Homeschool World Forum

With the children home all day and all the runnig to various activities, it is difficult to keep a fixed schedule. Anyway, it is for me. What is your plan for grocery shopping? Do you stick to a particular day/hour? Do you plan meals daily, weekly, monthly? Do you make a list of basic items and add the extras? What about warehouse shopping? What about taking the teenagers, teach them how to shop and then send them without you?
Thanks,

Regina

We go shopping whenever we run out of a lot of food items, which is usually about every 5 days or so. Meals are picked by trip rather than week or month, and we shop whenever is most convenient. Dad occasionally does the shopping, but at this point it's usually one or two of my siblings, now that we have enough cars and drivers to go around.

I have somewhat of a meal plan and a list (if I don't leave it at home or loose it in the bottom of my purse.) With all the coming and going, I can not be sure who is going to be home at dinner time. I fix a meal anyway and it is here as leftovers if they choose to eat it.
My husband is more motivated to food shop than I am. I think he likes to go to Sam's Club (warehouse shopping) to look at all the electronics and seasonal items. The kids like it when he food shops cause he buys the "good" stuff. A lot of times we go together. Other times one of the children will go with him cause he wants them to be helpful. They want to go 'cause they want to get something dad might forget. We fill up the fridge and cabinets and a few days later come the complaints, "There's nothing to eat around here." Sometimes I send my 'drivers" to the grocery. It's a good thing for cell phones. Hopefully, they'll come home with what I need.

I enjoy thinking of the help that will come when our kids get older, but it sounds confusing too, keeping track of them all if there are several vehicles and drivers.

For now- we have three under six- I am trying (<key word there) to have a menu for the week written up by saturday and a list of what is needed. The staple items and regulars we try to get bulk when possible. Basically this works in with our budgeting, and ensures we don't spend too much extra which happens when I don't get things together or we are hungry when we go shopping.

Because I still am building up my recipes, I plan to keep the lists, so eventually I can refer to them and just swap meals here and there with an occasional new one to spice it up.

nicole

Well, we do things a little different than normal. Dad is a bargain hunter, and he ONLY buys bargains. $1 per lb is the rule of thumb for everything including meat, though grains and a few other things have lower rates. We order most of our grains, honey, and other staple foods, through a local bulk-health food company that delivers to our home once a month. We do most of our fresh-food shopping locally about once a week (Again, if it's not within a certain price range, we simply go without it). We make a trip to the City (which is an hour away), about once a month. We have a set of certain stores we go to, and we always make a list and start at the far side of town. It can be anything from a 5-8 hour day, and we save an average of 50-80% on our groceries. (Very much worth it in a big family.) Dad usually takes me and maybe one of the others to help keep him on track, and help load up the car etc. (We come home with an absolutely full car.) I've learned most of the good shopping secrets, (I think), and by now I know a lot of the employees at the stores we've shopped for years. It's been great.

So basically, we plan meals around what ever "extras" we happen to get on the shopping trip, in combination with grains and other staples. Also, I make bread, and keep it around so it helps keep the "There's nothing to ear around here!" down.

Nep,
The idea of keeping a list of past meals is a great idea and time saver. Keeping a dinner or other meal journal would be helpful especially when someone reminds of a dish they haven't seen in awhile. I will cook something very tasty and everyone (unbelievably) will approve. My husband will request I'd better write it down or he'll never taste it again. I usually don't write it down and it is usually never made again. I'll have to start a meal journal.

Princess_Fyara,
Wow! Your dad puts in a lot of effort in the planning and shopping. Your mom probably spends a lot of time in organizing a months worth of supplies. I had to chuckle when you said you go with your dad to keep him on track. I think my kids go with their dad to throw him off the track. He'll admit he's weak in the potato chip and related snack department. Because shopping is so convenient in the city, it is too easy to run back for some forgotten item. Planning saves time, money, and energy no matter how close or far the shopping.
Do you make many different kinds of bread? Do you use a bread machine?

oh wow! that is a lot of bread- but it makes sense considering with just my three young ones we go through several loaves a week and your family has several more to feed and who are grown. I might have to resort to homemade bread- it tastes so much better, and the price is great! We will see if I can get myself motivated.

Growing up my mother planned out meals monthly. She'd take inventory of what we had and plan the meals accordingly. We were ALWAYS involved in shopping. From the time we learned basic math skills my mother would ask what the better deal was between different items. "Is the 16 oz bottle at 1.99 a better deal then the 8 oz bottle at 0.79?" Then as needed we'd go to the store for milk or the basics that don't last a month (we went through a gallon of milk every week with just the four of us).

I personally hate shopping, but I learned a lot of great bargin hunting skills shopping with my mother. I believe teenage is a little too late to start kids shopping. I'd suggest around 10, which is when I also started making meals (with adult supervision of course). By the time I was in highschool and my little sister was in middle school we basically ran the kitchen!

I found Flylady about the time I started homeschooling, and I thank God for her everyday! Not only does it help me keep up with housework but I set up a menu plan that carries me through the week with 3 night unplanned for something different, I plan those before I go to the grocery store. I also plan or at least think about what I will make for breakfast the night before. I take my kids ( 11 and 13) with me to the grocery store and give them their own lists (parts of mine) and make them comparison shop for what is on their lists. My 16 year old sometimes does the big shop, as long as she has a good list to go by. I try to get the kids to cook with me as much as I can and holidays are always big events with all of us in the kitchen cooking something. My son made thanksgiving dinner last year (with a little of my help and still talks about it.

I have about three of eveything in my house. I like to stock up and figure out what we are eating usually the night before. Most of the non-perishables I get on-line, so going to the store isn't so much of a problem, I just perimeter shop. When we do that I often have my boys 8,6, (1) help me to follow the budget. We list all the important things we need to get, bread, cheese.. and then if we have money left over they can each pick out a healthy treat, mangos, pineapple... It really keeps them from bugging me about the unhealthy stuff, because they know that if we fill the budget we won't have any money for the yummy stuf.

For a while we were trying to do the major grocery shopping once a week, but with four kids we go through alot of milk and we could only fit so many gallons in the fridge. So I would have to go back mid week to pick up milk and I'd end up throwing in extra junk we didn't need "since I was there...". So we got an extra little fridge and we keep it in the laundry room and when we do our once a week shopping we get like four or five gallons of milk and now we have a place to store it. The extra fridge is also really helpful if we are having a birthday party or cooking stuff ahead for holidays. Now I have a cold place to store the party food a day before, without rearanging to the fridge in the kitchen.