I take my three kids, ages four and under, on about 75% of my grocery shopping trips. We are the family you see at King Soopers all the time, with a very loud little boy pretending to be a fire engine driver, complete with siren.
We are the family with children who, for whatever reason, actually like those hard, crunchy cookies from the King Soopers bakery.
Even with the race car carts and free cookies, shopping with kids gets a little frazzling sometimes. What do you do to keep your sanity when shopping with kids? What are your best tips for staying on your cash budget if you do that?
How do you count the number of items required for a particular promo when kids are putting stuff in and taking stuff out of your cart? Which stores have the best kid-friendly shopping carts and does it ever affect which store you shop at?
I’d love to hear your tips, questions, funny stories, and frustrations in the comments!
Related: Life As Mom has some great tips on shopping with kids! Great minds must think alike, because I’d already planned to do this post when she published hers on Wednesday. ;)
Mine are finally old enough that I do most of my shopping when they are in school but I do remember those days :::shudder:::
I made sure to take them after meal time, after a good nap or long before one was needed. I usually had a bribe or two in my purse (lollipop or gum), a favorite toy and it seemed to work. Of course we had many a meltdown and when they got like that, I took them outside until they could calm down enough to take back in. I taught them if they couldn’t behave in the store, they didn’t get to be in there. Seemed to work for us. Oh and they loved those car carts. One store we used to shop had a childcare, one hour of care and it was AWESOME!!! They’re prices were a bit high but when my husband was deployed and it was just me and little ones, it was worth every extra penny.
Before heading to the store with kids, I sit down and organize my coupons and my grocery list. Recently with Safeway’s freezer promotion, I’ll write down exactly what items I’m getting, how much they cost (in case they are out of stock, so I know how much I need to spend on something else…), and how many I need of each item. If we are going to more than one store for a lot of things I’ll break out the mini M&M’s (or stickers) and tell them that if they can be good in the store, once we get back to the car they can have a little treat. (The M&M’s are stocking stuffers from Christmas…and really are the best “treat”.) BTW My kids love the cookies too, and especially the clementines if King Soopers has those out for samples… I’m interested to hear what others do to keep their sanity while shopping with kids and trying to save money all at the same time! =)
I too organize my coupons based on store and to match my list so I can find exactly what I need quickly as I move through the store. It makes me stick to my list and cut down the time searching for my coupons. If I’m really on top of things, I organize my list based on the store, moving from the produce to the breakfast aisle, etc. so i’m not going back and forth through the store. I find going early in the morning is best for my kids and it’s less crowded. I also love King Soopers, between the free cookie, fun shopping carts, and the penny pony the kids stay busy. I sometimes have my kids help with the loading and counting of items as we move through the store or telling them what we need next and having them help find it. We sometimes sing songs, adding funny words or lines that keep them laughing. I admit I’ve been able to move my very independant 3 year old from aisle to aisle by telling him that Diego needs his help and we have to help rescue the baby animal in the next aisle. Thank goodness he has a great imagination! Eye spy games help a ton, too. My kids also like to spot blinkies around the store and get their own coupon to carry around the store. (I’m raising future couponers!)
Quick funny- I realized the other day that the free cookies at stores are spoiling my kids and we don’t even get them every time. My 3 year old and I began our shopping at Target and he rudely commented to me as his way of asking, “See my hand? There’s no cookie in it.” Yeah, he didn’t get the cookie. Maybe next time. :)
LOL! My kids love going to Target because they have better cookies than anyone else.
I like Albertson’s when they have the sugar cookies, you know the soft ones with all the frosting and sprinkles. Bad for the diet but so yummy and they always offer the cookies to me too not just the kids. At least when it’s the hard cookies, it’s easy to say no.
I avoid shopping with all 5 of my kids by swapping with a friend. When they were small, I would generally avoid the fun carts and grab 2 regular carts…the oldest and youngest (3 years between them) would go in one cart, and the middle in the other with most of the groceries. They would fight if I tried any other combination. These days, on those rare occasions that we run in somewhere with all of them, I ask them each to help me remember something, let the big ones take turns pushing the cart while I guide it from the front, and generally offer a really good snack or outing to follow the trip immediately, so they have the extra motivation to be good. When we go to KS, they don’t get their cookie until they start to lose their patience with shopping, and then I always make sure I have a penny for my 4 year old to ride the horsey!
I am also a BIG fan of pulling out the coupons I intend to use ahead of time, and have been known to put Buy5 type promotions in my reusable bags-with one deal per bag, and check out with them that way. My kids aren’t prone to throw things in the cart, so that isnt a real issue for me, they just fight with each other!
