Make Life Easier With the Yummly Shopping List
Flexible, portable, and shareable, it’s light years ahead of a scrap of paper on the fridge
Yummly Shopping List with Quick and Easy Italian Meatballs. Photo by Olga Ivanova. Art direction by Daniel Führer.
Shopping list technology sure has changed.
Every week during my 1970s childhood, my mom wrote out a grocery list for her marketing on a recycled envelope. It was cheap and effective, but not shareable. Back then, women did the grocery shopping, so my dad didn’t need access to the list.
Once I grew up and got married, my husband and I split duties pretty equally. We’d each add items to a nifty magnetized notepad on the fridge. Before cell phones, that list worked great — if we remembered to bring it with us to the store.
The advent of go-anywhere phones let us call home for a reminder — assuming someone was there to read the list — and later, snap photos of the list. Assuming we remembered.
Now, though, we’re living in a golden age of shopping lists. The Yummly® app’s Shopping List feature keeps track of everything, plus it does so many useful extras my mom never dreamed of, like let me add every ingredient from a recipe (or even an entire Meal Plan) with a single tap — or y’know, text it to my husband.
With the Yummly app on your phone (click here to download it!), you’ll never again drive all the way home and realize you forgot the one ingredient you desperately need for tonight’s dinner. Seriously, it’s a life — and sanity — saver.
Jump ahead to:
The easiest Shopping List you’ll ever use >>
Make a Shopping List that works for you >>
Organize your Shopping List by recipe or type of food >>
Sync your list across devices >>
Get groceries delivered directly from your Shopping List >>
Note: The Yummly Meal Planner is available to paid subscribers. See Yummly Subscription Terms for details.
The easiest Shopping List you’ll ever use
With multiple ways to add items, view and share the list, and even an easy way to shop from home, the Yummly Shopping List ensures you’ll never forget an ingredient again.
Make a Shopping List that works for you
Shopping lists are a little like fingerprints, unique to each person. Yummly’s Shopping List adapts to the way you want to build it — and use it.
1. Start with your Meal Plan
My own list usually starts with a Meal Plan. Once I’ve figured out what I’m cooking all week in the Yummly Meal Planner, I can build the list in a few ways. (To open the Meal Planner, tap on the calendar icon in the bottom navigation bar of the Yummly app on your phone.)
Add every ingredient for the week with a single tap. I use this option when my cupboards are bare. It’s easy to delete anything I do happen to have. Just open a week in Meal Planner, tap on the three dots in the upper right corner, and then tap Add All To Shopping List.
Choose individual recipes to add. Sometimes I have ingredients for the majority of the meals, but still need items for a dish or two.
Drill down and select individual ingredients. I do this when a recipe like Vegan Black Bean Enchiladas calls for pantry staples that I mostly have on hand and just a few I don’t.
2. Get ingredients for specific recipes
If you browse through recipes but don’t make an official Meal Plan, you can add ingredients to your Shopping List directly from the recipe page. Tap the plus sign next to each ingredient to add them individually — or if you need most or all items, tap Add All to Shopping List.
3. Add items manually
Like most of us, you probably have items you regularly include in your weekly shopping list, like snacks, milk, and bread — and you can still add them to your Yummly Shopping List. To open the list, tap the list icon in the bottom navigation bar of the Yummly app, and you’ll see a plus sign with the option to add ingredients. Start typing and select what you need from the pull-down options.
Organize your Shopping List by recipe or type of food
One great way to save time (and money): Look at your list from different angles. The Yummly Shopping List makes it easy to double-check your work by offering two views, by recipe or by category of food.
Before I shop, I like to sort my list by recipe. That lets me go through each one to make sure I’m not buying an ingredient I already have — or forgetting something I need.
But once I start shopping, I want things organized by aisle, the way they are in the store. On my phone, I tap the “category” button at the top of the list and voila! I’ve got a list that’s easy to use as I go up and down the aisles of my market. And if an assigned category doesn’t match the way my local supermarket shelves things, it’s easy to move it to a different one (keep reading for how to edit!).
Edit your Shopping List
If you need to make changes, it's easy to edit your Shopping List. Pull up the list from the bottom navigation bar and tap the three dots next to any ingredient. From here you can edit the quantity, change the category, or delete the item.
Sync your list across devices
I love the Yummly app, but I do most of my meal planning on my computer via Yummly.com. As long as I’m signed in, my Shopping List shows up on my phone and my tablet, exactly as it appears on my desktop. No matter which device I use to make a change, it syncs across them.
Share your list
This might be my favorite feature. My teen has a habit of stopping for snacks at the supermarket on his way home. He’ll text me from there and ask if I need anything (yes, I’ve raised him well). To respond, I don’t have to type a word — I just tap on the three dots at the top of the Shopping List in the Yummly app to call up the “Share” button. In a heartbeat, I can text or email him the list, organized by aisle.
Get groceries delivered directly from your Shopping List
No wait, this is my favorite feature. Sometimes life is just too hectic, and nobody in the family can squeeze in a trip to the supermarket. That’s when I hit the Buy Now* button in the Yummly app, at the bottom of the Shopping List.
*Grocery ordering service available in select U.S. locations.
See what I mean about shopping list technology? My mom’s recycled envelopes can’t hold a candle to this. Head to the Yummly app to try the Shopping List feature today!
Be a Yummly super user
From discovering recipes to planning meals, shopping, and cooking, the Yummly app offers so many ways to be your helpful kitchen sidekick. Learn more in these next articles.