When I was younger, our family was small enough that shopping trips were rarely organized: we would go several times a week and were constantly running out of things.  We would always grab some meat, some vegetables, and a long list of oddments we were out of.  As this began to tie up more and more time, we realized something had to change.  Dad - a manufacturing expert - first came up with the solution of making only four shopping trips a month: one really big one and three little ones.

We began implementing this pattern before I took over the shopping eight years ago, but as this was my main "job" in my family, I've spent a lot of time working to figure out what works smoothest and best.  My criteria?  Only having to go to the store once a week for perishables and having everyone satisfied with what we have on hand in the meantime without drastically overstocking our pantry.

There are three basic patterns for organized shopping: once weekly, once bi-weekly with a fill-in visit for fresh lettuce, etc., and once monthly with three fill-in weekly trips for perishables.  I've learned that going once weekly or once every two weeks takes about the same amount of time as going once monthly, which makes monthly shopping by far the preferred pattern for me.  It was very daunting to begin doing this when I first started, but I found we needed much less than I expected and there's a specific order to go about it to make things run efficiently.

The biggest piece of time-consuming work in monthly shopping is organizing a menu and deciding what supplies really need to be laid in for the next four weeks.  There's a several-month learning curve for this when the amount of bathroom supplies and incidentals needs some adjusting, but once the system is in place I've been extremely pleased with both the money- and time-saving aspects of it.

The first step is to plan a dinner menu (it might be worthwhile to make a sketchy list for lunch and breakfast too, just to get an idea of what you need on hand).  I used to just plan for the main dish, but I've discovered it's actually much easier to plan a full dinner for every night for all four weeks.  For implementing in a family our size, it's even become important to assign meals to specific nights - things were getting chaotic otherwise (we would forget to take the meat out and then would get stuck with only "long" meals like pot roast on nights we needed a fast one).  I plan for a meat, a starch, a vegetable, and a salad for every meal.  I start by identifying which meals can be eaten often enough to have once a week and adding them to each week.  This changes from summer to winter, but in either season I've learned that for a family our size, it's often cheaper to eat either chicken or fairly inexpensive steak for meals rather than getting hot dogs or traditional "inexpensive" meals like fish (fish can be more expensive than good steak around here!)  Here's an example menu for the month of April/May (this is our actual menu from April 23 to May 18):

1.)Barbecued Chicken, Nachos, Brussels Sprouts, Salad
2.)Steak, Spinach, Artichoke Dip with Vegetables, Salad
3.)Chicken Stir Fry, Rice, Salad
4.)Lamb Chops, Cauliflower Soup, Roasted Asparagus/Red Peppers, Salad
5.)Drumsticks, Rolls, Green Beans, Salad
6.) (Company dinner - eating away from home)

1.)Beef Stroganof, Noodles, Asparagus, Salad
2.)Barbecued Chicken, Macaroni Salad, Zucchini, Salad
3.)Chicken Cordon Bleu, Spinach, Salad
4.)Taco Salad w/chips, Green Beans
5.)Chicken Barley Soup, Bread, Salad
6.)Steak, Red Potatoes, Onions, Caesar Salad
7.)Drumsticks w/Garlic Mayo, Pita Chips, Steamed Vegetables, Salad

1.)Hamburgers, Seasoned Fries, Asparagus, Salad
2.)Barbecued Chicken, Spaghetti Squash, Caesar Salad
3.)Greek Chicken Salad, Pita Bread
4.)Steak, Garlic Potatoes, Mushrooms, Spinach Salad
5.)Sausages, Bean Soup, Rye Crackers, Green Beans, Salad
6.)Macaroni and Cheese, Brussels Sprouts, Salad
7.)Roasted Chickens, Spiced Couscous, Steamed Vegetables, Salad

1.)Hamburgers, Nachos, Zucchini, Salad
2.)Steak, Baked Potatoes, Spinach, Salad
3.)Tandoori Chicken, Pita Bread, Cucumbers, Green Beans
4.)Barbecued Chicken, Bruschetta, Coleslaw
5.)Salmon, Corn Chowder, Asparagus, Salad (Mom's Birthday!!)
6.)Fajitas (Meat/Peppers/Onions, Lettuce, Salsa, Guacamole, Cheese, Sour Cream, Tortillas)
7.)Roasted Chicken, Garlic Potatoes, Broccoli Soup, Salad

This menu is unusual in that there are very little rice, noodle, or casserole meals.  Mom and Dad are doing an Atkin's Diet variation and the menu needed to change to keep from making too many separate meals.  Building up a good stockpile of meals your family likes and fits in with any special dietary restrictions (we have two mild wheat allergies, a milk allergy, and follow the Biblical dietary restrictions regarding clean/unclean meat) is a decent challenge and requires a lot of note-taking.  I began building lists of menus and marking them when one was particularly successful.  After a while I had enough meals that we could conceivably go a few months without repeating the exact same meal twice. 

