Tick off the shopping list as you go

A shopping list earns its keep in the middle of the shop, one hand on the trolley. It needs to be in the order you walk the aisles, show what’s left at a glance, and ideally tell you what this is all going to cost before the checkout does.

Here’s what the video shows, in the iPhone app:

1. The list is in aisle order. It was built from the week’s meal plan, so a line that came from a recipe says which meal it’s for: “Needed for Crispy Fish Tacos, Thu 1 Oct”.
2. Tap a line to tick it off. It’s struck through and stays where it is, so you can still check it if you’re not sure it went in.
3. The trolley total goes up as you go. The figure at the bottom of the screen is what everything you’ve ticked comes to. Tap it to see how many items it covers, and whether any of them have no price yet.
4. The whole basket sits against your budget. At the top: what the full list should come to ($148.87 here), what that leaves of a $260 weekly budget, and how many items are still to get. Go over budget and it says by how much. That’s all it does.

Two things the video can’t show. Ticking works with no signal, which matters in a supermarket built like a bunker: it’s saved on the phone and catches up when you’re back in range. And the same list is on the web, ticks and all, though the trolley total at the bottom is the iPhone app only.

Which plan

The list, ticking, aisles and the weekly budget are on every plan, the free one included.

The prices in the video come from the household’s scanned receipts, and receipt scanning is on the Family plan. On any plan you can type in what an item usually costs, and both totals use that instead.

For why a list built from the plan beats one written on the back of an envelope, and the three things it has to get right, read turning a week of meals into one shopping list.

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Harvenna builds one shopping list from your week’s plan, sorts it by your own aisles, and keeps working when the supermarket’s signal doesn’t. Free to plan and shop by hand.