How do you grocery shop?

[Chaos Coordinator]

How many stores do you use? When do you go? How long does it take?


I really need ours to take less time. I go every other Thursday, utilize three stores, and it takes foreeeeeeeever. I don't even like going to other stores to browse for things (like a specific shaped basket for a specific space and I need to check 4-5 stores for it) because grocery shopping alone takes all day and it's killing me.


I usually try to get to Aldi as soon as they open. So we grab breakfast and go quickly, and it takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Then Bc my stuff is in thermal bags and such from there I go straight over to natural grocers and get what we need. That's another 45 min to an hour. So by now it's lunch time. We go home, put away groceries and eat lunch. Then we go back out and go to Walmart and get everything else and it takes up whatever was left of the day. When we get home we have our daily "rest time" (I take a nap, kids have quiet screen time) then it's straight into dinner and bed.


I don't have time to do ds2's speech therapy home stuff. I don't have time to do any planned school activities. I don't have time to do dishes or laundry. If I'm really on top of my game I'll grab the trash on the way out to Walmart but I usually forget. Dishes, trash, and soon laundry (getting new machines and wanting to change my system from one day a week to one load a day) all need to be done every single day without exception. Sometimes we can skip a day so I try to time it so that we can take Sunday off from those daily things.


Anyway. How do I streamline this? Idk what to change. I need it to not be the only thing we do on Thursdays. It's exhausting for the kids too and I noticed last time that we had major discipline issues Bc of the stress to them.

[bliss]

Honestly, sounds just like what we do. Except on Sunday. I go three places and it takes most of the day. They're close geographically so I'm not wasting money driving all over or anything and it's the only way I can get the lowest prices on everything, and get everything I need.

[OnAMission]

I find the store with the generally speaking cheapest (though not *the* cheapest) with the most stuff that I need on a weekly basis. I go on Sunday mornings before church either by myself or with at most one kid. It takes me about 45 minutes. Once every few months I have a long enough list of things that are too expensive or not available at the grocery store to be worth going to Walmart or Target or the mall, or somewhere with more stuff. I'm sure I pay a little more because I only go to one store, but I don't spend much time at all on it, and I make do without some things until it is worth the time and effort to make a separate trip somewhere else.

[Chaos Coordinator]

Oh yeah the stores I go to are all on the same block. And we live about three miles away so it's not far to come home in between.


It's just a big hubbub for one day. I'd like to split it maybe to two days but then what if that just means I have TWO whole days consumed by shopping!!!

[mommylove]

Can you do it at night when DH or MIL can stay home with the kids?

[mamahammer]

My answer isn't helpful because of the difference in ages of our kids. I go to Costco and HEB every other week and I leave my kids at home to do their schoolwork and chores. It does generally take me 3ish hours still. I might run to Aldi on another day in the off week, but is a quicker one hour deal. When I had to take the kids, it was easily a all day event, always on a Tuesday. We'd bring iced down coolers, grab breakfast at the McDonald's next to Aldi, go to Costco, eat lunch at Freebirds (because kids were free on Tuesdays), go to Kroger, then go home and unpack in time for me to throw dinner at them before youth bible study.

The only way I could figure to change that was to do all of my shopping at one of the 24 hour stores after they went to bed. That wasn't happening for many reasons, not the least of which was that I couldn't afford to do all of my shopping that way.

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[Chaos Coordinator]

Yeah they are usually asleep by 8 then I get the last of the chores done and pack their lunches and send myself to bed between 9&10.


I asked dh if we could do Walmart together the Sunday after payday and he said ok. Maybe that will help. Then we can just do Aldi & natural grocers every other Thursday, then have the afternoon to get school and chores done.


The upside to doing it this way is dh's help at Walmart, two adults to push two carts and manage three kids, and he can get the foods he likes because he never remembers to submit his list to me in time (I have asked him to text or email me his personal grocery list the night before payday but he never remembers. Ever.)

The drawbacks will be that Walmart is crowded on weekends, he gets really overstimulated shopping with the kids, and we lose two family days a month to grocery shopping


But we're going to try it anyway. If I can get out of my job at the church (not very happy with some other things going on there right now anyway) then we can go in the morning before it's crowded.

---------- Post added at 09:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 PM ----------

And when I was pregnant/more newly post partum I would leave the kids home with my mother in law, but they just wind up watching cartoons all day, which leads to fighting, hyperactivity, mouthiness, and other miscellaneous discipline issues. It is bad lately. They just cannot handle much media content and the time they do get is reserved for my nap

[mommylove]

Can MIL help with the shopping?

[Mother of Sons]

I go to 2-3 stores but not on the same day. Well sometimes on the same day but not always. Just depends on what I need and when. Like today I went to aldi but not Walmart. I'll probably go to Walmart on Tuesday on the way home. I prefer to shop more often for less stuff so making a quick trip isn't too bad.

[ECingMama]

I try to go with only one child. When I take both, they need to be in charge of list or push their own smaller cart or I sometimes have thoughts like, "why did I want to. be a mother?"

[Aerynne]

Do you have to go to all of them every week? Or could you plan to buy 3 weeks worth of Walmart stuff but one week and then the next week is Aldi, etc?

I shop at one store for most of my shopping and I go alone on Saturdays. Takes me about an hour and it's a mile from my home. Then I go to Costco maybe once a month. It's shorter- maybe half an hour because there is a list of things I get at Costco and I just know if we're all out of vanilla, I'll add it to the Costco list. I don't generally go to Costco on Saturdays, so I never have a whole day grocery shopping. There is also a bakery thrift store I go to about every other month and buy a whole bunch of bread, which I freeze. That store is 20 miles away and I try to combine it with trips into town that I make for other reasons (appointments, field trips, trips to other specialty stores, etc.)

[charla]

I go grocery shopping once a week, usually on Mondays, and it probably takes me about 3-4 hours. I made up a template for a list and when I make out my menus for the week, I make the grocery list and check the cupboards, fridge, freezer for other items we might need. I go to Aldi's first to get as much as I can on my list, then I finish it out at Wal-Mart, then usually I go to Braums and get milk and maybe some meat (no antibiotics), and some weeks I go to another grocery store for the buttermilk that I like. Every few weeks, I add in the health food store for a few things. Aldi's seems to take the longest because of the flux of new items, not always having the same produce, and that aisle that seems to change items all of the time. When we bring the kids, it takes a lot more time (not to mention that I tend to spend more money ). Because our kids are older, we just leave them home for those few hours and it goes much quicker. I think having someone watch the kids would make it go much faster if you can swing it. Hope you can figure out what works best for you and your family!

[Soliloquy]

I go to one store. I have a list, organized by department: produce, dairy, meat, grocery, frozen. I go once a week, and sometimes make a quick stop mid-week for fresh produce.

Going to two stores would drive me batty. Three stores-- you'd have to go searching in the woods for me.

[L-Boogie]

We don't really have a system. We need a system.

I have a really hard time narrowing down the number of stores and balancing meal planning with buying whatever is at grocery outlet and trying to make it work - which keeps us much much more on track with the budget.

[MaySunflowers]

Online from the overall cheaper for what I need store, I check the sales then otherwise shop off my favorites list that I price compared previously.