Grocery shopping with five kids is, well, not fun. Until now! I’ve discovered how to do it. Just follow these 5 simple steps and grocery shopping with five children won’t be a chore anymore. In fact, it can be quite pleasant.
Step One-each child plans meals for one day; breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and dessert. You’ve got to let them plan for all of those so that they feel like there is food in the house. It might seem like we eat a lot, but we’re not over weight. Well, most of us are not.
Step Two-Mom puts all of the children’s menus together and adds a few days as well as a few green things. I don’t think cereal, granola bars, cheese tortellini, and sloppy joes constitute a well-balanced diet for the day.
Step Three-make a shopping list and gather coupons.
Step Four-split the list. I try to put things on one list that are all in one area of the store. For example, Hannah and Luke today had dairy products. I usually do produce and meat. If I let Austin pick the meat, we would be eating salmon steaks, filet mignon, and pork loin every night and we would go broke. Since I have 5 children, I split the list into three parts. Sometimes they pair up boys together and girls together and other times it’s the two bigger kids and then the two younger ones. I let them decide. I usually take the baby, but sometimes they ask if Mattie Claire can go with them.
[callout]We really had a lot of fun on this grocery trip. Nobody was asking for this and that.[/callout]Step Five-hand a list to a pair, give them a cart, and set them free in the store. We were able to do two weeks worth of shopping and check out in record time-35 minutes. No kidding. One group was finished before I was and I was able to send them for a few of the things on my list. They even watched what was on sale and chose some of those things over what we usually get.
We really had a lot of fun on this grocery trip. Nobody was asking for this and that. They had their own list of things to get off of the shelf and so didn’t really have time to ask for extras. Nobody was fighting because they all had a job to do. We weren’t in the store very long so the baby stayed in the basket the whole time. It was a great learning experience. Meal planning, list making, comparison shopping, lots of problem solving, cooperation, and just pure fun. An added benefit is that when they plan the meal, choose and buy the food, and then cook it, they eat it as well. All of it. My next problem to solve is a clever way to get them to clean out the refrigerator. Can you say “science experiment”?
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