Confession time: I am awful at food shopping. I want to be that mom who can stay away from the grocery store and survive on once a week trips. But that is not the case. I don’t know if it’s because I am not very good at planning or my general lack of organizational skills. Most days I am frazzled. Most days I run to the store after work with three small children in tow. Most visits I drop at least $150 (did I just admit that out loud?) and still need to go back two or three times more during the week. What am I doing wrong??
Where I Shop
I shop at Whole Foods because it’s the easiest place for me. Yes, I am paying for convenience. I know where everything is located, and the people who work there are friendly. They have the coveted “race car” cart, which can hold 2/3 of my kids (and don’t even get me started about when I see a single child in a double cart.). My kids are also used to the food available to them at Whole Foods. My spoiled kids will accept nothing less than the $2/container yogurts or the $8 piece of cheddar cheese. I wish I was joking but I’m not. I’ve tried cutting corners, and it ends up with a lot of wasted food. I know, this all sounds ridiculous … even to me. Hence why I am sharing it with you.
What I Buy
On an average trip, I end up buying 4 containers of raspberries (at least one gets eaten during the shopping), 2 pounds of cherries, 2 pounds of peaches, a pint of blueberries, 2 containers of blackberries, a bunch of bananas, 3 bell peppers, a container of hummus, 2 packages of squeezey yogurts, 6 Fage yogurts, a piece of Seaside cheddar cheese, 2 cans of olives, 2 bottles of wine, chocolate, 2 packages of precooked bacon, a package of pepperoni, hot dogs, milk and eggs. This usually runs me about $150-$200. That amount will last about 3 days. And then the cycle repeats. Notice that not much on that list is for me to actually cook a family dinner. Where am I going wrong?? I know the one time I actually buy more fruit or veggies will be the time they end up not eating it.
Advice That Hasn’t Worked
I know some advice will be something like, “Cook family dinners.” That is easier said than done. My kids are starving by the time I get them home from school, which is in the 4:45 – 5:00pm range. My husband gets home about 6:00 – 6:30pm. I am not about to force my kids to wait that long to eat. And then there is the pesky problem of the baby. He wants to go to sleep by 6:00pm. When does that leave me time to actually cook for all those people? So most nights, I set the girls up with a buffet of berries, cheese, and whatever else they ask for. If they want me to cook something, its usually eggs. On the weekends, I do attempt to cook but that is just another trip to the grocery and another $150 spent. Where am I going wrong?
Where Am I Going Wrong?
My husband and I joke that we need a line item in our budget just for berries. When the baby starts eating table food, I think that might be true. My kids are like locusts! I don’t want to deny them healthy foods, but at the same time, we spend so much on groceries. And with summer right around the corner and the kids being home all day, I suspect they will just end up eating more since school will not be providing lunch and snacks. Yikes!!
This summer, I am going to attempt meal planning for dinners. I’m not sure that will help, but I can try. Using coupons is not my thing. My biggest budget downfall is on fresh items. So if anyone has any tips or tricks they would like to share, please do.
I feel your pain because we also shop at WFs. Lately, I’ve been using the crockpot a lot. You can also buy one of their rotisserie chickens to save prep time. I’ll get one of those and sauté the chicken with garlic, olives, olive oil, kale, and feta – mix with pasta and voila.
I’ll admit, I sometimes use the race car with only the one child, but only if the store isn’t busy and there are others available. She loves riding in it and it helps keep her occupied through the store.
I honestly did not realize that using a race cart with one child ruffled some people’s feathers. I have one child and we use a race cart all the time at the grocery store…my daughter loves it. Granted, if I see a parent with multiple kids who really wants a race cart because it just makes things easier, I’d considerately give it up if I had just gotten the last one. Do you find this is a common thing parents with multiple kids get upset about? Honestly didn’t realize and I’m surprised.
Hi Ashley- The only time it truly irks me is when the store is busy and I have all 3 kids with me. Otherwise, have at it. It is just hard to fit groceries in the regular carts when one of the kids is sitting in the basket. I don’t want to deny any children the fun of using the car cart!
No it’s not. Keep using your cart with your one kids & she can get over it!
I don’t know if you’ve tried the prepared foods at Whole Foods but since you’re shopping and spending there already I would give those a try. Amazing chicken salad and tuna salad of different varieties for sandwiches. Potato salad, broccoli salad and pizza all good and don’t get me started on the guacamole!! They also have lasagna and meals like that just need to heat up. Also on the same note Costco has some very tasty ready made frozen food that is quick and easy to heat up a pot roast and parmasean chicken and a great rotisserie chicken and artichoke pasta salad. Just throwin it out there hope it helps.
I do love the prepared foods at Whole Foods. If we are there, my kids will usually pick out a variety of foods for dinner from the salad bar. And my husband and I will eat some of the heat and eat pasta dishes they have and I’ll make a salad.
https://www.iamthatlady.com/category/meal-planning-tips/aldi-meal-plans/ She pretty much changed/saved my life. Granted this is an Aldi shopping meal plan (and you may not have an Aldi near you) but you can substitute another store. I was so tired of trying to figure out what to make for dinner, find recipes, and making constant trips to the grocery store for said recipes.