With a big promotion like Buy 10 or Buy $25, I usually make out a pretty detailed list of which items I want and how many coupons I have for each.
The biggest thing that helps me is to get *everything* for the special deals first, and then get the rest of my groceries. Once I’ve got my 10 or 20 or 30 items in my cart, I “forget” about them and finish the rest of my shopping. It usually means walking around the whole store twice, but it totally saves my sanity. I used to count items several times to make sure I had enough, but now I just count them as I put them in, maybe re-count once, and then move on and do the rest of my shopping.
I like Tacy’s idea of putting stuff for special promos in the reusable bags!
Shopping with my five kids now isn’t too bad… but four are school age (K-7th). It’s a few years ago that it was tough. Shopping with 3 under four is tough, I know. Shopping with 4 under seven wasn’t nearly so bad.
My tips? First, we all (well, not the baby) would pray together in the car before we headed in to shop. We’d pray for bargains when things were particularly tight, but mostly we prayed to find the nourishment we were seeking, to come out of the store feeling peace, to be a positive example of a family who valued children, and for us to all find someone we could bless with a smile or a kind word. I always thought that put the kids in a better frame of mind. It certainly put MOM in a better place.
Second, I really, really tried to be organized. Knowing what *exactly* I was shopping for made a huge difference. I’m a lot more laid-back about that now, but then I’d have coupons all clipped and sorted and exact lists prepared. Always ready to grab marked-down meat, produce, milk or whatever, of course…
Third, for a very short time in there, I would bribe my kids for good behavior. As in… I will buy you a candy bar when we check out if someone approaches us while we are shopping and tells me how wonderfully well behaved you are. :) I’ve been known to promise a nickel per compliment when we’re in a restaurant too. (NOW, I’d have to tell them that asking for compliments voids the agreement… but back then, it never occurred to them.)
I’ve never had kids who made a habit of putting things into the cart (they all went through a phase of doing that, but it didn’t last longer than a couple of weeks), so I don’t have suggestions there.
I love reading all of these comments! They have been so helpful. I have two little ones (1 and 2 1/2) and we usually have pretty decent trips to the store but it’s so nice to have these extra ideas in mind for when things do start to go south. I know not everyone can do this but I ask my mom (or occasionally my sister) to go shopping with us whenever she’s able. It’s a huge blessing to have grandma with us and it gives me the extra help I need to focus on what I’m there for. If you don’t have family near by maybe a friend could go with you – it’s a nice way to catch up with each other AND get a chore done at the same time.
I usually do my bigger shopping trips alone and leave my 2.5 year old home with Daddy. Once the baby is here maybe she will tag along with me. I always organize my coupons and list before I go!
My 5 year old can sometimes be a handful while I’m grocery shopping. So I’ve started a little reward system with him. When we get to a store where I know it’s gonna take me a while to get what I need I give him 3 stickers on his hand (you can get a ton of small stickers on a pad at the $ store). While I’m shopping if he starts to mis-behave I have him give me 1 of his stickers. If by the end of our shopping trip he still has at least 1 sticker left then I’ll have a little surprise waiting for him in the car. Usually a special snack, a candy, etc… MOST of the time it works really well.
And my favorite store to shop at here in Pueblo is the King Soopers on 29th Street. The employees are extremely helpful and friendly. They have a lot of the kid-friendly car carts and the cashiers always give my boys a coin to ride the penny horse on the way out. ;)
I was so sad when safeway took out their penny horse. I would give my daughters five pennies each. Each time they got out of the cart, or grabbed something off the shelf I would take a penny. They soon realized, the better they were, the more rides they got.
I have a three year old and eighteen month old. Many others hit on being organized before you go and that has been huge for me! The other best thing for my family is to put my younger in a hiking backpack. She’s much more content attached to mom and I avoids any sibling rivalry that light occur during the trip. I might look like a dork, but my kids are generally pretty good in the store.
One more thing, someone with 5 little ones once said to me that if you don’t make a big deal about things, then it won’t occur to your kids that it’s a big deal. So I’ve never apologized to my kids for having to go to the store, take long car rides, sitting at a restaurant, etc. I think it has helped my kids to be content in many situations.
I never knew about the KS cookies! Do they just have them in the bakery section?
Honestly, I try to avoid shopping with my children at all costs. I shop in the evenings, on weekends, when my kids play at their grandparents for a couple of hours, anything so that I can get to the store by myself. But, when I do shop with them, I promise them a treat for being good. I find that the “cool carts,” as we call them, just make my kids fight constantly. I have no idea why, but they do. They seem to do much better when I let them walk.
