Using the Grocery List
Every month there will be a printable grocery list that you can use to prepare for our OAM cooking BIG DAY. All you need to do is download and print the grocery list, keep it in your purse or near your coupons, and each time you are at the grocery store purchase the items that are on sale off of your grocery list.
Here are some things you should take note of when using the grocery list:
- The grocery list is for ALL of the items that you will need to make enough meals for 2 families. We make the assumption that one person is doing all of the shopping for the cooking team. If you are shopping separately, please note that you will need to purchase 1/2 as many items as are listed on the grocery list.
- When PRINTING, it is designed to print as portrait, NOT landscape.
Areas of the Worksheet:
Quantity Needed
We have gone through each of the recipes from the months menu and listed the TOTAL quantity needed to make all of the items for 2 families. If you are changing some of the ingredients, making less or more of a certain meal, you will need to change the quantities of items that you are needing to purchase. If you are following the menu exactly for 2 families you will not need to alter the quantity at all. If you are doing an OAM Cooking BIG DAY by yourself, shopping for your half of the supplies, or only doing half us much simply cut the quanitites in half.
Items
This is the master list of all of the ingredients that you will need for completing all of the recipes for OAM Cooking BIG DAY. The ingredients are broken down by typical areas in a grocery store. Also, we left room for additional items to be added in the event that you wanted to add your regular weekly shopping items to this list each week as you go shopping!
Store
This area is for you if you would like to keep track of where you are buying items. I will post where I buy my items from each week so that you can see where I got my great deals. You do not have to keep track of which store you bought what items at if you don’t want to; however it could be a great reference for you in the future.
Cost Per Unit
This is the amount that EACH item, container, or pound cost you at the store. This should be listed as price – coupon = unit price. There will be cases when you buy 2 of an item at one price and 2 of an item at another price. In this case, we would need to add an extra line to the sheet to indicate the price difference. It is up to you if you want to keep track of this. I will be keeping track of the cost per unit on my master sheet. This will also give us some baseline prices for future purchases.
Quantity Purchased
Indicate how many you purchased at that amount. This column will also help us to see if we have other items left to purchase towards our overall total.
Total
Price per unit x Quantity will give us our TOTAL. We will keep track of this amount each week. It will help us to know if we are staying on target for our weekly and monthly budget. It is up to you whether you keep track of these items yourself.
Notes
If you would like to keep notes about special sales or prices this would be the column to keep it in. Also, if you still have a certain quantity left to purchase you could also keep a running count and total here. Also keeping notes of coupons used can be very helpful.
I hope this Grocery List will help you throughout the month. It should help with making sure you have the right items to do your OAM Cooking BIG Day but also that you are saving money overall.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about using the Grocery List or other documents you find on this site.
I’m confused about the grocery list. Is that REALLY 32 pounds of chicken breast if you chose to do it that way?
So I’m late to the rodeo (story of my life), it’s not too late though, right? We’re cooking next week for the month of March?
Awesome! No it isn’t too late! I use to just do the shopping all in one day and cook the next. The whole idea of shopping all month is a new approach (one I am liking I might add). Congrats, and welcome!
Hi- Just joined and I love your site! Also just a suggestion…..perhaps you guys could put your recipes on a automatic serving converter, such as allrecipes.com ? That way, those of us cooking for a different number of people can tailor the recipes to the # of servings we need.
That is a great suggestion that we have contemplated. Our hubbies are trying to work up a solution. Posting on allrecipes.com or another established web application isn’t exactly feasible since we do not use 100% of our own recipes. We use a lot of other people’s recipes because we like the variety. We will work towards a better solution as we move forward.
Hi Tricia. I found you via MommySnacks. I think you’ve convinced me to give this OAM cooking a try! I heard about it a few years ago but didnt want to cook 30 casseroles. (I see now that its NOT all casseroles :)). I have a quick question, though. In keeping with my mission to buy on sale with coupons, Im wondering how you handle buying all the ingredients for the Big Day, but still get some good deals? Do you give yourself a few weeks to buy everything, or do you get it all at once? I assume if you buy items over time, you’d just do the cooking day later in the month…nothing wrong with that, right? Just wondering…thanks!
I’ve noticed that our grocery bill is just ridiculously high lately and it is driving me batty! I would love to give this a go… I’d be doing this myself, not with another family… so, I’ll be cutting everything in half. But I wonder, when you say this is how much you need for two families, how many family members are you assuming is the regular family size? Should I be doing less than half if this is just for my husband, myself, and our two year old son?
Great! Check out this post for the answer to your question. You may also want to just tell people that you are doing this, you will be amazed at who says they want to do it with you!
I’m new to google docs and I see that it says the grocery list is printable but I was wondering if it can also be saved so that I can add to the doc instead of printing it out.
Yes you can edit as well. There are some links over on the grocery list post that will explain how to duplicate the document so that you can add items of your own. I am also working behind the scenes on some alternatives. Stay tuned! :)
I just found your site and I’m interested in trying the half menu (looks like 7 recipes times 2). How would I apply this to the current shopping list?
