How to Plan Your Weekly Grocery Shop, From Menu to List

To plan a weekly grocery shop, work in five steps, always in the same order: menu first, then a check of what you have at home, then the quantities, then a list split by store and by aisle, then a single trip, with at most one small top-up of fresh food mid-week. The menu tells you what you need, the home check removes what you already have, and the list puts the rest in order. In Switzerland it pays to do all of this on Wednesday evening and shop from Thursday, when the big supermarkets start their new weekly deals.

Updated October 2026. Sources: savefood.ch, “Einkaufsplanung” (shopping list, portions, smaller and more frequent purchases); foodwaste.ch, “Zahlen und Fakten zu Food Waste” (viewed on 5 October 2026, based on ZHAW/FOEN data, interim report 2025); Coop press release of 21 January 2025 and Migros announcement of January 2026 (also covering Denner) on the Thursday start of deals.

In what order do you plan the weekly shop?

1. The menu. Pick four or five dinners and, if you like, the lunches you take to work. The full method is in the guide on how to meal plan in Switzerland; if you prefer paper, use the printable meal planner.
2. The home check. With the menu in hand, open the fridge, freezer and pantry and note what you already have. This is the step that prevents doubles: according to foodwaste.ch, buying more than you need is one of the main causes of waste in households, which account for 26% of food losses in Switzerland.
3. The quantities. For each dish, work out how much you need for the number of people at the table. savefood.ch advises cooking smaller portions and serving yourself a second helping if needed; the basic amounts for pasta, rice and meat are in the portion sizes per person chart.
4. The list by store and aisle. Write down only what is missing, then split it: first by store, if you visit more than one, and within each store by aisle. The printable grocery list already has the eight sections in the typical order.
5. One trip. Shop by the list. Chilled and frozen items go in last, as savefood.ch recommends, and straight into the fridge or freezer once you are home.

In a family or a shared flat, there should be only one list. Two parallel lists mean buying milk twice and forgetting the bread. A shared list, on the fridge or in your phone, where everyone adds what runs out, solves the problem: how to set one up is explained in the guide to the shared shopping list.

Is it better to do one big shop or several small ones?

For many households a middle way can work: one big trip between Thursday and Saturday for pantry items, meat to freeze and vegetables that keep, and a small top-up on Monday or Tuesday for bread, salad and milk. Why Thursday is explained in the guide on the best day to buy groceries.

How do you find out where a product is on offer this week?

There are two ways. The first is manual: you browse the flyers or websites of the chains near you and note on your list, next to each product, where it is on offer. It works, but it takes time, and deals change every week. The second is to look at all the deals in one place, for example on Rappn's page of supermarket deals, or directly from your list in the app.

One rule applies either way: a deal is worth taking if the product was already on your list, or if it is a pantry item you always use. A deal on something you had not planned is just an extra purchase. And a reduced price does not tell you by itself which store is better value: it depends on the week and the category, which is why it helps to compare the price per kilo or per litre. The rhythm of deals through the year is in the promotion calendar.

The weekly grocery shop checklist

If ingredients are left over mid-week, the guide on what to cook with what you have helps you use them up before the next trip.

How to do it with Rappn, from plan to list

In the Kitchen of the Rappn app (iOS and Android), pick a day of your plan: the app lists the ingredients of its recipes, separates what you already have at home from what "You might already have" (salt, water, flour, which stay unticked), and with "Add N items" sends them to the "Weekly shop" cart. In the list, items are grouped by category; the ones "To assign" you allocate to the supermarket where you want to buy them, and the list shows an estimated price per store and how many stores you would visit. Tapping an item opens "Products for this item": the real products per supermarket with prices, the "Only offers" filter and the number of stores. Prices are indicative and may vary by store and time. Check identical ingredients from different recipes yourself by scrolling through the list. Rappn is an independent price-comparison app, free, with no account needed and no commercial agreements with any retailer.