Hearth · GuideA good shopping list from a meal plan comes from five steps: list every ingredient, merge duplicates, convert units only where they truly match, subtract what you already have once, and group what's left by aisle. Skipping the merge or the pantry check is how you come home with three onions you didn't need.
A worked example: two dinners, one onion at home
This week you plan chili on Monday and fajitas on Wednesday.
| Ingredient | Chili | Fajitas | Total needed | At home | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow onion | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Bell pepper | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Milk | 1 cup | 200 ml | about 440 ml | 1 litre | 0 |
| Garlic | 3 cloves | 1 tbsp minced | can't add | 1 jar minced | check |
| Salt | 1 tsp | 1 tsp | 2 tsp | always have | 0 |
Three things happened there. The onion at home was counted once, not once per recipe. Cups and millilitres were combined because they are both volumes. And cloves and tablespoons were left separate, because a guess there is how lists go wrong.
The five steps
Write every ingredient with its amount
Copy them per recipe, even repeats. You will merge next.
Merge the same ingredient
"Onion, diced" and "1 yellow onion" are the same thing to buy. Note which meals need it, so you know what to skip if the plan changes.
Convert only compatible units
Volume to volume and weight to weight are safe. Counts to weights (cloves to grams, "1 can" to ounces) need a known package size, or check by eye.
Subtract the pantry, once
Check what's actually there. Treat basics you always keep, like salt and oil, as always available so they never land on the list.
Group by aisle, then round to packages
Produce, dairy, canned goods. If peppers come in a three-pack and you need four, decide now.
Making it work for two people
One shared list beats two half-lists. Agree who is shopping, check items off as they go into the cart, and when you get home, put the new stock back into whatever you use to track the pantry. Otherwise next week's list will be wrong in the other direction.
How Hearth does it
In Hearth, open Shopping and choose Add from plan, then pick the dates. Hearth splits the result into To buy and Already have, and says why for each line: already on the list, enough at home, or amounts that can't be compared and need a check.
Matching ingredients are merged when their units are compatible, and each line shows which recipes it is for. Pantry items set to Always have are never added; staples you track can show as running low and be added for restock. You can group the list by aisle in your own store's walk order, or by recipe.
The list is shared with your partner's account and shows who checked off each item. After shopping, Put away moves what you bought into the pantry in one step. You can also copy the list as text, download it as CSV, or print it.
Hearth is $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year, or part of Apollo Suite. Prices are USD, checked October 3, 2026.