Mega Shop is a term I picked up from copperswife on her blog. What a wonderful wealth of wisdom she is!
I've always mega shopped, even long before reading it on her blog. The term just clicked and seemed to fit. After years of trying desperately to get organized with my shopping, I've come close to something that makes me feel so very comfortable with my shopping organization now. It is not without other steps, though, so please don't think it does itself. LOL
This is a sample of my shopping list. I'm not sure if you click on it that it will get any bigger than what you see above. I have 4 pages that print out with everything under the sun that we could possibly need in town. My ultimate goal is to not "need" to do any shopping between Mega Shops. I am not one who enjoys going shopping for hours and hours. I never have been. I am one who currently has a plan: Go in, get everything written down on my list and get out as quickly as possible. Now, the things that are needful to me is teaching my children the value of not just thrift, but also health. We spend some time on these things each time we go to the store. We recently found a very nice place to go to get our shredded cheeses at $2.50 cheaper than W*l-M*rt. It turns out to be $2.64/pound instead of $3.89/pound. I also found vegetables, tater tots and french fries cheaper at this particular store than at Aldi's! Since I no longer use a price book, I can easily see simply by knowing what things cost by going through our receipts every 2 weeks. I know that I want to scale back on price without sacrificing taste and quality.
Now, one may laugh at this, but I organize my shopping list in the same format that W*l-M*rt lays out their store. This is so much easier for me! I don't like W*l-M*art, but it is the least expensive place where were we can buy things we absolutely need. I've tried substituting other places for WM, but found that I'm paying more money for it. I don't like that! We are pretty limited here where we live to take advantage of the things that are close to us or pay lots of money driving to places where we can find it elsewhere. I rather enjoy the time I'm able to spend with my family, so I try to organize my trips all in one day.
There are a few more steps in preparation before walking out the door that are needful. One is to make a menu plan. I plan for everything from my husband's days off to company, lighter meals for when we have heavy errand days, convenient meals for when I know we'll be exhausted, picnics, pot lucks, family gatherings, snacks and anything else that comes our way.
The point for planning all of these meals is not to overwhelm oneself. It is simply to make sure that you have everything you need at a moment's notice just in case you need to make adjustments, or you forget to take out pork chops to defrost. You can easily flip another meal from the menu and make it instead remembering to take the pork chops out for tomorrow's dinner. Things happen and we have choices of how to act or react to certain situations. I was getting very tired of my own reactions being one of stress and angry at myself for not preparing ahead of time. I had made this a matter of prayer for a long time and the system I'm presenting to you now is the product of lots of prayer, putting it all to practice and planning.
Another reason I do all of this is to simply be a blessing to my husband. He works so very hard at work, going through such overwhelming stresses every day along with paperwork out the wazoo that he just does not feel like dealing with more papers and planning when he gets home. I "wised up" to that and just organized my own system while he was at work and you are beginning to see the fruits of that work. :)
As you can see, Mega Shop day for us is like the big performance that one must get prepared to perform long in advance to make sure it progresses smoothly.
I've found that taking a large cooler for all the meats and dairy is a must. I have one child in charge of getting the cooler wiped out and put in the back of the vehicle. I have another child making our sandwiches to put in to a lunch bag. I have another child gathering spoons and napkins as well as filling water bottles. All this while I dry my hair and review the shopping list for the 100th time, then present it to my hubby to review and see if I'm forgetting something because invariably, I do. LOL
We usually head to the bank first and get our banking done. Since starting the Dave Ramsey program in 2009, we've done things quite a bit differently. Lots of planning, discussing and calculators are included! :) Speaking of planning, my husband and I were discussing knowing exactly how much we spend in each grocery category. Up until the end of 2010, neither of us knew exact amounts. With the aid of Quicken, we've been able to more accurately pinpoint expenses in each category. What a blessing! We know where we have room to nip and tuck! A representation of the categories are below~
When I go shopping at Aldi's, this is pretty close to what the category split is. When I made these categories for Quicken, I just used my Predictable Shopping List as a guide. This helps me to be able to show my beloved how much we're spending in each area. Why be so detail oriented about this? Pro 31:11-12 "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. (12) She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life."
Pro 31:14 "She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar."
Upon returning home, everyone helps to get everything put away, before we relax. The point is "all hands on deck" and everything gets done much faster! We have trained the children to put things away properly in the freezers and in the pantry in the basement. We've repeated the lessons with them on numerous occations, taking the opportunity to retrain when necessary. While things are not "perfect", they are relatively neat. Yes there are times when we have gone to quite a few places and we're all pretty exhausted. Those are times when we just put the perishables away, grab something to eat and just put a movie in to relax. We are so very glad to be home and amongst the peacefulness of our home that it is just a relief to be away from all the rush of the stores. Many times my children remark about how other children behave so badly or they're just crying and whining in the stores so much it seems. It just happens that they may be on the same track that we are on and their shopping takes them in to our viscinity all through the store. This is stressful to all of us, but so very needful for my children to hear to help reinforce the verse,
Pro 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
The teachable moments are many, but the sheer stress from days like this really gets to their spirits. There is greater peace when we get in to the vehicle, talk a bit about the occurances of the day and put on some praise music to sooth our spirits and give us more peace until we get home. These instances, usually, we just put away the necessary items and then go rest and regain our sense of peace. This is a necessary thing, in my opinion, for the greater peace of our entire home. Other times when it is needful to just put away the necessary things is just simply because we're not feeling the greatest. This is when we need to grant ourselves grace and mercy due to our own physical needs. The canned goods will keep and so will the pasta. It wouldn't hurt to put them away the next day.
Dinner on Mega Shop night is usually boxed pizza, canned soup, egg rolls or something similar that doesn't take very long to make. Even through all the preparations and shopping, it is truly exhausting WORK. My husband has asked me in the past why I don't split up the work in to a couple different days. I just tell him that I would much rather do all this work all in one day so it is behind me and I can spend time with my family. Time is such a precious commodity that once it is spent, you can never get it back again. We have such a very short time in the grand scheme of life with our children while they are growing up and I would like to spend as much of my time loving, growing deeper as a result of having them in my life, and being richer by having the priviledge of knowing such wonderful people God is growing them to be. I guess you could say that this is the biggest reason I do all the preparations and work for Mega Shop day~so I can be blessed by my family on all the other 13 days in peace at home, at work, at play, or running around town. It helps me to know that I don't have to worry about feeding my family because that's already been thought of, prepared for and that it takes very little time to get ready with a little preparation.
Blessings,
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