I Made a Reverse Grocery List, and It Saved Me $30 on My Last Shopping Trip

I’ve never been good at making a grocery list and taking organized grocery shopping trips. More often than not, I feel good with my haul — only to come home and realize I forgot something essential. So I went in search of a method that I would actually use, and I found an Apartment Therapy article on the concept of a reverse grocery list. I knew I needed to try it. 

A reverse grocery list is a list of all the food items you have in stock at home, which you edit when you run out of something. Instead of creating new lists week to week, you simply refer back to your record of essentials to see what needs restocking. Brilliant! 

The original Apartment Therapy article recommends making this list for pantry items (think: spices, coffee, baking supplies) that last a long time and are easy to forget to repurchase, as you don’t have to often. But for my household of two (me and my husband), I decided to try using the method for our typical groceries — not the ingredients we need for special recipes, but the staples we find ourselves buying every time we go to the supermarket. 

Luckily we tend to eat the same things every day, so this method works really well for us. When I made our list of grocery essentials, I added things like the following:

• Chicken breast
• Almond milk
• Eggs
• Rice
• Protein bars
• Mini ice cream cones
• Frozen berries
• Greek yogurt
• Peanut butter

And more! We really do buy the same items over and over, and having this list has been a game-changer! I keep it in the Notes app on my phone, and mark an item with an X emoji when we’re running low or are completely out of something. When you’ve got Xs on your list, it’s time to go grocery shopping. 

Making a grocery list has always felt like pulling teeth for some reason, so when I would go grocery shopping I’d always forget things — or, worse, end up buying multiples of items we didn’t need. Having a list that doesn’t change means there’s no need to rack my brain. Of course, if we’re trying a new recipe or there are fun seasonal items I’d like to try, I can just purchase those items from a separate list. More often than not, I can grab fun items like pumpkin butter or peppermint Oreos without being too organized about it. 

The reverse grocery list also helps me spend less money. We tend to keep a pretty stocked freezer, and it’s always annoying when we end up having too many bags of frozen fruit, pre-made rice, or boxes of mini ice cream cones. Our freezer is only so large! I typically overspend when I don’t have a plan and grab things that I think I need. Keeping a list has come in clutch. 

Here’s a specific example of how the reverse grocery list method has saved me money since I started using it: My husband and I love to work out, and our protein goals are pretty high, so we always have protein bars on hand. We get big boxes of them, but we don’t need more than one box at a time, and especially when I’m at the store I’m not always sure whether it’s time to buy a new one. They’re pricey, so only buying them when we need them is the key. 

On my last grocery trip, I would have normally grabbed a few protein bars a la carte just in case — I was even tempted to get a new box! But they’re cheaper when you buy them in bulk, and having my reverse grocery list at the ready (which assured me we had enough at home) made it an easy decision to not impulse buy more. A box costs $30, which stayed in my pocket.

All in all, this is a great method to try — especially if you purchase the same groceries week to week. Save yourself some aggravation and save some money in the process!