Grocery list app

Write the list from the plan, with the quantities worked out

Lists go wrong when they are written from memory. Write the week's meals first, then count the ingredients. The table shows one adult's staples for a week as an illustration: the amount per day, the days, the total and what you would buy.

The point is the arithmetic, not these particular foods. Multiply per day by days, then round up to the pack size. Check the cupboard before you add a line, because the cheapest item is the one you already own.

Illustrative amounts for one adult, worked on 23 October 2026. Not a diet plan and not personal advice.

From five dinners to one list for two people

The best way to see why a list should come from a plan is to do it once. Take the five dinners worked out on the meal planner page: chicken and rice bowl, lentil and spinach curry, pasta bake, salmon and sweet potato, and a tofu stir fry. Each is one adult serve with raw weights. For two people every weight doubles, and the same ingredient used on two nights is added into one line. Five dinners with about 6 to 8 ingredients each come out as just 19 lines.

Now group by where you will walk. Shopping in store order is the cheapest trip there is. If you already own olive oil, onions and white rice, three lines come off and the list is 16. For four people double every figure again, and for three multiply by one and a half. The amounts are raw weights, so cooked rice and pasta will weigh more on the plate.

Worked on 23 October 2026: each dinner's raw weights from the meal planner page, times 2 people, with repeated ingredients added into one line. The weights are an illustration we chose, not a diet plan. Round each line up to the pack you see on the shelf, and check the cupboard first.

A shopping routine that saves trips

This works on paper, in a notes app or in any list app.

1. 1
   Plan before you list

   Decide the dinners first. See the meal planner page for a twenty minute method.

2. 2
   Check the cupboard

   Open the fridge, freezer and pantry while you write. Cross out what you already have.

3. 3
   Group by section

   Fruit and veg, dairy, meat, pantry, freezer, household. Shopping in store order saves walking back.

4. 4
   Add to the list the moment you run out

   The list on your phone is only useful if it is the first place you reach when the milk finishes.

5. 5
   Set a repeating shop

   Put a weekly shop task in Plan with a reminder, so the day you shop stops being a decision.

What grocery list apps charge, and what the purchases sell

Read from the Australian App Store listings on 20 October 2026. Each line is one in-app purchase as listed, with the name the app gave it. The names matter: they tell you what you are paying for. Rating counts show how widely each is used.

We have not read the prices of AnyList, Bring, Todoist or the Woolworths app. Check each app's own page before you pay.

What to compare in any list app

We have not read the full feature lists of the three apps above, only their prices and purchase names, so this table is about the features to look for, not a claim about any one app. The right column is what a plain notes app or a sheet of paper usually gives you.

Not yet and Unknown are our words. The Daily Journal column was checked against the app's own files on 23 October 2026.

Which shopper needs which list

Pick by how you shop, not by the longest feature list.

• You shop alone and forget things. A phone notes app or a list on the fridge is enough. The fix is the habit: add the item the minute you run out. See the routine above.
• You split the shop with a partner. You need a list that two phones share, and that is the feature worth paying for if the free tier does not give it. Test with a real week before you pay for any premium.
• You cook from a plan. Write the plan first, as on the meal planner page, then the list from it. A planner app that makes the list for you saves the step, and you can compare them on that page.
• You track what you eat. The list and the log are two halves of one loop: what you buy and what you eat. Use the calorie counter app page's method or the Food page to see what you really use.
• You shop on a budget. Paper is the cheapest tool and the unit price on the shelf is the best number. Our nutrition label guide shows how to compare it.
• You manage a household. Put the weekly shop in Plan as a repeating task and keep the list wherever the whole household will really look. The habit tracker app page covers keeping a routine going.

What the purchases tell us, and why a shared list comes first

Look at the names on the purchases we read: four of the seven are called Remove Ads, three are called Premium, and none is called a shared list. So what people are visibly paying for in the Australian listings is relief from adverts, or an unspecified premium, and the cheapest ad removal is A$1.49. That is a finding about what is sold, not about what people want.

What people want is a judgment, and ours is that a shared list is the feature that turns a note into a tool, because the second person in the shop sees what the first added at home. That is the version we would build first: one list, two phones, ticks that sync, no adverts, and a way to start the next list from the last one. Everything else is optional until sign ups tell us it matters.

