There are two categories of foods that I need to shop for at the grocery store: staples and meal ingredients. My tip for making sure you have all of your meal ingredients is simple:
Copy your ingredients from the recipes as you plan your meals.
Last week I talked about how to plan out your meals so that you are more likely to stick to your plan (read that post here). In that post I talked about a few different ways to save your favorite recipes, whether digital or hard copy. However you're saving them, whenever you're choosing your recipes and looking at them to make your plan for the week, go through the ingredients list and write down the ones you don't have. Save yourself the step of having to go find those recipes again later when you're ready to go to the store!
Staples are things that I don't have to buy as often but I need to make sure I have on-hand, like condiments, spices, bread, snacks, and drinks. Some of them I'll be able to check when I'm looking at each recipe's ingredients, but others are things we eat outside of mealtime and won't come up while I'm meal planning. That's why I suggest one other tip for making sure you have everything you need on your grocery list:
Keep a running list in the kitchen and add to it throughout the week.
I have a dry erase board stuck to the side of my fridge where I make my grocery lists. Throughout the week, if I notice we're running low on a staple, I'll write it down immediately. That way when it comes time to add my meal ingredients, I won't forget the staples! I love using a dry erase board for this because it's easy to make accessible in the kitchen where you can write it down as soon as you notice something. Remember if you don't have a regular white board, you can use a picture frame for the same purpose!
Bonus tip: keep a magnetic list pad on your fridge for your shopping lists as well.
As you can see in the picture, I keep a magnetic list pad right next to my dry erase board. Once I've written everything down on the whiteboard, when I'm ready to head to the store I transfer the list to the notepad, splitting everything up into categories so it's easier to find at the store. Very handy!
I hope this helps you see how easy it can be to make a meal plan and stick to it- I absolutely cannot imagine not meal planning at this stage of my life! If you have any questions about meal planning or tips of your own for making one trip to the grocery store each week, leave them in the comments below :)
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