I also paid careful attention to basic amounts consumed by the family - our whole family of ten (seven adults, currently) tends to eat around three pounds of meat per meal, so after making this menu it's a simple thing to count up how much chicken and hamburger, etc, to buy.  All pot roasts are always three pounds.  We need three pounds of sausages.  One-and-a-half boneless chicken breasts.  About twelve chicken drumsticks.  Knowing these rules of thumb prevents over-buying and simplifies the shopping a great deal.

After making the menu, the next step is to determine items that don't belong on the menu.  Oatmeal, bread, cheese, butter, flour, sugar, spices, and so on.  Then it's on to bathroom/personal care supplies like diapers, toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, and aspirin.  Don't forget laundry soap and garbage bags! 

Keeping tabs of supply amounts for a family over a whole month can seem overwhelming, but any family shopper is probably used to doing this on a small scale anyway, which makes this kind of list a matter of going over four normal weeks and thereby determining how much a month will take.  A friend of mine kept all receipts in an envelope for a whole month to determine what she normally bought and that turned out to be a huge help in planning her first big shopping trip.

The last step (after making a list of menu items, non-menu items, and non-food supplies) is to decide where to shop.  I typically go to a warehouse club, a big grocery store, and a fruit market.  I've learned which prices are best from which store and I split the list up by availability and price.  In the end, I have a three-part list.  The warehouse clubs can be excellent for basics, but beware loading extra items in the cart!  Everything tends to cost $10 and ten extra items can accumulate quickly during a big trip.

Shopping day for me is Tuesday as often as I can manage it.  I've pretty much had every day of the week except Saturday as a shopping day and I like Tuesday mornings best.  There is no weekend busy-ness, no first-day-back-to-work traffic, and no paycheck shoppers (Thursday and Friday are REALLY busy shopping days!).

Taking a crew along to help is a big deal.  I take as many kids with me as I can and direct them what to get, both to save my feet and teach them how to shop.  At first this takes some extra time because you have to coach them exactly what to put in the basket, but eventually they're great when it comes to knowing which brands are good and how to check prices so as not to get the most expensive thing on the shelf. 

A note on taking the little kids, though: if you have all littles, see if this can become a joint shopping trip with your husband.  I've taken all little kids before (eight and under) and it definitely takes more patience because at that point you are teaching first and shopping second.  Not that it can't be done: it's just important to remember priorities.  Having two adults working together makes things much more relaxed and enjoyable.

After finishing the shopping, be prepared to take another hour or two to put things away and divide up your meat into separate packages for freezing.  I try to keep things simple to the point that the packages have the same amount - if recipes call for all different amounts it doesn't matter: we use the same amount of each kind of meat per meal.  Except hamburger - we have two different sizes for that (meatloaf takes a lot more hamburger than spaghetti). 

A note on thawing meat: dividing it into Ziploc bags and flattening them out as much as possible means the meat thaws in about two hours when submerged in warm water.

Especially for the first trip, plan several hours to build a good solid menu and another several to shop and put away groceries.  It's never a good idea to make the list and shop on the same day for monthly shopping!  My head gets much too fuzzy to shop clearly if I try to do it all in one day.  I also plan for a quick meal on shopping night because it takes time and patience to collect and put everything away.

Pantry space and freezer space are important to clear out ahead of time, so I tend to do a quick clean-out of the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry before making the list.  This helps a great deal because then I have a very accurate picture of what we have on hand and what I need to remember to get.

After spending the two days planning and executing a monthly shopping trip, the next three weeks are very light.  Those lists usually consist of lettuce, milk, some fresh vegetables, and a little fruit.  Being released from a big shopping trip every week has given me much more time and severely cut back on all the "extra" stuff we tend to get when going to a few stores every week.  It has also improved the quality of our meals, since they are more carefully planned ahead of time instead of just being thrown together after combing the pantry and refrigerator that day for ideas.

Shopping is a big job for a family no matter how it's managed; but as with anything else, the proper amount of organizing can free up an impressive amount of time and energy for other things.  Some of my siblings think of the big shopping trip as a fun monthly expedition and beg to go along, which always tickles me.  It's also been a huge learning tool both for me and them in teaching us good household management, organizational skills, and working together to help provide for our family.  Someday I'll probably have to hand this job over to a younger sister and I hope to have already passed along what I've learned so she can improve on it.  In the meantime, hopefully my routine will give someone else a place to start in getting their own shopping expeditions under control.