If I just bring one child with me, my 5 year old does a great job helping me find stuff and is really interested in how we’re saving money with coupons. My 3 year old can never decide whether she wants to be in or out of the cart and after about half an hour is just done.
Yeah they’re in the bakery section, usually down low. They usually have cherry chip, sugar and chocolate chip and the door has says one cookie per kid.
I didn’t know about all these free cookies. Please update me. My three year old and one year old will be happy to find out about free cookies.
Shop often with them – then they get used to the process. I do have good kids. Every once in awhile I shop with my littlest two, but a majority of the time it’s all five (1,2,4,6,8).
I do like to keep them full. I’ll bring snack bags of food with us so that they have something in the midst of all the food. Nothing is worse than a crying, hungry kid in a grocery store.
We also have our kids work at home (even at 3 yrs) and they get candy or money as a reward. So, whenever we get to the checkout, they don’t whine for candy. My answer always is, “Yep, you can have candy at home after you (fill in the blank).” or “Next time, you can bring your money.”
We also have a rule, “If you can’t see me, I can’t see you. You need to come back.” The consequence of not listening is sitting in the shopping cart (not the fun carts, but where the food is) – no matter how big they are. The big kids don’t like it, so they pay attention to the rule.
My kids love King Soopers (cookies & carts, rides @ Monument KS), Home Depot (carts), and Walmart (looking at the fish and lobsters). One of our rewards for being good while Mommy shops is to stop by the library afterwards and then they can “shop” for books and dvds for free.
But, honestly, there have been times I’ve cried after shopping. There’ve been days I’ve been seriously stressed out by shopping with them and watching people look at us as I’m red faced and tears welling up saying, “stop, stop, stop it…all of you!”. :0)… Then, we head to the closest checkout. We get just what we need and try again another day.
My “favorite” is when people walk past and say in seeming astonishment, “Are these all yours?” I smile and say “Yep!”. The days of shopping with my little ones is such a short amount of time. They love to get out and go on errands with me. I don’t want to miss out on these experiences with them for anything.
I have trained my children (with moderate success) to follow behind me wherever I go in the store. If they’re in front of me, they’re in the way of me pushing the cart where I need to go. If they’re next to me, they hinder other people passing by in the aisles. It helps my shopping go more efficiently.
We’re still working on the “look with your eyes, not with your hands” and “don’t ask me for things that aren’t on my list” and “don’t pester your little sister in the cart or pull on her legs”. The girls are age 3, 5, and 7.
When I used to shop with my children aged 7 and 3 it used to be such a hassle. Then I decided to give my eldest his own list and matching coupons, which makes it into a “teaching experience”. With the little one, I got him his own shopping cart and give him a list as well (piece of paper with pictures of the items on it). Now they love it, and are actually helping me (somewhat). At least it keeps them busy!
I solved all that during the time my husband was deployed. I used HomeShop from King Soopers, I was able to take a whole day to shop and “add to my cart”, shop by sales, manually enter coupons (and it auto takes off e-coupons) and made sure I had at least $200 in total after all the sales to make the $10 delivery worth while. (The first time you order, the $10 is waived.)
The drivers are awesome, they carry them right into my kitchen!! Plus I don’t have to try and get through the shopping. Any issues are resolved within a few hours. One driver broke a baby food jar, and they brought me several to make up for it, no extra charge, plus a refund. I chose the dates and times they delivered and it was quite nice. Just had to make sure to list my desires, like no substitutions if an item has a coupon and they were right on it!
I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old and shopping has become challenging! I usually try to shop on the days my 5 year old is at preschool. I usually spend the entire trip trying to keep my 2 year old from eating/chewing/ripping up/throwing out everything in my cart. I can’t wait till this phase is over!!!
As far as working deals goes, I too have to plan plan plan. I make a detailed list before hand and pull all my coupons. For instance with the KS buy 10 items deals, I put numbers next to the items on the list. When I place these items in the cart, I check those numbers off. That way I am not counting items in the end and getting confused! I also have an alternate area on my list with items that could be fillers if something I have planned is out of stock or not marked as a sale item etc. I also bring LOTS of snacks and drop by the bakery to keep the boy happy!
I admire all of you who have to shop with your kids. The cookies and penny horse rides helped some back in the days when I had to take mine with me. I’d bribe them to behave by promising a horse ride at the end of the trip. It doesn’t seem to get easier making the trips now that they are older (8, 8, and 7). The store doesn’t have enough free cookies to fill them up! I wait until they are in school to go. I can’t stay organized when they are with me.
