When we lived in Oklahoma, Annette and I turned grocery shopping into a monthly shopping trip. We would make weekly shopping trips to Walmart for dairy and produce. However, for all other grocery items, we created a master shopping list accumulated over one month. Then we would take all the kids on an adventure to Walmart to purchase groceries for an entire month.
Walmart had shopping carts with a large blue addon that would hold two kids with safety belts. We would get one cart with those seats for the toddler/preschoolers (Jason and Truman). We would also get another "regular" cart. We would place the baby carrier (Ashton) in the seating space of this cart and allow Allyn to ride in the grocery part of this cart until we needed space for the groceries.
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| example of the Walmart toddler seat shopping carts |
When we got ready to checkout, we would have both carts loaded to overflowing with groceries.
Annette organized our shopping list according to the aisle at Walmart where the items were located. This made it easier to move up and down the aisles. Jamie and Tanner would check in with us to learn what the next item was to load in the cart. After getting an assignment, they would hurry up and down the aisle to find the item and load it into the cart (e.g., 15 cans of green beans).
When we moved to Texas, we had the option of Kroger, Walmart, or HEB to buy our groceries. Kroger was the closest to our house. While Kroge was relatively close by on Longmire Drive, we had to go to Bryan to shop at Walmart and to Texas Avenue to shop at HEB.
We continued our tradition of making one large shopping trip per month. We decided to price compare the three grocery options to help us better manage our budget for groceries. We used the same list for one month's groceries to shop at each of the three stores. We wanted to use the shopping trips to build up our food storage.
From the receipts, we entered each purchase into an Excel spreadsheet. Because some items were different sizes, we divided the cost to calculate the $ per pound or $ per ounce for each item. Then we could compare the cost for each of the things we normally purchase.
Kroger had the best prices for dairy and produce. In addition, Kroger was the closest to our house. HEB had the best price for some items but HEB was the most inconvenient to get to from our house. Thus, by comparison, Walmart had the best prices for the most items. In addition, Walmart had the convenience of the non-grocery items available. Thus, we decided to do our monthly shopping at Walmart.
We still maintain a shopping list arranged by aisle in Walmart. We no longer make monthly shopping trips. We also no longer take the whole family on grocery-shopping trips. Annette usually goes shopping during the day while the kids are in school.
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