Shopping with Baby

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The Challenge

I am a mom of a four year old and soon to have a newborn. I love all the ideas on shopping here and there to save those extra bucks, but when the child is cranky, one stop is plenty! I just don't foresee much extra time to go hunting for those bargains in myriad grocery/discount stores. Anyone on the list have ideas on this one? I could also use ideas on dinner with the two children. It wasn't that bad with just one baby, but now with an active 4 year old and impending newborn...? I'm just getting cold feet and know I can't turn back! :)
Priscilla

Swapping

Newborns are amazing! I often wonder how someone so tiny and cute can take up so much time and patience. I have 5 kids and now I just lug them all with me when I go. For me, shopping the sales works. I go through the ads in the Sunday paper and plan what I need to buy. Then I just go and do it. If I have to buy a box of cheapo-brand pop tarts to keep them content, I'll do it.

When the older ones (the oldest is now 9) were younger, I would swap with a friend so that we could not only get the grocery shopping done with our sanity intact, but have a little bit of free time. It didn't cost either of us a dime in sitter fees, and I was able to continue a method of shopping that I find effective. When spaghetti goes on sale, I stock up, When tuna goes on sale, I do the same.
Susie

A Real 'Friend'

Find someone who you know won't mind hanging out with you and your kids and won't get bent out of shape if the kids go nutty. My mom is my lifesaver.
R.

The Answer: "Early"

I am a mom of two active kids. I have found that shopping in the early morning is the best time for us if we are making a few stops. The parking lots are emptier so I can park close to the entrance/exit. And the kids have had breakfast and are just starting the day so they are in good moods, unlike the chaos that occurs right before nap time! Also, stores are less crowded and moving through the lines is a breeze. Bring a snack if you'll be out for awhile. But don't feel guilty if you find it's just too hard, if one stop is it for you there's nothing wrong with that. Your kids will continue to get older and easier to handle and eventually you can shop the way you want to, just hang in there.
Laura

Shopping Less

When I quit my job to stay at home with our son, I went to every grocery store in our area and bought our "normal" groceries and even wrote down prices on certain items. I then compared the receipts to each other and came up with an overall savings total. One store may have been .10 cents cheaper on one item but $1.00 more on another. Our Wal-Mart Super Center ended up being cheaper, if you buy quite a bit of the "Great Value" brand (which my family prefers over most of the name brands). I feel that I am shopping at the right store for overall savings.

Some good points for the Wal-Mart Super Center: they will match prices from the other grocery store ads, they are open 24 hours (in case I go before my husband goes to work in the morning), and I can buy groceries and our personal care items at one time. However, not everyone has a Super Center, so shop around; you might be surprised. Also, since you will not have much time to "browse", ask the store clerk or manager if you can have a map of the layout of the store. Before you go grocery shopping, write the aisle number next to the item on your list. This helps keep me from "wondering" all over the store trying to find something. With two children the more organized I am, the better the trip for everyone.
Robin S.

'Family Outing'

One thing that worked for me with the two kids is to plan out where you go shopping and go from one to another. Give the 4yr old an award such as a soda as a reward for good behavior. Another thing my husband and I did is for me to go shopping on a day that he is home or an evening when he was home. This way we all could go together as a family outing and help eachother or he could babysit while I went shopping alone.
Sheryl W.

Savings Pay for Sitter

My first child is 10 mos. old and I am also now considering to have a second child. Since the birth of my child I am a huge discount shopper and have found most deals at the stores on nonclothing items have already started by Thursdays or Fridays of the week and clothes deals are on the weekends. What I plan to do, is pick a day either once a month or every other week and get a sitter. I will head for the larger city close to us where they have everything from the GoodWill to Daytons. It will be more than worth it to you to get that sitter and use your time to shop, shop, shop (without the big crowds of the weekends) as much as you can for that day without the kids. For example, today, Wednesday, I went with my girlfriend and it was amazing the deals we found! You won't get every deal but you will get the majority if you work at it! Any maybe once every six months get that sitter for a weekend day to shop for clothing. The weekend of the mall sidewalk sale would be a good one! Good Luck!
Kim

A Well-Stocked Pantry

First, keep your pantry stocked so you never HAVE to shop at any particular moment. . Learn to substitute and use what you have on hand. Keep canned and frozen vegetables, canned fruit, a loaf of bread in the freezer, canned and powdered milk, and a supply of toilet tissue and other household necessities on hand. I don't keep great quantities of things on hand, but I do try to keep one "unit" ahead.