I go in prepared – always a necessary precaution – coupons and list in order of the store’s setup. But, even with my kids who are ‘trained’ and used to our shopping routine, things often still turn downhill. When they do, my back-up plan is urgent top secret missions. The shopping turns into an adventure as we get sneaky, we get strategic, we all work together to discover that elusive great deal – “HURRY – QUICK!! BEFORE IT GETS AWAY!!” I tell them what we’re looking for. We tear down the aisles running and peeling out with our shopping cart when things aren’t too crowded, and sneaking stealthily when they are. (I try not to scare or offend people.) We make sounds affects, covert maneuvers, whatever it takes. The kids get super into it – they usually giggle, but when I tell them who is pursuing us, or trying to beat us to the chase, I can get them to be super quiet too so I can concentrate.
It’s pretty crazy, and takes a little enthusiasm, but it keeps things fun, and it pulls us out of those potentially desperate grocery store melt downs :).
I have a 2 year old and 4 year old. I remember the first time I went shopping with both of them I was actually scared, and had to call my mom for moral support. Now we go to several stores a week. I make a list for each store, paper clip the coupons together in order of where they are located in the store, then put them in a envelope with that store’s name on it. So I have an envelope for all the stores I frequent. I take a day or two each week to plan all the trips to get the items I want. For the sales with certain number of items needed I use tally marks as I put each item in the cart. As far as the kids…I always pack snacks. We go potty before leaving home! I pack some little toys. When the isle we are on is empty I let them run to the end and come back to me a few times. My secret weapon is my iPod touch. When things get really bad or really long I let them play with it. They can play the toddler games, watch a movie I have downloaded, or draw. I make them share and take turns and even though it feels like cheating, it gets us through!
I have a 2 year old and a soon to be 5 year old. I usually try to do my shopping after they go to bed and my Hubby is home. When I do take them with me I let my oldest hold the coupns of items I already have gotten. She feels so special with this big responsibility. The two year old is another story. I will give her anything from her toys to my keys and my phone just to keep her occupied.
I remember the days when I would take all six kids with me – and even though they were well behaved kids, it could still turn into a stressful trip. I certainly didn’t have the energy to deal with more than a couple of coupons. Now I often take my younger three with me because I usually pop into the strategic store near whatever activity we are doing and grab what’s on sale (hopefully I remember coupons!) They are 12, 10 and 8, so I often show them the ad or coupon and challenge them to find it before I do. The motivation is that it’s usually frozen pizza or fruit roll-ups or apple jacks or something else I don’t typically buy unless I get a great sale. Then we usually open a package of something in the car on the ride home IF they didn’t argue in the store. When I do my walmart shopping for non-groceries and things I didn’t find on sale, I usually only take one child with me and it gives us a chance to chat and work together. Often we’ll stop into McDonald’s for something on the dollar menu to make it a more fun outing. My 22 year old just joined me on a walmart trip a couple of weeks ago – simply because we hadn’t had much time together lately, and she had fond memories of our shopping trips when she was little. Of course we had to do McDonald’s this time too!
I loved reading everyones suggestions. I use the free cookies, penny pony rides, and bring my own snacks too. One suggestion I didn’t see is be willing to leave. If the boys are really out of control, not so much right now (they are 5, 4 and 1), but when they were around 2-3 and in that temper tantrum stage I will leave my cart inside (hopefully if a clerk is near by I can let them know I will be back) and sit outside, or strap them back in the carseat until they are done and ready to act respectfully.
The last couple weeks I’ve had coupons to make gum free or free cookies and I let them use the coupons if they behaved well. The first trip they didn’t get to use them, the next trip they were angels.
We also play a game in the car on the way to the store, I tell them a behavior and ask them if it is appropriate behavior in the store? Just to prep them for what behaviors will earn them a good consequence and which behaviors will earn them a bad consequence.
For getting organized before I go: I cut and paste Carries list to a word document and just delete the items I don’t want. When its a big event I aslo write next to each item how many coupons I have for that item before I go.
Both of my boys are learning letters, #s, and how to read and they love me to give them a pen and the list then they can search for all the Rr’s or whatever letter we are working on that week. This would not be a hit at home but in the store where they can’t do much else they love it.
I also like to let them pick when there are choices, like when we could get pasta for free I let them choose which shapes they wanted.
Oh my I do everything I can to keep from taking my 3 with me, ages 6, 3, and 1.