I do the family grocery shopping in our house every Sunday morning. The job became mine for a number of reasons: 1) I am good at shopping sales, 2) I clip and use coupons like a champ, and 3) I like choosing what will be in our fridge for the coming week.
Everyone knows the rules. When we are low on, or out of, an item it needs to be put on the grocery list. Saturday evening, I will cross-reference the list and our coupons and be ready for the next morning foray into the food aisles.
The problem is that at times members of the family neglect to add needed items to the list. So, I'll come home only to find out a day later that we have no bread or that we're down to one roll of toilet paper. "No one wrote it on the shopping list!" I bellow.
And, it's usually our daughters who are the culprits. "Oops, sorry, Dad. I forgot." So, I saddle back up and head out for an additional trip so I can make my sandwich and use the John.
The girls are legitimately sorry and haven't purposely sabotaged my shopping excursion, but no matter the amount of lecturing and reminding my wife and I employ, they still neglect to add the items to the list.
My youngest, Grace, age eleven, has really been into making homemade lemonade this summer (and it's really good). So, she's been using the bottled lemon juice we keep in the fridge. When I went out shopping last Sunday, on my way back to the car from the store with grocery bags in tow I get a call from Grace. She asks if I can buy lemon juice. She had used the last bit and forgot to add it to the list.
I could have just turned around and grabbed another bottle, and it would have been little inconvenience, but I decided to use the opportunity to emphasize the bigger issue. I told her I was done shopping and that if she put it on the list, I'd get it the following week.
Seven days without her delicious lemonade will be hard on us all, but because she loves the process of making it, it should really affect her! I am hoping that this "natural consequence" for something that is important to her, will transfer to the entirety of shopping list rules (and not just for lemon juice). Here's to hoping toothpaste and peanut butter make the list this week.
image courtesy of ©MorgueFile.com/cohdra
Everyone knows the rules. When we are low on, or out of, an item it needs to be put on the grocery list. Saturday evening, I will cross-reference the list and our coupons and be ready for the next morning foray into the food aisles.
The problem is that at times members of the family neglect to add needed items to the list. So, I'll come home only to find out a day later that we have no bread or that we're down to one roll of toilet paper. "No one wrote it on the shopping list!" I bellow.
And, it's usually our daughters who are the culprits. "Oops, sorry, Dad. I forgot." So, I saddle back up and head out for an additional trip so I can make my sandwich and use the John.
The girls are legitimately sorry and haven't purposely sabotaged my shopping excursion, but no matter the amount of lecturing and reminding my wife and I employ, they still neglect to add the items to the list.
My youngest, Grace, age eleven, has really been into making homemade lemonade this summer (and it's really good). So, she's been using the bottled lemon juice we keep in the fridge. When I went out shopping last Sunday, on my way back to the car from the store with grocery bags in tow I get a call from Grace. She asks if I can buy lemon juice. She had used the last bit and forgot to add it to the list.
I could have just turned around and grabbed another bottle, and it would have been little inconvenience, but I decided to use the opportunity to emphasize the bigger issue. I told her I was done shopping and that if she put it on the list, I'd get it the following week.
Seven days without her delicious lemonade will be hard on us all, but because she loves the process of making it, it should really affect her! I am hoping that this "natural consequence" for something that is important to her, will transfer to the entirety of shopping list rules (and not just for lemon juice). Here's to hoping toothpaste and peanut butter make the list this week.
image courtesy of ©MorgueFile.com/cohdra
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