Using the Grocery List

The grocery list tab shows the items on your grocery list. MealPlan automatically updates your grocery list as you plan meals.

Items are added to your grocery list in two ways:

1. Items you add yourself, by tapping the + button and adding them.
2. Groceries needed for recipes in your meal plan for the next week are added as you plan them.

Only meals planned in the next week are automatically added to the grocery list.  Meals planned farther in the future will show up on the grocery list as the time for them approaches. You can change this from 1 week to a number of days you prefer in Settings.

Items are removed from your grocery list when you tap on them to mark them off. An item will show as "crossed off" (drawn with a line through it) until you cross something else off, or leave the Grocery List section, at which point it will be removed from the list.  (This gives you a chance to tap it again in case you crossed it off by mistake).

When you cross something off, it's removed from the list. Once you've removed it, if you plan a meal that needs it, or add it manually, it will be added to the list again.

Adding Groceries to Recipes

The grocery list can only add groceries for recipes that have groceries listed. If you have planned meals that don't have any groceries associated with them, MealPlan will show a yellow warning triangle at the top left corner of the grocery list. Tap this triangle to see the recipes that have no groceries.

You can edit these recipes to add groceries, and those groceries will be added to the grocery list automatically.

Aisles and Stores

Groceries have an Aisle associated with them, and the aisle is used to sort the grocery list. Having your groceries sorted in the order that they are presented in the store you visit will save you time in the store.

Different stores have different arrangements for aisles, so MealPlan lets you define more than one Store, and sort the aisles differently for each store. You can also turn aisles on or off for each store.

For example, if one store you visit doesn't have a Deli section, then you could turn off the Deli aisle for that store. 

To pick your current store, tap the Settings icon at the top left corner of the Grocery List, then tap Choose Grocery Store.  To edit the grocery stores list, and the lists of aisles, tap Edit Grocery Store List.

Sharing the Grocery List

There are three ways you can share your grocery list data:

• By syncing with another device (on the same iCloud account through iCloud Sync, or to a different user using Dropbox).
• By sending your Groceries to a shared Reminders list. 
• By email. Tap the share button Tap Settings, then the Share button to locate this.

 You can also Print your grocery list, if you prefer to have it on paper.