Start a New Grocery List
The grocery screen lets you maintain a list of grocery items. When
you're ready to go shopping, use the New List function to reset
the item quantities and erase the selections from your last shopping
list. Then prepare your list by setting the quantities of the items you
need.
- Click the Grocery tab.
- Click the New List button.
- Click the OK button.
Find a Grocery Item
You will most likely end up with several hundred items in your
grocery database. While you can scroll through these one by one to find
the items you are seeking, this would be very time consuming. It is
much faster and easier to use the Find function:
- Click the Grocery tab.
- Click the Find button.
- Enter the item you are looking for.
- Click the Item button.
Tips:
- You can click on an ingredient name on the Recipe screen,
to quickly search for that item in the grocery database.
- Finding an item DOES NOT select that item for your shopping
list.
- You can enter partial phrases to locate items (i.e. Type
green to find green pepper, green onions, etc.. Or type,
root to find root beer or arrowroot powder).
- Press the Enter key after typing your search phrase to
perform an item search.
- You can also click the Store or Location buttons
after entering a search phrase to locate items by those fields.
Selecting Grocery Items
Once you locate an item in the grocery list, you must select a
quantity for that item so it will be printed with your shopping
list.
- Click the Grocery tab.
- Find the item you need, then Left click the item to
highlight it. You can also use the keyboard cursor keys to highlight
items.
- To increment the quantity (add one), click the Up button
next to the quantity, or hold down the Control key and press your Up
cursor key. You can also increment the quantity by pressing the Enter
key.
- To decrement the quantity (subtract one), click the Down
button next to the quantity, or hold down the Control Key and press
your Down cursor key. You can also decrement the quantity by pressing
the Delete key.
Notes:
- Reduce the quantity of an item to zero to remove it from your
shopping list. The item will remain in the grocery database for later
selection.
- See Deleting Grocery
Items if you want to permanently remove the item from your
database.
Adding Grocery Items
If an item is already in the grocery database, simply select the quantity you need
for your shopping list.
If you cannot find the item you need in the database, you can add a new
item. You will then need to select that item to have it added to your
shopping list.
- Click the Grocery tab.
- Click the Add button.
- Enter the item name, a location, and the cost of that item.
- Click the Save button.
Tips:
- Leave the store field blank unless you only purchase that
item at a specific store.
- Use generic descriptions for the location field (i.e.
produce, meats, dairy, etc.). This works better with a variety of
stores, and doesn't require changing as stores reorganize.
- Round all costs up to the next 25 cents. This provides a bit of a
buffer for price differences between stores, or price fluctuations at
your usual store. It also minimizes the amount of maintenance you
need to do on your item prices.
- When the cost of your actual shopping trips start to vary
significantly from the estimate in Home Cookin, you should update the
prices in your database. Compare your grocery receipt with the prices
in Home Cookin and change them accordingly.
- If you frequently select this item for your grocery lists, you
can enter a default quantity. The item will then be selected
automatically each time you start a new grocery list.
- To make item selection easier at the store, you may want to
provide more details about the items you add to your database. For
instance, instead of entering "Corn", you might enter "Corn, Whole
Kernal, 14 ounce".
NOTE: Adding a new item to the database does not select that item for
your shopping list. Set the quantity as desired after adding a new
item.
Edit Grocery Items
If you need to change the description, cost, default quantity, or
other information for an item, you can edit that item:
- Click the Grocery tab.
- Highlight the item you want to edit.
- Click the Edit button.
- Change the various item fields as you need to.
- Click the Save button.
Tips:
- You can also edit a grocery item by Right clicking the
desired item.
- Editing an item will not change the selected quantity. You can
update prices, change locations, etc. without affecting your shopping
list.
- See Adding Grocery
Items for more tips on editing your grocery items.
Delete Grocery Items
To remove an item from your shopping list, simply reduce the
quantity of that item to zero. Items should only be deleted when you
are sure you will never select them again.
To permanently delete an item from your grocery database:
- Click the Grocery tab.
- Highlight the item you want to delete.
- Click the Delete button.
- Click the OK button to verify the deletion.
Tips:
- You can also delete an item by editing the item and clicking
the Delete button.
