[LizPf]

Like some others here, I loved HandyShopper in my Palm Pilot days. But I've shifted over to a 3x5 card system, and often forget to put things on a card.

So, I'm taking the ideas in this thread and setting up a shopping list in OmniFu. Here's what I've done:

Planning Mode Structure:
Shopping (folder)
....Regular Shopping
....Online Shopping (for things I only buy online)
....Unique Store (things I only buy at one store)

Context Mode Structure:
Errands
....Food
....Personal Care
....Pharmaceuticals
....Clothing
....Office Supplies
....etc.

I've also set up two Perspectives: Shopping Planner and Shopping by Context.

I'll use the Shopping Planner to do the "uncheck what I need" system. Shopping by Context will show me items grouped by store or section of a store.

I'm not using store names as Contexts, because I can buy many items in several stores. I'm not bothering to note that I only buy Contact lens soak at Target, because I know that and don't need that info on the list. But if I'm going to Target, I can show the contexts for al the different sections of the store ... then, if I'm heading to Staples next week, I can print only my Office Supplies context. [And hardware, because there's a good hardware store in the same strip mall.]

I don't have an iPhone (someday/maybe), so I don't know how this system would work with one, but it should suit my needs for now. Thanks everyone who helped me put this together.

[jdh]

Well, the biggest problem with the iPhone would likely be the lack of perspectives, although the context layout could also work.

In my case, I do most of my shopping at specific stores, or at least specific types or classes of store, so for example I'll have a context called "Grocery Store" for food-related items, and this can apply regardless of which flavour of grocery store I'm going to. As an added bonus, the iPhone OF app lets me do a GPS-based business search so I can have that come up in my "Nearby" list when I'm near any qualifying grocery store, not necessarily just the one in my neighbourhood.

I also keep a context for a couple of specific areas of town (ie, "downtown") in my "Errands" list, again to leverage the geo-location features of the iPhone.

Anything that I can generally buy in more than one place, I tend to leave in the top-level "Errands" context, since this is usually a smaller list of items.

In my projects list, I have a single Shopping List project which is actually a single-action "bucket" type of project. I use sub-actions within there to categorize as necessary for item types, mostly just to keep things straight for planning and review purposes, as well as to leverage the OF "Default Context" feature, since each sub-action list can have its own "Default Context" (so "Food items" default to "Grocery Store" whereas drug store items default to "Pharmacy").

[igrok]

I actually used GroceryIQ on my iphone prior to getting omnifocus. And now I still use it, since it's quite well designed for its purpose. Check it out.

[matthew.e]

i came on here looking for some ideas on how to use OF for my grocery list, but as igrok said, GroceryIQ is probably the best bet, it was the first app i ever bought, and i doubt it can be replaced by omnifocus.

I am not blaming omnifocus, one thing i enjoy about grocery iq is the 'favorites' section of all my usual items i need.

[Oogiem]

Maybe OmniFocus isn't the right tool for the job.

To me the project is shopping and I may have a number of stores but the actual list of items to get is better handled in an app designed for that purpose.

Have you looked at specific applications meant to handle shopping lists?

I'm using SplashShopper for that, has a desktop & handheld app.

[Oogiem]

Look at SplashShopper, very much like HandyShopper or the earlier jShopper and has both palm and iPhone versions.

[Oogiem]

SplashShopper on iPhone & Mac does exactly this, HOWEVER and it's a big however, performance truly sucks when you have more than about 100 items on your list.

My personal shopping list is around 900 items and I've had to go back to my Palm Treo app to run it.

HandyShopper was another great Shopping app on Palm but no iPhone version

I'm revisiting this thread because of the poor SplashShopper performance, trying to figure a way to use Omnifocus to do what I need.

[Lucas]

HandyShopper was so great. I miss it!

[Little Moon]

I'm new here and am not sure if we're allowed to suggest non-OmniGroup Apps but I use MacGourmet for all things food and wine.

I have both desktop and ipod touch versions and they sync nicely. I also use the chef's view on a monitor in my kitchen by uploading my recipes to the web. There is a place for shopping lists and notes so I just check things off on my iPod Touch as I go through the grocery store. My shopping lists are created easily by clicking on the recipes I want to prepare. I go through the kitchen and check what I already have and the rest gets purchased at the store.

It's as elegant as OmniFocus but it's Food and Wine Focused.

Here is a sample site I put online so you can see if you like it.

[Oogiem]

Problem is my shopping list is less than half groceries and I never or very rarely use a recipe for anything :-) I have things like tires, backhoe teeth, welding wire, mineral salt blocks and similar stuff on my list along with 4 kinds of rice and 8 kinds of flour and stores such as Western Implement, Sam's Club and City Market. The lovely thing about SplashShopper and HandyShopper & jShopper before it was the ability to have one big master list with everything sorted by stores. Since some stores have a variety of things like our Farm & Home has a mix of hardware store, grocery store and department store items it's a lot easier to set an item available in every store where you can get it and then whichever store I am in I can see what is on the list I can get there. I can but groceries at the drug store and also pick up a snow shovel. I think rural stores are different, we don't have many speciality ones but rather fewer diversified stores. Heck even the Implement store (only place I can get backhoe teeth) also has cat food, gloves, jeans and other clothing items. :-)