Review: Grocery IQ for iPhone

How often have you wandered aimlessly around the grocery store, trying to remember what it was you came in for?  Or worse, how often have you come home with a small fortune worth of groceries, only to realize that you still don't have the right combination of foods to prepare a particular recipe?  I've been in both positions, and have ended up eating takeout instead of cooking more times than I care to admit.  I am going to provide a review of an iPhone app called Grocery IQ, but before I do I need to share a little before & after scenario.

Before: I used to come home from work (pre-kids) and, sit-com style, open the fridge, frown at the contents, and then either resort to chicken nuggets & fries for dinner, or pick up the phone and order pizza.  Grocery shopping happened once or twice a week and was either way over budget (and chock full of snack/junk food) or way under budget (and inevitably followed up by another trip to get the things I'd forgotten)

After: At some point I realized that I *hated* not knowing what was going to be for dinner.  At this point I started meal planning.  I like cooking, and it's fun when you have everything you need on hand.  Once I had planned out my meals (dinners only) for the week, I could easily make a grocery list that contained everything I'd need to prepare the week's dinners.  This is where Grocery IQ comes in.

I'll be the first to admit that I am barely scratching the surface at the functions that Grocery IQ offers.  I have set up all of my frequently visited stores (grocery & otherwise), and I have taken the time to go through my most frequently visited grocery store and set up the aisles in the app.  Whenever I do my weekly meal planning, I put all the needed ingredients into the app (it's checklist style, you just search for or type in what you need, and it puts it into a list for you).  Then I go through my store's weekly flyer to see if there's anything on sale that I should stock up on (sometimes I'll even switch out meals in my plan to accommodate what's on sale).  I add these things to the Grocery IQ app as well.  Finally I add to the list anything that we've run out of during the week.

Grocery IQ uses the aisle setup to put my grocery list in order, so the list shows me what I need to buy at the right time - it matches up with the flow of the store - so it starts with Produce, then Deli/Seafood, then Bread/Bakery, then Meat, Dairy, Frozen Goods, etc.  This is great because it saves me from having to double back for things in a section I've already gone past.

When I pick up an item, I just tap the checkbox beside the item in the list to cross it off.  Grocery IQ moves it to the bottom of the list.  At the end of the shopping trip, I can hit the "Checkout" button to remove the items I've bought from the list.

While this is all I really need in a grocery list application, Grocery IQ has a ton of other features (some of which unfortunately don't work that great in Canada).  It allows you to scan bar codes of items in order to easily add them to your list.  It has an integrated coupon section where you can browse through, print, or email coupons.  You can set up as many stores as you like, and as many aisles per store as you need.  You can put the aisles in order per store - so each store reflects its own layout!  It can also track your favorite items so you can quickly add them without having to type in the name each time.

Grocery IQ is FREE!  If you want to try out Grocery IQ, I'm confident you won't be disappointed (did I mention, it's free?).  You can read more over at their website, http://www.groceryiq.com/, and download it for iPhone/iPad or Android.