If I have learned one thing from living on my own, it is that grocery shopping and dealing with food is not nearly as easy as my mom made it out to be. For the longest time, I would go to the store, spend like $60 and come home still feeling like I had nothing to eat. But, after integrating these few easy steps, I spent just over half of what I was spending before, it has lasted so much longer, and I am not stuck snacking all day instead of having three sustainable meals.

Step 1: Make A List Of As Many Grocery Items As You Can Think Of

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This is crucial. Before, when I went to the grocery store, I would just buy what looked appetizing at the time and then maybe a couple items I could put into a meal. But, If you have a whole list of items that you know you like and will find a way to cook up, then you can just pick from those items and have a customized list for the week.

Step 2: Customize Your List For The Week

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For this, I usually look in my pantry and see what I am out of, what has expired, and what I have been eating a lot of lately. I will usually have some of these same things on my weekly list like, lunchmeat, cheese sticks, frozen veggies, and a frozen meal. Then, I will add to that list with things I need for a meal I plan on making, some things I want to try, etc.

Step 3: Categorize Your List

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I do this for my big list and also my customized list. I separate my items by: dairy, meat, frozen, snacks, drinks, pantry, and 'other.' This makes shopping so much easier so that you don't have to comb through the aisles 50 times to find everything you need.

Although grocery shopping seems like an easy task. I have learned that it is a lot harder than it looks. With these steps, I have saved so much money by not just buying random snacks and I am eating healthier and more thoughtfully. Props to my mom for making it look so easy.