooking for a different number of people than the recipe assumes, scale the ingredients up or down before you write them down. Most recipes can flex to feed two or feed six; the shopping list should follow.
How the app helps
Change the number of servings on a recipe and every ingredient scales with it, so the amounts on your list always match whoever's actually coming to dinner.
5. Keep a running list through the week
The moments that make lists fail happen on Tuesday, not at the shop. You pour the last of the milk on your porridge and think "I must remember that". You won't. Keep a list somewhere you'll see it, on the fridge door or on your phone, and add to it the moment you notice something's gone.
By the time you shop, most of the list has written itself, and those little emergencies never make it into your basket at double the price.
How the app helps
The quick lists are made for milk moments. Two taps and it's on the list, waiting for you next time you shop.
6. A few little tricks that help
- Never shop hungry. Everything looks essential on an empty stomach.
- Stick to the list for the big shop, and treat anything extra as a deliberate choice, not an accident.
- Keep staple things you use every week, like milk, bread and eggs, in the same place on your list so you never forget them.
- Check the list off as you go. It's oddly satisfying, and it stops the double buys.
How the app helps
Your list sits on your phone with a tick box for every item, grouped by supermarket section, so it's easy to keep track and nothing gets bought twice.
Questions people ask us
How do I make a shopping list on my phone?
Use a notes app or a list app you always have with you, and add to it the moment you notice something is running out. The best bit of doing it on your phone is that the list is with you in the shop, so you can tick things off as you walk round.
How the app helps
Your lists live on your phone with a tick box for every item, so the list you built at home is the one you tick off in the aisles.
How should I organise my shopping list?
Group items by the section of the shop where you'll find them. Keep fresh produce, fridge, cupboard and frozen items together. If you share the shopping with someone else, a grouped list is easier to split between you, too.
How the app helps
Every list in the app is grouped by supermarket section for you. Fresh, fridge, cupboard and frozen items stay together without any sorting.
What should I put on a shopping list first?
Start with the ingredients your planned meals need, then add your regular staples, then anything you've noticed running low. Writing the meals first stops the list becoming a random pile of snacks with no dinner in it.
How the app helps
Plan the week's meals first and the ingredients gather themselves into one list, with your recipes a click away while you choose.
How do I make a shopping list for a week?
Plan seven dinners (or however many you'll actually cook at home), scale each recipe to the number of people eating, combine the ingredients, subtract what you already have, and group what's left by supermarket section. That's a week's shopping in one list.
How the app helps
Build the plan, adjust servings up or down, then shop the kitchen by ticking off what you already have. What's left on the list is exactly what to buy.
How do I stick to my shopping list?
Shop after you've eaten, use a grouped list that's easy to scan, and give yourself a small treat on purpose. A planned treat costs less than a trolley full of impulses.
How the app helps
A list that's easy to scan is easier to stick to. Yours is grouped by section with a tick box per item, so you always know what's still to find.
Or let the app do all of this for you
Import your recipes, plan the week's meals, and The Big Food Shop writes the list for you: scaled to how many you're cooking for, grouped by supermarket section, ready on your phone. Jot quick lists for the milk moments, too.