The current shopping list is set up with the quantity for half or a full menu. If you are cooking the November menu. The grocery list includes the breakfasts and lunches as well though. If you aren’t doing those you will have to subtract out those ingredients. If you still have questions feel free to send me an email using the contact form above.
There are one or two recipes for Feb that I am not going to make due to some alergy issues. Is there an easy way to edit the grocery list so that it automatically eliminates the items listed for the recipes that I am not making, or do I have to go in and manually take out the items for those recipes?
Building a system that takes those out easily is both expensive and time consuming to build. So yes, you have to take those out manually. :(
I just found your site last night after a lot of searching for easy to follow OAMC meal plans. I really want to give this a try but the whole idea seems overwhelming to me: until I found you! This might be a silly question, but how does the “enter number of people you are cooking for” box work? I have 3 people in my family, but typing in “3″ seemed like way too much food! Then you mention that if I am cooking for one family to half the quantities…is that the quantity that has already been entered before changing the “number of people” box?
I *think* you would have enough if you did the menu for 2 servings and just portioned it in 8×8 baking pans or 3-4 serving portions. We are working out some of the details in the math to make it consistent among menus. Or you can just type in 1 serving and make the meals for 3-4 servings, you just won’t have as much to consume over the course of the month.
This is just what my husband and I have been looking for! I am so excited to try it. Awesome website. Thanks so much!
Welcome!
hi, just clarifying….
I am going to do this with another family…so in the Yellow box, am I putting the total number of ppl from the two families (8) and then half the grocery list (we might be shopping alone) OR do I put 4 in the yellow box and half the grocery list?
or, is there a way to just divide the recipes (grocery and prep) between us two (for example, I take the top half items on the list)..
sorry, the fact that it’s midnight might have something to do with me just not getting it :)
Ha ha ha. Yes, I get brain-drain at the end of the evening too. Let’s see, there are several ways you can do this. If you are cooking for 8 people total, yes, you will want to put 8 in the yellow box on the recipe cards. If you are shopping separately you will want to each have a grocery list with 4 in the yellow box. If you are dividing the grocery list and taking different sections you will want a grocery list with 8 on it. The grocery list yellow box number should be the same as the recipe card yellow box number in total to match items needed. That help?
yes, thank you. Mind-clarity is a wonderful thing!
My husband was just asking me when I was going to start freezer cooking again, I used to do this 5 years ago, but on my own and here you’ve done all the hard work for us. What a blessing to offer the service free, makes me want to help you out by clicking around. :) Im also off to buy your new eBook..WHAT A BLESSING!, I found myself tearing my hair out cooking for 2 kids under 5 and feeding a baby, I feel like I never leave the kitchen..it’s getting frustrating. So, off to buy your ebook ASAP and hoping to join you end of July. My inlaws will be staying with us THREE months starting in August, so I really need this to work..sorry so long, I can only type uninterrupted at midnight. :)
Can the grocery list spreadsheet adjust if I choose not to make certain recipes on the month of recipes? i.e. if I don’t want to make the fillet sandwich, will it take the fillet off the shopping list?
No, sorry Laura, it is not that sophisticated. You will need to manually remove or subtract off those ingredients.
I’ve looked and looked, and I’m sorry if this answer is somewhere on this site. I am only interested in doing the dinners and lunches. Is there a way to modify the shopping list to reflect cooking only lunches and dinners?
Thanks
You will have to manually eliminate those ingredients from the grocery list. Be able to delete recipes like that requires a major database we don’t have. Welcome and enjoy!
OK – newbie here. I am getting the impression that the shopping is all done throughout the month and cooking done at the end of the month. Is this correct? So now since September’s menu has been posted, we print out our grocery lists, keep an eye out for bargain items throughout the month, and then set a day prior to next month’s menu to cook?
Am I starting to get this? I hope so. I am excited to try this new project!
Melissa – you GOT IT! Yay! Happy following and shopping. (You CAN shop all in one day now and cook if you want but the most savings comes from shopping throughout the month).
I think I may be a little confused, on the grocery shopping lists you have a field that states *enter the number of people you are cooking for here–>1. Which I would assume changes the amount of ingredients needed, however on the instructions above you say “The grocery list is for ALL of the items that you will need to make enough meals for 2 families. We make the assumption that one person is doing all of the shopping for the cooking team. If you are shopping separately, please note that you will need to purchase 1/2 as many items as are listed on the grocery list”… can you please explain this? I only have 4 people in my family, does that mean in the downloaded grocery list do I put in the number 2? Or has this been updated for the exact number you are cooking for per family?
I am looking forward to using this website!
Thank you,
Leanne
Hmm, it looks like our instructions on using the cards needs a little updating. You should enter exactly the number of servings you want to cook for, in your case, 4.
Wonderful! Thank you for your response!