The perfect shopping list

Customers will often go to the supermarket without being clear about what they want to buy or with a rough shopping list. To prevent this from happening, before going to the supermarket it is useful to check which products and food you still have at home. That way, you will be aware of what you really need, you will only buy what you need, you will avoid throwing away food and will save money. It will also make it easier to create a basic and cheap shopping list.

Eat better: learn how to create a healthy shopping list

Very often, you want to eat healthily, but when it comes to creating your shopping list, by not being clear about what you are going to eat during the week, you end up choosing foods that are removed from that initial idea. For this reason, it may be really useful to create a varied weekly meal plan that includes foods from all the nutritional groups and, in this way, achieve a healthy shopping list.

• Include vegetables in all your meals, whether in salads, baked, sauteed, boiled, in soups, etc. Also ensure that they are seasonal, in this case, spinach, aubergines, courgettes, onions, garlic, etc., as they will cost you less.

• It is important to have one or two portions of protein at each meal (meat, fish, eggs, legumes or dairy).
• Carbohydrates/fats should not be missing, this can come from extra virgin olive oil to nuts, avocado, pasta, quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes…
• Lastly, a variety of fruits and, once again, in season. During this season we have strawberries, mandarins, loquats, oranges, bananas, etc. Additionally, fruit could be eaten with chocolate that is over 70% cocoa, nuts, or natural yogurt.  

How do you create the perfect shopping list?

Once you are aware of the food and products you have at home, you can begin to make a shopping list. But, in order to avoid excesses and eat conscientiously and healthily, it is important to keep the following points in mind:

• Keeping in mind an estimate of the money you are planning to spend may help you to avoid unnecessary spending.  
• Basing your list on a healthy and varied weekly meal plan will allow you to narrow down your choice of products.  
• Many families have very different schedules whether due to work, school, etc. and only come together at mealtimes. If you are making a monthly or weekly shopping list, being aware of the activities or normal schedules of the people you live with may be useful when it comes to shopping for greater or smaller amounts of products.
• Organising the shopping list into specific groups (cleaning, legumes, fruit and vegetables, frozen foods…) will enable you to save time and money, as it will help you not to deviate from what you actually need.  
• As they are increasingly improving in quality, including various white brand products in your shopping will mean a saving over the long term.