• Choosing the Healthiest Foods for Your Family

    Welcome! I am a mom of a busy 8 year old and an adventurous 6 year old. I also happen to work for a great company called NuVal. NuVal is a nutritional scoring system that rates foods on a scale of 1-100, based on how nutritious they are. We are implementing NuVal in grocery stores around the country.

    NuVal may not be in your area yet. But I see the scores while they are "hot off the press" and because of that I am able to make better decisions about what to feed my family.

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  • Disclaimer

    I am not a registered dietitian. I am just a mom who happens to work for NuVal. I am also an AFAA-certified Group Exercise Instructor. NuVal is a system designed to lead customers to the most nutritious food choices. It is not a diet or weight-loss plan. Before starting a diet, you should always consult your personal physician. The opinions expressed in this blog are the opinions of the writer and not the opinions of NuVal LLC.

Supermarket Strategy

Monday, February 22, 2010 at 07:17 AM

As a busy mom, I find grocery shopping to be the most difficult chore of the week.  That truly is the reason why I started this blog.  Were you here for my very first post?  I wrote about what it’s like to be standing in the juice box aisle trying to figure out which one is the most nutritious, not that I have time to read any labels anyway.  I don’t know about you, but I do not like to go to the grocery store any more than once a week.  I like to get it all done in one trip.  But to do so takes careful planning.  Every Thursday night or Friday morning, I take about 15 minutes to figure out my shopping list.  Here’s how I do it:

  1. Look at the schedule for the upcoming weekend and week.  Are we going to any parties over the weekend?  Do I need to bring a dish?  What do we have going on each weeknight?  Cub Scouts?  Will I have time to make a scratch meal or should I plan a Dream Dinner?  I have a little weekly planner that I found at Michael’s Craft Store.  I write out all the activities for the week before the week even begins so that I know what’s coming. 
  2. Make my index card of Dinners.  Yup, it’s an index card.  For some reason pen & paper really work for me here.  So, once I know what we have going on for activities, I plan out the weekly menu.  Since I keep a supply of Dream Dinners in my freezer, I use my inventory sheet to see what I have left for meals and what nights I need to use them (the busiest nights).  This handy-dandy sheet that I get from the folks at Dream Dinners tells me how long the preparation is for each meal.  I also use my recipe boxes here so I can plan my homemade favorites as well.  I think about when I will have time to prep each meal. 
  3. Start my grocery list.  Well, I really should say finish my grocery list.  Because we have a list on the fridge at all times.  And my husband and I are both pretty good about keeping it updated.  As soon as we run out of something it goes on the list.  There are exceptions of course.  Like coffee filters.  They never seem to make it onto the list.  But I think that is because the sleepy person making the coffee (and using the last coffee filter) has not had his/her first cup of coffee yet!  So, I use my recipes to figure out what ingredients I need.
  4. Take a pantry inventory.  This is a crucial step.  This is the money-saving step.  Have you ever stood in the Dairy section of your local supermarket trying to mentally envision how many Greek yogurts you have in your fridge at home?  It doesn’t work.  You will always end up under-buying, over-buying or just plain forgetting if you don’t take inventory.  So, I go through the refrigerator, cupboards, basement refrigerator, both freezers and basement extra food storage to figure out if I really need butter, orange juice, juice boxes, lunch box snacks, etc.  I use my list while I do the inventory to either add to it or delete items that I think I need, but I really don’t.

Whew!  With all that done, it’s time to head to the grocery store.  I bring my list, my reusable bags, and a pen or a highlighter (so I can cross things off as I buy them).  Oh, and I bring my Strategic Weapon – my 4 1/2 year old Super Scanner! 

This is my new strategy.  My daughter is way too big for the cart, but she loves to sit in there.  So, I heave her in and she scans items with the hand scanner.  This took a little training, but once she got the hang of it, it worked great!  She scans and then reads off the numbers to me.  So it’s practice with number recognition too!  Yes, there have been some glitches – like the time she scanned the same item 4 times – but we have learned, and it saves us time.  Not only that, I can focus more on what I’m buying because I know exactly where she is (stuck in the cart!) and she’s not going anywhere. 

Now, I have not tried this with two kids.  Something tells me that a fight would break out.  So, for now, I schedule the grocery shopping when I am just with one child.  But I am thinking about a two-kid strategy.  You know how I feel about Child Labor.  It’s the only way to keep a mom’s sanity.

My best trips to the grocery store happen when I follow all four of those steps – sitting down.  In my kitchen.  With a cup of coffee.  Sometimes I try to cheat.  Like that picture at the top of this post?  Can you tell that I have all my planning tools on the front seat of the car?  Yes, I was trying to do my menu-planning while in Pre-School Car Line.  No, it is not the same as texting and driving.  The car is stopped – for long, boring periods of time while I wait for my pre-schooler to be dismissed.  But you can’t take inventory from your car.  It really works best if you take some quiet time to plan, without interruption. 

Question of the Day

What is your Supermarket Strategy?

Posted by: Melissa 8 comments

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