How I Feed the Masses
Posted by Danielle Bean in Homemaking on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 12:00 PM
Lisa S. writes:
I’m wondering if you might mind sharing how you manage to keep groceries. I’ll clarify, enough groceries around your house with everyone home all the time. I am literally 1 1/2 blocks from the store but cannot seem to keep enough food here. Do you bulk shop? Do you plan meals? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks much!
Hmmm. Shall I begin with an ugly confession? The truth is ... I don’t meal plan much at all these days.
It’s baseball season. During baseball season, I live by the seat of my pants—which is mostly found sitting on the sidelines of ball fields between the hours of 4:00 and 8:00 pm, handing out granola bars, sipping juice boxes, and calling that dinner.
But perhaps my current abnormality isn’t what my friend Lisa was hoping to hear about. Perhaps she would like to know more about my “normal” abnormal life of trying to keep 10 people clean, fed, and happy on a daily basis. For that kind of “normal” abnormal, I recommend my 3-Day Method: I shop more than once a week and I plan for three days of meals at a time.
I used to plan at least a week at a time and bulk shop—but the kids just ate everything. Really, they did. They knew that I had 3 pounds of cheese sitting in the fridge, planned for use in lunches and three different dinners, and they just ate it all. The nerve!
So I learned to shop for about three days’ worth of groceries at a time. That’s about all my brain can handle, anyway.
I plan three dinners—however simple—and make a list of ingredients needed for those plus breakfasts (cereal, bagels, bread, eggs, milk, baking ingredients) and lunches (macaroni, sandwich stuff, crackers, cheese, fruit). The way I write out my list is loosely based on a method I learned from Confessions of an Organized Homemaker
Following the layout of the store where I shop, I write out categories: Meat & Deli, Produce, Dry Goods, Canned Goods, Household, Dairy, and Frozen. I fill in needed items in the correct spots before heading to the store. I find that having a list organized by category (and place in the store) makes it much easier to shop quickly and efficiently.
Although I say I plan for three days’ worth of meals, in reality it doesn’t always turn out to be exactly three days before I must head back to the store. I sometimes find myself heading back for forgotten (or eaten!) items before the three days are up. I also sometimes find my plans disrupted or we eat leftovers one night and my three days’ worth of groceries last four or even five days before I need to head back to the grocery store.
In the end, I have three thoughts to share with other moms who struggle with grocery shopping:
1. It’s okay to cut corners. Sometimes you need a break. It’s okay to bust the budget sometimes (or lots of times, if you can afford it and choose to) by buying prepared foods and/or shopping more frequently.
2. They will eat what you buy. If you don’t buy chips, soda, and other expensive, unhealthy snacks, no one will eat them. They quickly learn to expect what you give them. If you give them lots of junk, they will expect that. If you don’t give them junk, they will learn not to look for it (says the mom who handed out pop tarts before and after Mass this weekend ... ahem! Moving on ...).
3. Tag-a-longs are pricey. I don’t mean the Girl Scout cookies (though those are pretty expensive too). I mean the kids who tag along with you to the grocery store and beg for Sponge Bob Fruit Shapes Fruit Flavored Snacks
That’s just the tip of the iceberg that is my very passionate thoughts and feelings about shopping for groceries, but I’ll stop there. Perhaps some other moms would like to chime in with their tips and ideas to make feeding the masses less of a massive headache?
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