Did Our Kids Survive On $55 Worth of Groceries?

It started out as a joke.

Our kids were whining about what we were eating for dinner and my husband said, “I’m gonna make you get your own groceries” and I thought, what an awesome idea.

Let’s make our kids get their own groceries.

I pitched the idea to Dave Morello, owner of Morello’s Independent Grocer, who loved the idea and graciously agreed to sponsor our #getyourowngroceries campaign.

If you missed the first video that shows how the shopping and budgeting went you can watch it HERE.

Thank you so much to everyone who watched, commented, and shared the video. We really learned a lot as a family and we loved reading your comments.

Here are some of the big questions we’ve been asked about #getyourowngroceries:

Q: Did they share their food?

A: Not really. One night the boys did a trade. Apples for some chips that were already in the house.

Q (more of comment really): We couldn’t let our kids do this, they would just buy junk!

A: I say Give ’em a chance! I am confident you will be pleasantly surprised! My middle son is a chip-o- holic ( I just made that word up). I mean it, the kid would live on ketchup chips and Doritos! When we first talked about this experiment he joked and said the only thing he was going to buy was chips, but when the day came, he didn’t buy chips!

He bought really great food that he strategically planned out for meals. Watch the vlog and you’ll see why he had the most food left over.

Q: How long did it take you to grocery shop with the kids?

A:  I didn’t time it, but I would say about an hour. We did eat a big meal before we went in, which I strongly suggest. Grocery shopping while hungry is NOT a good choice.

This really was fun. It made me realize how crappy I am at planning meals and throwing food in the cart. At first $55 did not seem like near enough money to last a week, but now I know that it is enough money. You can’t be frivolous, which I think many of us are guilty of.

Related: What Happened When Our Kids Had To Get Their Own Groceries?

The other feedback I would offer to parents considering this is: It’s time consuming. We did this experiment during March Break, so we were all home. The kids were great at preparing their breakfast (cereal mostly) and for the most part, lunch, but dinner was a bit more time consuming. Everyone was eating something different. The meals were planned out so you had to stick to the plan. It just felt like there was more time meal prepping than normal.

Also, if I didn’t supervise, they would just eat cereal because the novelty of preparing food wore off within a few days. I noticed when we did eat at the restaurant, they really gobbled their food. They were hungry because they weren’t having the big meals like normal.

We would love to hear your feedback! Use the hashtag #getyourowngroceries and let us know what you thought! Also if you don’t want to go full blown like we did, why not give them three items to price match in the store. I never knew until this experiment that the little price tags tell you how much you pay per unit!! That’s so helpful in finding great deals!

Good luck and thanks for joining us on this journey!

MF