Wednesday App Review: Shopping List

Unlike every other undertaking of mine, when I shop I am an intensely organized person. I make a full-blown menu for the whole pay period and create a shopping list at the same time. I go through my pantry and cabinets and organize everything and add what we need to the list. My grocery lists are often organized by section and I even make notations with estimated tax on the margins while shopping so that I can see how much money I have left. It’s pretty intensive process. So, when looking for an app to review today, I had some pretty high expectations and lots of qualifications for what the perfect shopping app would include. And, while there is absolutely no shortage of shopping list apps on Google Play, I surprisingly found something that is almost exactly what I needed. I actually ended up downloading about four apps before landing on the one I’m going to review, which is creatively named Shopping List. Now, before I go into how much I love this little app, it’s worth noting that pretty much ALL of the shopping list apps are called Shopping List, so if you’re wanting to pick up this specific app (as opposed to the plethora of others), make sure it’s got the little green star and was created by Fivefly. The others simply can’t compare, in my opinion. Anyway, Fivefly’s Shopping List app has several features which I found incredibly useful and a couple which I didn’t but I suppose they might be to someone else. The most useful feature for me was the ability to organize lists in various different ways including by category name, category order, date, etc. So when I’m standing in the produce section, with a click I can find all of the fruits and veggies on my list. There is a budget option where you input how much everything costs and it automatically adds it for you. You can also add a photo, create multiple lists, add quantity notes and a variety of other things. The app also allows sharing lists between two people several different ways. You can email or text the list, or if they have the app downloaded you can let someone else sync the list so you both can view, add and cross off items. I could see this being incredibly useful if you and your partner split up the shopping so you don’t end up with two gallons of milk and no bread. I haven’t tried it out, but if you have a barcode scanner, there is also an option to scan the barcode of the item you are buying and then I presume all of the fields will be autofilled. It does require a second app download however, and I personally didn’t get the chance to try it out. If you have an Android, Shopping List is free to download and has basically no permissions; only the camera so you an add a photo if you want. There is an option to donate to remove ads, but it’s not necessary. Unfortunately, the app is only available on Google Play at the moment. If you have an iPhone or Windows Phone, then I might instead suggest something like Our Groceries, which is very similar but lacks a couple of the sorting features that Fivefly’s Shopping List has.]]>