I shop at about 5 different stores, including Wal-Mart and Price-Costco, but not on the same trip. I have stores categorized (in my mind) as to what products they usually have cheaper or better than the other stores. So this week I may go to the "meat" store--stock up on meat, pick up a minimum of what I HAVE to have, i.e., milk, onions, etc., and pick up anything they have on sale that I can use.

My next trip may be to the store that has good prices on canned goods. Stock up on canned goods, again pick up a few things I have to have, and check their sale items.

That's the way I shop. I don't buy everything every trip. And keep the number of trips down as much as possible.
Cathy

Plan Ahead

Well, this is one of those things where you have to sit down and decide how much money is worth having how much time. Even without kids I don't have a lot of time to waste shopping. I have ONE store that I consistently shop at when I don't have coupons to double and for the necessities - they have the lowest prices on food, household, and beauty in one store compared to the other grocery stores. (Fred Meyer). I do try to make a trip to a discount store (Target, K-Mart, Walmart) for household and beauty supplies once every few months with or without coupons so I don't have to buy these at the more expensive places. I also have a store where I only shop when I have put their coupon book coupons with my coupons and double coupons and only do about once a month, and a store where I take all the other coupons in the other store's ads because they accept all of them. My stores are all very close so I can choose one over the other pretty easily.

What it will come down to in making or breaking all of this is planning. If you can plan ahead you can save money AND save time because you did the work before you got there and you won't have to "hunt down" those bargains. Then, if you find one along the way, it's just a bonus. If you have time now, you might also read some of the "frugal" books out there to give you even more ideas.
Heather

Backpack Solution

I remember how challenging shopping with toddlers can be. I had three. My solution worked well for us. Each toddler had a school bag packed with items that were saved for these times only. A few favorite books with a tape player and tapes I made of myself reading the books, no more than 5 crayons and a couple coloring books, some matchbox cars and little people, a scratch pad (the kind that you peel it up and the picture disappears) and a lunch box freshly stocked with graham crackers, fruit, a sandwich and a drink. Don't forget to keep the wet naps handy. I also tried to time my trips. Errands that would take some time in the car such as driving across town or going to the drive up window at the bank would be done during their nap times. The motion and hum of the car was great for getting all three to nap at the same time. I also would do the grocery shopping when the representatives were giving out their free samples. We soon learned these were the best times for us to talk. It was then that I explained how skyscrapers were built, my son and I made up a poem about being sent to his room for picking on his sister and "Frosty the Snowman" was performed in Opera, Blues, Hard Rock, Jazz and Country style. They are now 15, 17 and 18 but I usually still have a volunteer to accompany me on my shopping trips. The old school bags and lunch boxes may be long gone but we still hit the free food samples and our conversations are just as enlightening and memorable.
Valerie

Stregnth in Numbers

I can't say enough about the value of joining forces. In the battle of the budget, it is so helpful to have an ally. The same goes for raising children--you need to have a friend or twenty to back you up, encourage you, and assure you that children do turn out well even if you aren't perfect. You could find someone who will trade childcare with you. Then on your shopping day, you go out with no whiners, no skirt-tuggers, no sleepy heads falling out of the cart, no candy fiends begging for dental decay on a stick. The next day, you watch all the kids, not much harder than what you already have unless they are holy terrrors, and let your ally go do her shopping in peace.

You could organize a price watch. Friends in different parts of town let each other in on news of phenomenal bargains. Tuna goes to 39 cents? The first one to spot it tells everyone and those who choose to go buy it. Or, maybe you even arrange for someone to buy a case or more of it, and you all divide it up later. If so, you will need a calculator to figure tax, etc. on 7 cans for me, 5 cans for her, 8 cans for you. You can make friends with the meat manager, the produce manager, and such at your favorite store. Maybe he or she will call you and tell you when there is a good special, and you can either go pick it up yourself, or send a friend--who will get the chance to cash in on the same deal. I will just go up to a person who looks like somebody and ask, what deals are you most proud of today? I get pretty good results--I am noticing what a good job he is doing, and giving him a chance to show off for me. Then I say thank you, and smile. That works even in a store I have never been in before. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I have always done this fairly early in the day, when there is new stuff being put out all over the store. That's because I make unavoidable appointments early, and try to make use of the time between dropping off the bread winner and the appointment by finding deals in places I don't always shop. That is another idea. Can the mother of young children arrange to do her shopping early in the day? It might be easier. Crankiness in children seems to be most common later in the day. Of course, I never (well almost never) had cranky kids--I established the chain of command early, and they knew not to mess with me. I have shopped with my children along since they were born, and do not have any bad memories.
Rose B, mother of three, in NC

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