Ten Ways to Grocery Shop With Your Kids Without Coming Home With Half the Store
by Teresa Higginbotham

Here are some practical suggestions on keeping that grocery budget close to the vest, under the most difficult of circumstances.

1. Feed them and yourself first. This is one is a given, right? If your 
family walks in hungry and spots the incredible selection of food, then it 
seems that everything looks good. 

2. Sit down with your children before hand and tell they can each select a 
special "food" (not toy, book, candy) to have in the family pantry that week. 
It should be understood with the child that they might be expected to share 
that food with others but at least they were the ones who were responsible 
for getting it there. By nailing it down to one thing, you can slow down the 
cart stuffers who seem to hit on every aisle.

3. Set penalties for phrases uttered like "Can I have that, can I? Can I? 
Can I?" or "Please, please, please, please....". Discuss harassing the 
parent shopper and what will happen if Mom gets pushed over the edge of her 
very reasonable patience. The special food they have chosen for the week 
could get taken away, or some other reward the child would normally get later 
in the week is taken away or decreased (For example, an allowance has a 
percentage taken off.) You could also assign a chore normally not expected 
of the child, for driving you insane before you hit the checkout.

4. I know this one is hard and not always a reality for many of us, but try 
not to shop when you or your child is exhausted. When I'm tired, I find 
myself uttering meaningless phrases like "Whatever" right after my son has 
chunked an overpriced toy from the ever-cheap toy aisle into the cart. You 
must BE STRONG to face down the "I want it" crowd. Also, if your child is 
tired, he or she may be more combative and less in a mood to listen to you or 
to compromise. (Duh, tell you one you don't know, right?)

5. Read the book "The Gimmes" by Stan and Jan Berenstain. This book is 
excellent for teaching kids manners while shopping and letting them see how 
awful they look when they get the "Gimmes." They also decide beforehand what 
they will get at the store and then stop all their fussing. It's amazing!

6. Don't forget to treat yourself to a food item you love like cookies, tea, 
or something from the deli. If you don't feel like your depriving yourself 
then you won't overindulge yourself.

7. Teach your kids about consumerism. Maybe they want to buy a certain 
cereal just because they see their favorite cartoon action super heroes on 
it. Pick up the box and show them that whatever it is probably is not in the 
box and they would have to send away for it. My son recently discovered a 
bad deal where he decided to save up labels to get an action figure. When he 
looked closely at the fine print , he found he had to buy an action figure at 
the store then send in that proof of purchase, the labels he had collected 
and a sum of money that was not too far off the price of the action figure in 
the store. He did some math and realized he really wasn't getting any kind 
of a special deal at all. "What a rip-off !" he said and decided to save his 
hard-earned chore money for something a little more worth it.

8. This one is also pretty obvious, but I can't tell you how many times it 
has snuck up on me. STEER CLEAR OF THE TOY AISLE. One of the stores I shop in has cleverly put the toys right next to the baby wipes. Because of that 
,I've had to do some really silly-looking things when entering that aisle 
like saying, "Wait right here" then skid down the linoleum five feet, grab 
the wipes and slide back into home. Or all of a sudden I make the kids 
notice the store decorations as I speed down the aisle with them at 40mph, 
grab the wipes and try not to hit the old lady buying dog food at the end of 
the display. 

9. Make a list and check off each item as you put it in the cart. If your 
child starts to stray to a new item, tell them, "Sorry it's not on the list, 
maybe next week. I didn't bring that much money."

10. Divide and conquer...do you really have to take all of them? One less 
child, especially a particularly vocal one can make staying with your budget a 
whole lot easier. If the mouth that roars has soccer practice you don't have 
to be there for, try to plan your shopping in that time period. Just watch 
out for long lines and first-day-on-the-job cashiers!

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