It doesn’t matter the activity, add three kids under four to it and you will quickly learn the most efficient way to do anything. And for this post, we will be featuring la grocery store.
I would love to go to the grocery store alone, sounds like a vacay, but let’s be real…I am never alone. I have realized that the key to efficient grocery shopping is to limit the amount of thinking I have to do in the store. Especially with kids. Because one of them is usually begging for a snack, the other is whining because I won’t let them unroll all the produce bags, and the third is breastfeeding. It’s like a freaking one woman circus in there and brain power is at about 10% on a good day.
And the key to limiting the amount of in-store thinking: one hell of a plan.
Meal Plan: I used to dread meal planning. I would leave Pinterest with these meals that either had a hundred ingredients or even more steps to cook them. For some reason I could never come up with a menu that had a lot of variety while keeping my ingredient list manageable…until my latest meal planning hack.
You know all those meal kit delivery services? Well here is my tip of the year: they post their weekly menus, including recipes and ingredient lists! I love it because they come up with things I would never cook, and the amount of ingredients you have to buy is actually realistic.
With going out, date nights, and our Sunday family dinners at Aaron’s mom’s house, I usually like to plan for four meals a week. Here is a little look at Hello Fresh’s weekly menu: lots of delicious options to choose from right?
Organized List: This is the single most important thing in preventing me from leaving a half-full cart of groceries and running out of the store in tears (which, I have done). I always go to the same store so I know exactly where everything is (God forbid the store has a renovation), and I organize my list by category. Dry, Dairy, Produce, Meat. And this may seem a bit neurotic if you aren’t a type-A organized nut job like myself, but try it. You’ll fly through that store like Mary freaking Poppins. This is this week’s list…
Snacks and Tasks: It does not matter if my kids just ate two boxes of mac n cheese, yogurt, applesauce, and a cow… we walk into a grocery store and they all of the sudden haven’t seen food in a year. Instead of arguing with them throughout the entire shopping process, I have realized how much easier it is to let them pick out a snack in the beginning, and let it hopefully distract them from the apparent trauma they are experiencing having to go grocery shopping (insert eye roll).
Another trick is to give them something to do! I find the more I ask my kids to help, the more behaved they are (usually). I pretend we are all on an adventure and I need their help, gives them a sense of responsibility and makes them feel like they are an important part of the process. I have my four year old grab non-glass items and put them in the cart, and I have my two year old hold the produce bags and hand them to me when I need them.
Whether you are lucky enough to tote cute little babies with you around the store, or you are flying solo, I hope you found part or all of this helpful. Let me know what your favorite grocery store hacks are in the comments <3
xo