Meals
Shopping list
What it's about
The patchio shopping list works offline, is live for the whole household, and supports several lists side by side – one per supermarket, drugstore or holiday shop. Items are sorted by category, so you're not pendulum-swinging between the freezer and the spice rack in the shop.
Why it's here
“Put it on the list for me” only works in families if everyone sees the same list. Notes on paper, in WhatsApp, in the Notes app – something always gets forgotten, bought twice, or slides off the car seat. In patchio, the list lives in one place: anyone can add to it, anyone can tick off what's in the trolley. And because it keeps working offline, it holds up even in a supermarket basement with no signal.
How it works
At the top: a compact header with the Shopping, Meal plan and Recipes tabs – next to it, the view switch (list/tiles) and the Going shopping button. On desktop, there's also a blue + tab that opens a pop-up for a new entry: name, optional quantity, category (Fruit & vegetables, Bread & bakery, Dairy, Meat & fish, Frozen, Tins & staples, Spices, Drinks, Sweets & snacks, Toiletries & household, Other), optionally the list (e.g. Aldi), optionally notes – plus the tried-and-tested quick-add tile. On your phone, you enter items via the fixed field at the bottom; you add quantity, note or category afterwards with a tap on the item.
Quick add on your phone: right at the bottom, just above the tab bar, sits a fixed input field. Type in what you need and tap + (or hit return) – the item lands on the list straight away, patchio automatically puts it in the right category and briefly shows you where (e.g. “Yoghurt” → Dairy). The field stays active, so you can type the next item straight after. If you've filtered to a list up top (say, Aldi), the entry lands there – a small “→ goes to: Aldi” note tells you so. And because it uses the same offline principle, it works in the supermarket without signal too.
Below that: the list chips act as filters – “All”, the shops you've created, and (if there are any) “No list”. A small number badge shows open items; lists with no open items appear in muted grey with a colour dot, while filled ones sit up front. On your phone, this is a row you scroll sideways, and it sticks to the top as you scroll – so you can switch lists in the shop at any time. Clicking a list filters to it; new entries you create then land there automatically. A chip's colour comes automatically from the brand (REWE red, ALDI dark blue, say) – or you can pick your own. “Manage lists” sits as a ⚙ button at the end of the row.
Creating & managing lists
You don't need a separate page for this: everything happens right here on the shopping page. Via “Manage lists” (next to the filter chips) or “+ List” in the entry pop-up, you can create shopping lists, rename them, give them a colour, reorder them, and delete lists. New list, different name, your own colour – no detours.
The list itself: items grouped by category, in a natural supermarket order (from fresh fruit through to the drugstore aisle). Every item automatically gets a small emoji based on its name (milk 🥛, cheese 🧀, bread 🍞 …), so you can skim the list faster in the shop – if patchio doesn't know the item, it gets a neutral 🛒.
List or tiles: a small switch sits at the top right of the list. Tapping it toggles between the familiar list and the tile view – every item as a tile with a large icon, still grouped by category. In tile view, you tick off an item with a single tap. patchio remembers your view per device. You change quantity, note or list in list view (tap the item's name). Tapping the checkbox marks an item as done – it moves into the collapsed “Done” section at the end, from where you can bring it back if you need to; “Remove ticked-off items” clears that section with one tap after the shop (“Bought often” still remembers your habits either way). Tapping the item's name opens the same pop-up as when creating it, just with the fields filled in and an extra “Remove” button. A list's brand logo shows up on the item as soon as it's assigned to that list.
Bought often: below “Done” sits a collapsible “Bought often” section. patchio quietly counts what you tick off and buy, and suggests the most frequent items as chips – tapping one puts it straight back on the list (with icon and remembered category). Anything already on the list is hidden. “+ Pin” lets you permanently add your own standard items (a blue dot means pinned); the ✕ removes a suggestion again. The section fills up on its own over time – nothing to set up. If removing or pinning doesn't work for once – say, because your access isn't active any more – the chip comes back and patchio tells you, instead of pretending it worked. And if the suggestions themselves fail to load (no signal, missing permissions), the heading shows “· not loaded” and the section shows the reason plus “Try again” – instead of an empty strip that looks like you haven't bought anything yet.
Offline: a service worker plus an outbox mean you can keep adding, ticking off and deleting even without signal. As soon as you're back online, everything syncs in the background – the orange banner at the top lets you know if any actions are still queued.
Sync from the meal plan: when you assign a recipe to a day in the meal plan, you can push its ingredients onto the shopping list with one click – as their own items, tagged with the source “from meal plan week XX, Pasta al Forno”, so you can see why you're suddenly buying 400 g of mince.
Restocking from the pantry: items running low or due there land here automatically – recognisable in list view by the “· from the pantry” tag (tile view only shows the icon, name and quantity). Tick off an entry like that and the stock tops itself back up on its own.
Going shopping
On the shopping page there's a “Going shopping” button. Tap it and choose either “Now” or a day and time – this sends everyone else in the household a note: “{First name} is going shopping {now / today at 17:00} – any last requests?”. That way, anyone can quickly add something to the list before you head off. Everyone gets the note both in the app and by email; you, as the one who triggered it, don't get one. If you'd rather not get these, turn it off in your profile under “Notifications”, under “Someone's going shopping”.
In practice
You sit on the sofa on Thursday evening and plan Friday to Sunday in the meal plan: wraps, chicken curry, apple cake. Three clicks later, all the ingredients are on the ALDI list, sorted into “Fruit & vegetables” (apple, ginger, chilli), “Meat & fish” (chicken breast), “Tins & staples” (coconut milk, rice), “Spices” (curry powder, garam masala) and “Bread & bakery” (tortillas, flour). In the morning, before the farmers' market, your partner adds “Flowers” with the note “colourful, for the table” and puts it on the REWE list. Both of you have the full list live on your phones – and nobody has to scroll past the curry ingredients at REWE.