Free guide · Food and shopping

Build your weekly shop from six months of receipts

About 20 minutes, once · Works with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini

Our weekly shop lived in my head. Every week I rebuilt it from memory and still forgot something. Your receipts already know what you buy, so I let AI sort them into lists I can reorder in a few taps.

Why I did it

Deciding what to buy every single week is thinking nobody sees. I wanted the regulars to come back on their own, the household things to stop running out, and the expensive things to only go in the trolley when they're on special.

Step by step

1. Download your receipts

   Go to your past orders in your supermarket app or website and download the receipts or invoices for the last six months. Shop in store? Your rewards app usually keeps digital receipts. The exact buttons move around, so look under your account or order history.

2. Check what's on them

   Online receipts have your address on them. If that bothers you, cover it up or take a screenshot of just the items.

3. Open a new chat in your AI

   ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini all work. Upload the receipts, then paste the prompt below.

4. Make three lists in your shop's app

   Weekly, Household, and Wait for a sale. Add the items the AI gives you to each one. Tap the heart on the Wait for a sale items so the app tells you when they're on special.

5. Each week

   Add the whole Weekly list to your trolley, take off what you don't need, check your specials, then add your meal ingredients.

I've uploaded my supermarket receipts from the last six months. Read every item and make me three lists.

1. Weekly: things I buy in at least half of the receipts. Show the usual quantity.
2. Household: cleaning, toiletries, paper and other non-food things I buy regularly but not every week. Show roughly how often I run out.
3. Wait for a sale: of the things that keep (nappies, wipes, toilet paper, cleaning, tinned and frozen), the ones I spend the most on over six months. Don't repeat anything from my weekly list.

Group the same product together even when the brand, flavour or pack size changes, and use the most recent name and size I bought, not the most common one. Use the exact product names and sizes from the receipts so I can find them in the [Woolworths / Coles / Aldi] app. Group each list by aisle. Leave out anything that looks like a one-off.

Then give me simple steps to save each list in the [Woolworths / Coles / Aldi] app. Start with the fastest way: whether I can build it from a past order instead of adding items one at a time.

Change the shop name in the brackets to the one you use before you send it.

Why it works

Your receipts show what you actually buy, not what you think you buy. The AI does the sorting, which is the part that takes the thinking. And the lists live in the shop's app, so next week is a few taps, not a fresh plan from scratch.

One thing I learned testing it on my own receipts: kids grow. Six months is a long time in a toddler, so the prompt asks for the newest size you bought, not the one you bought most. Otherwise you end up reordering nappies they've already grown out of.