Happy Friday! We’re already seven days in to Blogmas, can you believe it?
If you read Sunday’s post about how I plan my meals and food prep each week, you may recall me mentioning that I use a Google Sheet for my grocery list. I use it to not only keep track of what I already added to my cart, but to also keep track of what I’m spending.
When I first moved out on my own and had to start food shopping for myself (yikes), I was on the hunt for an app that would tally my bill for me. Ideally I would scan the barcode and automatically keep a tab. But then it would have to have access to the supermarket’s pricing database to make it work, wouldn’t it? So knowing I wouldn’t find exactly what I was looking for I gave up and instead, created a simplified version of what I wanted in Google Sheets. I have the app on my phone, so it makes accessing and editing my checklist a breeze!
I have my list broken into the following sections:
- Fruit
- Veggies
- Meat
- Dairy/Refrigerated
- Frozen
- Extra
- Non Food
There are 10 spots in each section (actually 11 so there’s some breathing room, that’s the designer in me!) Each section gets tallied as prices are entered. At the bottom there is a subtotal field, a coupon subtotal field, and a total field.
Below the total is a place to enter your budgeted dollar amount and it will calculate how much you have left to go (or if it turns negative, how much over you are). Below the tallying section is a spot to put in any coupons you have to factor in. Enter the dollar amounts as positive numbers and it will subtotal and remove from your grand total.
I write my list from Google Drive on my computer for ease of typing. But you can definitely do it right on your phone as well. Or you can add items on the go, because who actually sticks to the list and only to the list when they’re at the store? Haha…
I will admit it does take more time than just crossing items off, but I find this kind of checklist so much more helpful, especially when I’m trying to watch my budget.
If you’re trying to stick to a budget too, or would just like to test it out, I’m sharing a copy of my Grocery Budget Checklist template with you HERE. You can edit the sections to meet your needs, by adding or removing rows, changing headers, etc. I’d love to hear if you find it helpful, leave a comment below!
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