• Share one list with the person you shop with
• Tick items off as you go so the other phone updates
• Start next week's list from this week's

What to look for before you pay

List apps are cheap, which is why the sums are easy to get wrong. Shoppylist's three Premium purchases show it. Monthly Premium at A$1.99 over twelve months is A$23.88. Yearly Premium at A$12.99 is A$1.08 a month. Lifetime Premium at A$39.99 equals about 3.1 years of the yearly price, since 39.99 divided by 12.99 is 3.08. So a lifetime purchase only wins if you will still use the app after three years, and a monthly purchase is the most expensive way to pay for the same thing.

Our Groceries shows the other pattern: Remove Ads at A$1.49, then A$9.99, then a Lifetime Remove Ads at A$14.99. The cheapest line is not necessarily the right one, because the listing does not say what period each covers. Before you tap, read the term on the confirmation screen.

• Is the free version really usable, or is it a countdown?
• Does sharing a list with one other person cost extra?
• Is the purchase for removing ads only, or does it add features you need?
• Is the price monthly, yearly or once, and what does that come to over a year?
• Can you export or print the list, so you are not locked in?
• Who can see your shopping lists, and what happens to them if you stop paying?
• Would a paper list on the fridge do the same job for nothing?

Mistakes and myths about shopping lists

Most failed lists fail for the same few reasons.

• Writing the list in the car park. A list written from memory misses things. Write it from the plan and the cupboard, at home, in the moment you notice.
• Not grouping by section. An ungrouped list sends you back to the dairy aisle twice. Group by where you walk.
• Buying lines you already own. Olive oil, rice and onions are the usual repeats. Check the cupboard and cross them out, as the worked list above does for three lines.
• Paying monthly for something you use weekly. The sums above show how fast A$1.99 a month passes A$12.99 a year.
• Thinking a shared list fixes a missing plan. Two people can share an empty list. A plan is what fills it.
• Believing a list cuts the bill by itself. A shorter list tends to cost less, but we have not measured a saving and will not promise one.

Cutting the list and the bill

A shorter list is usually a cheaper one. Plan around a few staples you use several ways, such as eggs, rice, oats and frozen vegetables, and buy the specials around them. Check unit prices on the shelf and compare using the nutrition label panel, which our nutrition label guide explains.

If you are tracking protein, the protein calculator shows the daily amount to plan for, and the calorie calculator a target to shop under. Our calorie deficit guide explains why a smaller list is not the same as a smaller meal.

What is in the app today, and what is not

The position on 23 October 2026, checked against the app's own files.

Free ways to start today

Print the meal planner printable, which has room for the list beside the week, and keep the food diary printable next to it to see what you really used. The weekly planner printable puts the shop on the same page as everything else you do that week.

Then open the free journal and do the part that exists. Put the Saturday shop in Plan as a repeating task with a reminder, log what you eat on the Food page, and save your regular dinner as a recipe with serves. Work out the numbers behind your shop with the protein calculator, the calorie calculator and the macro calculator.

Plan, shop and log

Go deeper

These pages answer questions this one only touches.

• Meal planner: the five dinners and what planners cost
• Calorie counter app
• How to read nutrition labels in Australia
• kJ versus calories on Australian labels
• kJ to calories converter
• How much protein do I need
• Macro split examples
• How to calculate macros
• Weight loss journal
• Habit tracker app
• Journal app
• The food hub
• All ten journal tools

Questions people ask

Related guides, prices and tools

Where these figures come from

• App prices, purchase names, sellers and rating counts: Australian App Store listings for Shopping List - Grocery and Todo, Our Groceries Shopping List and Shoppylist - Grocery List, read on 20 October 2026 and saved in our niche app file (habit-niche-apps-2026-10-20). Prices are in Australian dollars as listed.
• The worked list: the five dinners and their raw weights from the meal planner page, doubled for two people, with food values from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy, April 2018) as held in the Food page nutrient table, worked on 23 October 2026.
• The staples table is illustrative arithmetic for one adult worked on 23 October 2026, not a diet plan and not from a source.
• We have not read supermarket prices or the feature lists of the three apps for this page. A figure not read from a file is written as unknown. See how we calculate and the sources page.

Updated 23 October 2026. A figure that was not read from a file is written as unknown. Prices change: check the supplier's own page before you rely on one. We are not affiliated with any app named here.