{31 Days To organize the "hidden" areas of your home} Day 22~ Grocery Shopping/coupons

Now that you have organized your weekly menus it's time to go shopping. I know it may seem like grocery shopping should be an easy area to organize. Just write down what you need and go to the store-right? Sounds simple enough but for years I would go food shopping only to get home and realized that I had forgotten to buy something I needed. Or that I had cut out several coupons to use and forgot them at home or in my purse etc. Over the years, I have heard about several different ways to organize this task. One magazine I read years ago suggested to write your shopping list in the same order as the aisles in the store. I must confess, I did try this for a while but then one day the store decided to reorganize their aisles without telling me first so and I had no time to adjust my shopping list! The nerve. I really wasn't that put out but saw the reality that this option would probably be a time-waster in the long run. It also did not solve the problem of organizing the coupons. One of my long time friends is a major couponer. She has a huge system in file boxes that she takes to the store with her. Years ago I joined her in this type of couponing. I realized that there were many products that I was buying just because I had a coupon and not because we needed the item. So I wanted to achieve a happy medium. Now I only take coupons for things that I am planning on buying or know we will need. That being the case, I saw an idea on line to write your shopping list on a legal size envelope and put the coupons you are going to use inside. I had my wonderful husband make this into a printable pdf document. All you need to do is put a business size envelope in your printer and print side one. After it is printed flip the envelope over and print if you want the back side printed with reminders. After I make my menu for the week I print out an envelope and add all of the ingredients I will need for the week onto the list. I like to keep the envelope in the kitchen so I can easily add anything that we run out of. Once I have all my items on the list I go through the coupons in the paper and see if there is anything that I will be purchasing and add them to the envelope. On shopping day just grab the envelope and go. Click here to download the free envelope shopping list.