Frugal and Green Tip of the Day – Kids Don’t Get to Pick What You Buy!

Don’t let your children dictate what you eat (or anything else you buy for that matter)!

When I pulled apples and plums out of my beach bag the other day, one of my fellow moms was shocked.

“Your kids are going to eat that for snack?” she asked.

“Yes?” I replied, quickly looking over the fruit to make sure I hadn’t accidently picked up the dog’s ball or something. “Why wouldn’t they?”

“I just can’t believe your snacks are that simple,” she said as she unpacked a bag of chips and a box full of small packages of what I can only describe as gummy bears mascarading as a “fruit snack.” “My kids would never just eat a piece of fruit,” she said.

I was stunned. How could kids not want just a simple piece of fruit. An apple, plum, orange, or bag of grapes is the ultimate in convenience foods! Just put them in the bag and go. When the kids are ready to eat, just hand them over – no wrappings, no trash. Where my friend, I learned, is going wrong is in the statement: “My kids would never eat just a piece of fruit.”

I asked her about grocery shopping and she described to me a madness the likes of which I have never experienced…even if I bring all five of the kids to the store with me. “How do you do it?” she asked me. I searched, in vain, to find some profound answer. Some philosophy or strategy I use to make my kids eat well – and then, it dawned on me…

“I pick the food,” I said, “and when the kids are hungry, they eat it.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean, that I pick only good foods – no pre-packaged anything – and that’s it. My kids have no other options for food.”

“That will work?” she asked, still stupefied.

“If they’re hungry enough,” I laughed.

So – stop allowing the children to dictate what goes in your shopping cart…if they aren’t paying, they don’t get to pick. And who cares what they’re friends eat? If they’re friends parents are paying for your groceries – then they have no say! You will be amazed how much money you will save when you avoid those middle aisles at the grocery store and don’t have a cart full of “Fruity, but not fruit, gushing, squishy dinosaur shapes” and boxes of “I don’t know how it gets orange but you can cook it in the nuker really fast mac and supposedly cheese.”

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