QUICK TIPS: Surviving the Grocery Store

[Melanie]

The grocery store presents a particularly nerveracking challenge, especially for those with multiple small children hanging off the cart and trying to climb the shelves! How do you manage to corral the kiddos and read labels and check prices and actually get everything on your list?! Post your best tips for surviving the grocery store, mentally and financially, here.

[RLB]

I always go early if I have to take the kids. This is the optimum time for all of us being in a decent mood, and the time of the day with the least people in the store. And I try to involve the kids as much as possible in the shopping...look for this item, get this off the shelf, what kind of cereal, etc.

That being said........my best tip is that I usualy wait until Saturday morning so I can go by myself, lol.

Financially speaking, I never ever shop without a list because I will spend twice as much if I do. I sit down, draw out about two weeks' worth of dinners, write the ingredients on the list, add the everyday stuff, and anything we're missing...and then go through the coupons to see what I can use or it alters the menu any.

I am no pro when it comes to shopping with the kids...I always come home exhausted and usually extremely frustrated.

[Tami C]

Oh, I am all up in this issue! I have navigated grocery stores with my own kids plus half a dozen daycare kids in tow. Grocery shopping with kids was not something I could opt out of until very recently.

Ok, so financially, the best thing you can do for yourself is look at flyers ahead of time and make lists. Most of the time store brands are cheaper, but if a name brand is on sale or you have a good coupon, it might be a better deal. I only minimally look at the shelf price, I look at the unit price for most things. While the smaller jar of applesauce is less money out of pocket, it's more expensive per ounce. So I can spend $1.29 and get 4 servings, or I can spend $1.59 and get 8. It only takes a minute of looking at unit prices to find the lowest ones. The only place unit pricing doesn't work is in the detergent aisle. Different brands are different concentrations. So while that gigantic bottle of one brand may be $1.25 per ounce, it also might only be 50 loads. It's mostly water. The much smaller bottle may be $2.00 per ounce, but it might also be 75 loads worth of detergent. I wish they listed the unit prices based on number of loads instead of scale weight. I usually stick with the cheapie store brand stuff, unless something else is on a good sale. Laundry and dish detergents are also available at discount stores like Dollar General and Family Dollar, and even at the grocery store, they go on sale all the time. I love the buy one get 2 free sales, I will go back to the store 3 or 4 times that week and stockpile. I have 3 unopened bottles of Dynamo from a sale almost a month ago.

Now as for corralling kids, you just have to be creative and also let go of your dignity once in a while. I pair older kids with littles in carts. It's easier for me to shop with all 4 kids than just me and the littles. I put one younger kid in a cart and let one older kids push it, pair the other two the same way, and I am left to man the list. With more kids, just pile them in the same way. I don't care if we have 3 carts of kids and one for food, if that's how I can safely manuever them thru the store, that works. Our stores all have cookie programs where they will give the kids a free cookie. Use that as an incentive. Don't go straight to the bakery. Our bakery is at the center back of the store, and the kids have to wait until we are there to get the cookie. Offer it up too soon and they have no reason to behave. Hold off too long and they can't wait that long. Mine get their treat at the halfway mark and it works out really well for us.

Also, put something the kids will love on your list. A pasta shape they prefer, or blue applesause, or even sugary cereal or cookies. Grocery shopping is sooooooo boring for kids, especially when all they see is meats and vegetables and cans of whatevers going into the cart. Throw in some blue applesauce, and they see that there will be a fun snack at home. Or some Cookie Crisp cereal, and they know that you're shopping for them too.

I also try to get thru the store quick when I have the kids with me. No browsing the magazine rack, no pacing the butcher shop. Know what I need, hunt it down and bag it, and get them out of there. If I have a huge list of things I need, a trip back to seafood to watch the lobsters for 5 minutes is a nice way to break up the boxes and cans. Our store in our small town is safe enough, I can send my girls with their 13yo brother to the lobster tanks without me and I will power shop for as much as I can before the kids catch back up to me.

When all else fails, and the kids are cranky and we have to stick to our budget and our list, I have been known to sing in the aisles. I'll break into a Sesame Street song or one I know from Scouts. Who cares if teenagers are looking at me? All the Grammas and Grampas are enjoying my girls singing along. What do I care if people think I am a goofball? My kids are not whining and crying, I am getting a job done that we can't live without.

[islandmom]

Don't take the kids.
Make a list, and do your best to stick to it.

[justjen]

I never take kids to the grocery store. I always clip coupons and try to buy on sale items.

[Anna Banana]

Make a little list for your kid(s). They will love it. Really involve them in the shopping process, and let them "help" you make decisions. This worked wonderfully when my son was ages 2-5, especially.

[PV'sTV]

If I take the kids I go early in the day and go to a store with the little car where they each have a steering wheel & horn to play with. I also try to go around snack time and I'll pick out a special snack that's not messy (raisins, fruit snacks) and open them each one to eat while we shop.

As far as saving money I clip coupons, look at the sale ad and try to plan a menu based on what's on sale.

[Tami C]

Going without my kids was never an option for me when Kaylee and Jeff were little. In fact, they had to ride in a stroller or the wagon for the mile round-trip to and from the store, as well as the time it took to shop. They learned to deal with it.

[KD]

I do the majority of shopping at Costco, during the afternoons when there are tons of samples,keeps the kids occupied. Another thing that makes Costco easy is the double basket up front.
Third, I joined a food co op, place my order one a month online and go pick it up 15mins from my house.

Almost all of the grocery stores I go to you can ask for a cookie/slice of cheese etc for the kids at the deli/bakery if you need a distraction or a bribe.

I second AnnaBanana idea of giving them a list. Mine are not readers yet, so I draw pictures on index cards and give them each a couple whenever they run into the small grocery store in town with DH.

Financially, the less I go to the store , the less I spend, so I don't go into a grocery store more than twice a month unless something odd pops up. We'll go even less in the summer with all the fresh produce available at the farmers market /our garden.

[justrose]

I get mine a big ol' donut and they eat while we shop. Generally though, I grocery shop on days they are with XDH.