Once menu planning is completed with your cooking club, it is time to tackle the grocery shopping. But first, you need to write out a grocery list.

If you usually do not grocery shop with a list, this may be an adjustment for you. However, when you are shopping in bulk and cooking with a cooking club, a list is your best friend. All of the members in the cooking club are counting on their money being spent correctly and all of the proper ingredients being available  on the cooking day.

The easiest way to prepare a list for bulk shopping with a cooking club is to look over all the recipes. Then, write out how much of each ingredient you will need when the recipe is doubled, tripled or quadrupled. Many recipes will use some of the same ingredients, so once you get all the ingredients listed for each recipe, you can go through and add up the totals for the duplicate items.

Here are a few tips to help you as you make out your list:

• Take note of pantry items already on hand for all of the members. There may be none, or each of you may have a few things you can provide on the cooking day.
• The Sam’s Club website is a fabulous resource to use as you make your list. You can find prices on most items as well as what is available. In fact, you can even prepare a mock list by selecting the click ‘n’ pull tab. You can check off all of the items you need, at least those that are available through the click ‘n’ pull program, and get a great estimate of what your total will be at check out.
• Most likely you will not be able to purchase all the necessary ingredients in bulk. This is when you want to take a pantry inventory and see which of those items you or the other members may already have on hand. It is possible that a trip to a second store may be needed. This could easily be done by one of the other members if you are all agreeable to the scenario.
• Consider the amount of storage space you have on hand before you go shopping. If space is limited, wait until as close to the cooking time to go shopping as possible.
• You can shop together as a group, but it is probably easiest to rotate the shopping and have whoever will be hosting the cooking day do the shopping.
• Always shop with a calculator so that you can keep a running total as you go. This is especially important if all of the club members have agreed on a set dollar amount to spend for the cooking day, such as $100 per member.

Read parts 1 through 6 of the Bulk Cooking with a Cooking Club series.

And stop by 5 Minutes For Mom for more Tackle It Tuesday.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites