Check out Shannon's site,  Rocks In My Dryer, for lots of great tips! 

My tips today focus on shopping with a large bunch of kids, and on price-matching management.  We have a large enough family that taking everyone into the grocery store is a challenge.  Little ones get easily distracted, older children get frustrated with little siblings, and Mom gets frazzled quickly.  This leads to unexpected purchases (an apple grabbed by youngest dd last time...while I filled a bag with galas, she munched on a red delicious), forgotten items, and a poor demeanor and little tolerance for impatient checkers.  Not great.  It's a rare happening that all of the kids accompany me.  But it does happen.  And should I care to pricematch, more frustration!  So here are some of the basics that allow me to shop, with or without children, and maintain sanity.

1.  Leave toddlers at home if possible.   I have babysitting aged children who are able to be enlisted as helpers at home.  This shortens my trip to the store, and saves the older sibling some frustration.  I take the middle group of children, 4-5 of them, and this group generally works well at helping to gather items.  Occasionally, dh is home when I need to shop, and I go by myself, on other occasions he and I go.  These opportunities are also less stressful!

2.  Use a second basket.  If I must take everyone, we use two shopping baskets.  The youngest two sit in the toddler seats, and occasionally, another child will sit in the main part of one of the carts.  On my last trip, I had a brainstorm with that second basket, though...see next tip!

3.  Separate all price-matching items.  Normally, my items to be price matched are placed in the front of the cart (toddler seat area).  On my last big trip, everyone was with me, and I placed my price-matching items in the second cart.  I'll do this from now on when I have a lot of items to price match, even if I don't have all of the dc with me.  It REALLY  helped last time!  Plus...see next tip...

4.  Place price-matching items on the stand FIRST!  I have always put these up last so they wouldn't get by me and get totalled without being discounted.  However, by placing these first, I was able to advise the checker that those items were to be price matched, we handled those details, and I was able to return to loading groceries on to the conveyor belt without worrying about problems in price-matching.  With the extra cart, we placed it in front, unloaded it ( about a dozen items) and moved it forward to receive the first grocery items while the next was still being unloaded.  The added bonus was that it made the line look longer, and we didn't have a bunch of people impatiently waiting behind us!

5.  Label your price-matching items!  I had this brainstorm last time as I stood in line.  If I prepare in advance of the trip, I can label small sticky notes with the item, the price in my grocery ads, and the store offering the price.  When I select the items at the store, placing the sticky notes on top of the items should help me (and the checker) to more quickly identify the validity of the price via the ads. 


More organization on my grocery trips means better handling of budget, and better attitudes in all of us as we make our way through the grocery store.  It works for the kids, and it works for me!