The post below is a guest blog written by Stockpiling Moms. Stockpiling Moms is a blog written by Melissa and Shelly. They are two best friends who met through International Adoption. Once they adopted their beautiful children from Guatemala, they became stay at home moms who ultimately started this awesome blog! I LOVE the post below because so many of you tell me how hard it is to shop with your kids in tow. The tips below are great for keeping your kids entertained as you shop and the tips allow you to focus on making sure you use as many coupons as possible! 😉 **I would love for all of you to leave comments on this post with tips you have for keeping your children entertained (and happy) as you shop!
One tip I will add (I have learned this from many of you) is to make it a game for your kids to find blinkies and grab the coupons from the blinkies. This is a great tip assuming you shop at stores that are generous with giving out coupons!
Entertaining Your Child on a Coupon Run
I wanted to talk about ways to keep your children entertained while on a coupon run. I always recommend that if possible avoid couponing with your kids, however that is not always possible. In fact for many of us shopping with our kids is our only option. I wanted to share with you some ideas for ways to make your experience positive for both you and your children.
Thanks for coming to Addicted to Saving! Here’s a little bit about me so you can know who’s behind all these posts!
My name is Liza and I began my money-saving journey in the Spring of 2009 as a way to stretch a limited household income. I had lost my job and my hubby was self-employed. I launched Addicted to Saving in November of 2009 and it has grown by leaps and bounds. Since then, my hubby and I have struggled with the ups and downs of two failed adoptions and are now LOVING being parents to our little man Asher who we brought home from Ethiopia in August of 2013. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to help you save money. My goal is that you will have FUN and become empowered to save more and more money each week..
Mine is in charge of finding blinkies and tear pads. What a helper!
I put my husband in charge of the same thing and it helps to keep him away from the impulse buys, lol 🙂
I love my Publix. My son is two so it is difficult to play any shopping games. We start out at the bakery for our free cookie. Go through produce and the front aisles. Visit the fish guy and the lobsters.
The ipod touch with sesame street videos preloaded is a life saver for going up and down the bulk of the middle aisles. By the time we reach the balloons they’ve seen us coming and have a balloon filled for him. They are so sweet!
By the time the balloon novelty has worn off we are at the checkout!
Sounds kinda like my Publix trips! Get the cookie, visit the lobsters and a balloon at the end – they give ours at the checkout. Another plus that my 3 year old LOVES about Publix.. they have shopping carts that look like cars so he gets to “drive” me through the store!! He also has his own coupon holder that we take with us and he finds the blinkies and puts them in his holder! Im defiantly going to have to try some of the other tips though because shopping with coupons plus a toddler makes for a hectic trip!
Mine is 9 and he is in charge of holding the coupons and also hunting for items. I am also using our runs as an opportunity to work on math skills. We, too, MUST stop and hang out with the lobsters before we can leave lol
These are all great ideas. Love the snack/surprise at checkout as I find I get very distracted with a three year old boy while trying to make sure all of my coupons and deals are rung in. The lobsters freaked him out though!!