Healthy eating starts with the foods and drinks your family puts into the shopping trolley. Sounds easy, right?

Wrong. It is so easy to get distracted at the supermarket by sale items and colourful packaging. Before you know it, that short trip to the shops has turned into a never-ending ordeal. Enough already!

Boredom aside, a longer time spent food shopping typically means more things your family doesn’t need (not good for waste, waistlines or wallets) and steals time away from better things you could all be doing.

3 tasks to help your family become speedy shoppers:

1. Help with planning the weekly menu

If you don’t have a plan, then how will you know what you need to buy? Without a plan, there is also a very good chance that you won’t have everything you need when you do cook a meal which means you will need to return to the shops again. Nooooo!

2. Learn to write a shopping list

Once you know what you are going to cook, it’s then time to write your shopping list. First, take a look at the foods and drinks you already have in the fridge or pantry. Then, write down everything else you will need to buy, think about quantity too. Finally, don’t forget to take the list to the shops and tick the items as you find them.

3. Order your list into different categories

Hit warp speed by dividing your shopping list into different categories. This means you won’t need to go back and forth between different shops or supermarket aisles. List your shopping into the following categories:

• Fruit
• Vegetables
• Protein (legumes and meat)
• Fridge/Freezer
• Dry goods
• Drinks
• Other

Waste Warrior Tip

Making a plan before you go shopping is important! It helps you only buy what you need. This means you don’t throw away food which has gone bad because you didn’t have a plan for how you were going to use it. You’ll save money too! Ka-ching!