How to Maintain and Use Collaborative Grocery Lists

The grocery store can be a rather unpleasant place if you're not prepared for it, but using collaborative grocery list apps with your significant other or roommates can make the process easier. Here's how to do it.

Photo remixed with Matt MacGillivray.

The main purpose of the collaborative list is to maintain a constant running record of everything you need throughout the week. If you're collaborating with others on the project, there's a handful of ways to make the process smoother and make your shopping experience more efficient in the long run. Let's start by looking at our favorite app for the job, Grocery IQ.

Grocery IQ Syncs Between iPhone, Android, and Web

We mentioned Grocery IQ a while back, but it's still the best way to collaborate on grocery lists because it syncs across iOS, Android, and a webapp. If you're looking for other options, Our Groceries and GrocerySmart do the same thing, but with less features. The initial process of making a list is as simple as typing in or scanning the barcode of any items you want, but to make it truly useful, you need to customize a few things.

Share Your List with Shopping Partners and Mark Your Favorite Items

How to Maintain and Use Collaborative Grocery Lists

A collaborative grocery list requires collaborators so if you want to make use of it, you need to email and sync your list with others. From the Grocery IQ mobile app, you can do this by tapping More > List Sharing. From the webapp, you can share your list directly by hitting the email icon above your list. Now everyone you have shared the list with can add, update, or remove items from the grocery list.

Once you share your list, it's time to start collaborating on your grocery store visits. One handy feature on Grocery IQ is the ability to favorite items. This can be used for repeated items like milk, butter, or soap, but it's also handy to remember of a tasty frozen pizza you may have tried or an especially soft roll of toilet paper. If you swap the grocery shopping duties among different people, this is great feature to ensure you'll get the right snacks or your favorite brands at the store even when you're not there.

Be specific because in most cases, Grocery IQ lets you do just that. It doesn't have a lot of generic items in its inventory, but its database has most name brands. If you're partial to one type of pineapple juice, but not another, specify what exactly you're looking for, not just the general term.

Organize Your Shopping List by Aisle

How to Maintain and Use Collaborative Grocery Lists

It might be truly helpful if Grocery IQ had some massive database of every grocery store in existence but it doesn't. This means your first step is to organize the aisles in the app. In the case of my local Safeway, this meant completely rearranging the original list. If you frequent the same grocery store on a regular basis, you can probably do this from memory, but if you're new in town or your grocery store rearranges on you, you have to do it in the store. It's a one-time process and in most cases, you will only to do it once for each store.

It's worth the effort. Once you organize your aisles, Grocery IQ automatically lists your items as you encounter them in the store. It's a great way to make the shopping experience quicker and more efficient.

Set Up Additional Stores for Random Items

Depending on how frugal you are or how many grocery stores are in your area, you might need to set up multiple stores. This feature enables you to set aside different lists for different stores. For instance, if you prefer to buy your toilet paper in bulk, you can create a Costco or Sam's Club. If you prefer to buy your produce at a different store than the rest of your items, you can setup Grocery IQ for that as well. This helps the collaboration process as well, because it means you can dedicate certain shopping chores to certain people who might be closer to a particular store. It also allows you to set up different aisles for each store to make sure you're efficient in every way.

Do you use collaborative grocery lists to keep track of your items? What's you favorite app?