AnyLists Makes Sharing Shopping Lists Easy

My wife and I have a whiteboard on the refrigerator that we use to write down whatever we need from the grocery store. It makes it pretty easy as when you are low or out of something, you just write it down. AnyLists for iOS makes this really easy.

The problem with the whiteboard method is if she leaves before I do, and I add something to the board, it gets skipped until the next trip to the store. It also fails if I decide to run by the store on the way home as I remember little of what is on the list at home.

AnyLists for the iPhone eliminates these and other problems. I created a list for various stores and then shared them with my wife. Now we can add and scratch off items and the list on the other's phone gets updated instantly, provided both phones are online.

It does work on the iPad, but as an iPhone app, so only in portrait mode, and only at 2x resolution. Of course, you'd never take an iPad shopping but it is a great device to add a bunch of stuff to the list since the keyboard is larger.

Anylists tries to automatically group items by grocery store sections, like produce, bakery or health & beauty. If it doesn't know, it sticks it in "Other" and you can move it manually. It also has a pretty big database of items to pick from. Type "rom" and romaine lettuce will show up. This saves a lot of typing on the tiny iPhone keyboard.

The app also has recipes from a lot of different sources, like Epicurious, Martha Stewart, and several dozen others. Of course, you can just click on the ingredients in the recipe to add to your shopping list.

It also works well for other stores. I have an Amazon list that we keep up to date to bundle items and reduce shipping charges. We have Amazon Prime, so I really don't need to worry about it, but I feel guilty using Prime for a $4.99 item.

The price of the app is exactly right too - free. I'd give $0.99 to $2.99 for this app in a heartbeat given how useful it has proven in recent days. You can get it here in the App Store.