Before I found these meal plans, we ate out SO MUCH. I despise cooking, barely even know how to; but for $3 a meal plan, she provides the grocery list, where to find the items, the general cost per item, and all of the recipes. Our grocery bill was right around $150 and that lasted us one full month. Some of the meals you cannot realistically cook after getting home work (I don’t get home until 5:40 by the time I’ve picked up our daughter from daycare), but some are super quick. She has 3 freezer meal plans, one crock pot meal plan, one regular, and one holiday. I’ve bought all but two so far and I feel so much better about cooking and dinners. I am really grateful I don’t have to feel *too* guilty about making lots of PB&Js and hotdog dinners. And generally my daughter has liked almost everything we could, or there is at least something she’ll eat.
I hope this helps! If nothing else, maybe this can lead you to find some other month-long meal plans, which greatly reduces the amount of trips you take to the store, which thereby greatly reduces the temptation and likelihood to spend money on stuff you don’t really have to have.
Thanks! I will take a look at this. All very good ideas.
So let me start by saying I’m jealous of how much fruit your kids eat! I have four kids including a needy one year old so our dinners are simple. I also know but all advice isn’t helpful but here are ideas that (usually) work for me. I use the crock pot for roast, pulled pork (sandwiches one day, tacos another), chili with baked potatoes, a sesame chicken recipe from skinnytaste. I make ahead what I can- gumbo from leftover chicken, meatballs baked in the morning, Chinese marinated chicken and rice to throw in with eggs later, red beans. Frozen veggies or zucchini/squash in a pan are our go to veggies I also cook one night for multiple meals. BBQ chicken can also be used in pasta with butter and Parmesan, tacos/quesadillas, with rice and a veggie. For me, cooking dinner is a habit, easy to get out of but also easier to do one you are in the habit….. I also need to know in the morning what my plan for dinner is or the likelihood of cooking dinner isn’t good. Would frozen berries be cheaper to mix with yogurt for smoothies to sub some of the fruit and fill them up?
we use a dry erase board to meal plan. I make it a thing to do once a week (usually on Friday or Saturday night – yup mommy life is pretty exciting on the weekends). That way it’s easy to see what we are doing every night and I only have to think about it once a week! We include everything – even if we are planning to order out we indicate that so there’s no confusion or miscommunication between us during the week. When my son is older, we have talked about letting him help pick the menu (with help) but he is too little now.
My husband helps me make a grocery list on my phone so I won’t forget it! We use the crock pot A LOT because I can prepare for the next night after my son’s bedtime and I don’t miss out on time with him. This also results in less clean up when he is awake.
I have started shopping local as much as I can. A farmers market will have local, super fresh food that is in season so it’s cheaper! It is usually organic even though it doesn’t say that it is bc that label is expensive (driving up the price of food). Downside is they won’t have everything that you’re used to in a grocery store.
I try to go to the market once and buy as much as I can and then go to Winn Dixie. Try to buy everything on sale in the grocery(bc I can’t do coupons either) so if it’s on sale I buy enough for two or three weeks. That helps save money in the long run and I usually have a good stockpile.
I try to always have something I can cook in less then 20 min: pork chops, sweet potatoes in microwave and frozen veggies. It’s cheap, fast and healthy.
I still spend too much money. I try to stay under $500 a month for a family of 4. It’s really hard!!
I definitely think this is a situation where *something* has to give for anything to change. I’m in a similar situation in that I recently realized I was spending an average of $1100/month on groceries. That seems a little crazy to me for a family of four. But I did the majority of my shopping at the neighborhood store because it was the closest grocery to me – and next door to my kids school. Talk about convenient! I didn’t have time for coupons or sale ads or meal planning either and I was at the grocery every 2-3 days. Something had to change because doing it the way I was doing it wasn’t working for me financially. So I set some goals. I set a grocery budget in Mint.com and I can track where I am in the budget throughout the month. I set a goal of only shopping 1x per week and getting everything I need to last a full week. Now when I go to the store my bill is higher than I’m used to ($150-$200/trip) BUT all my little $50 and $75 and $100 trips over the course of the week were adding up to much more. I started shopping at Winn-Dixie, which takes me an extra 5-10 minutes there and back, but they have a great little app that I can scroll through coupons and click on anything I might use and then when I check out the coupons are automatically deducted from my bill. And I do take an extra 15 minutes or so every week before I shop to compare my shopping list to their weekly ad and make a note of any deals that I should look for when I’m shopping. Winn-Dixie has some great sales so that helps a lot as well. I’m only a month or two into it so far, but it is helping.
To get out of a similar over-spending, frazzled rut, I signed up for a weekly meal planning service on nomoretogo.com. I highly recommend signing up for the free trial. It helped me get sooo much better at meal planning. She gives tips on how to save time in prepping and making each meal kids friendly. Every week I print my grocery list from the email she sends and boom! Meal planning for the week is done. My kids are starving too when they get home, so they get a small snack that won’t kill their dinner appetite and I have time to cook. Give it a shot and see if it helps. Good luck!
Something else that helps a ton is once we had our third kid, my husband started doing some grocery shopping at night after the kids go to bed. He doesn’t do huge lists, but basics like milk, cheese, yogurt, breakfast items, fruit, veggies, meat, and any other handful of things needed. He is so much faster (how could you not be without kids?), and he sticks to the list and rarely picks up extras. I still have to go and do big trips to restock the pantry, stock up on things we use but if I think of a few meals and write a list, he will pick what’s needed up. It’s so helpful to not always be there with the little ones and he only buys what we need instead of getting distracted. I don’t know if that would work for your family, but it sure does for us! And he SO much faster!!