New Series... Unclutter It Thursday

I'm excited about the new series I'm starting here at Uncluttered Lifestyle... its called Unclutter It Thursday. In the series I'll be sharing with you some of the organizing projects I'm working on the around the house. Who knows maybe one day I'll turn it into a linky party. But for now it's just me and you kid.

First up is grocery shopping. Let me tall ya, I haaaaate grocery shopping with a passion. I'm talking open the refrigerator and hear an echo... haaaaate grocery shopping. My hatred to grocery shopping is probably due to a few factors... 1. Cost of freaking food but then again I do live in California. 2. Living in a town with no major grocery store, which means I have to drive a minimum of 10 miles to the next town or to save some green I'm in the car for no less than 30 minutes. 3. Cost of freaking food... did I mention that already. :)

You may be wondering why in the world would I drive 30 minutes when I have a grocery store 10 miles away. Well, driving 30 minutes gets me Target, Walmart, Petco, Dollar Tree, Save Mart and much more. So the 30 minutes are worth it if I plan for it. Yet, another reason to organize grocery shopping. Don't want to get all the way home just to realize I forgot dog food.

So anywho, I got down to business and organized my grocery shopping experience. Like so many other project, it all started with a binder. Its just a plain white binder with scrapbook paper as a cover.

The first page is the weekly menu plan.

Then there's a Mead folder and as I get store ads I put them in the folder until its time to make the menu.

Then I have the grocery list. Its separated by categories (helps reduce time spent in the store). And forgive the coloring. Looks like I'm running out of ink... better add that to the list.

And finally I alphabetized all the club cards in plastic business card holder pages. Can you believe I used to carry these all in my wallet!?! Now I just pull them out as I need them. This is by far one of my favorite features.

Now its time to start planning. During the week I compile a list of needs on a clipboard I keep in the pantry. So lets grab that.

Next I go through the three store ads I get and first look for the items on the list. Next I look for the meats on sale and based on the meats I create a menu. Each store is separated by an empty line.  

The now created menu

This list is then transferred to the categorized shopping list with items from the notoriously cheaper store listed first, since its quite possible that all the items may be cheaper there... at least a girl can hope.

The list and ads go in the folder. The nice thing about this folder is pocket for my coupons and club cards.

Now all I have to do is grab my "green" shopping bags (save 5 cents a bag), add the folder to bunch and we're ready to go.

How do you prepare to grocery shop?

Thanks for visiting, till next time.

I'm linking this to:
Delightfully Inspiring Thursday - Delightful Order
Newbie Party - Debbiedoo's Blogging & Blabbing