Anyone that reads my Success Stories knows that I usually go to at least two stores when I shop.
As a general rule, this proves to be very efficient, except when I have frozen food items. Then making multiple stops can lead to soft ice cream – which is gross.
So when Natalie (a Kansas City Mama reader and Thirty-One Director) contacted me about trying out their Market Thermal Tote, I was skeptical. I’ve had freezer bags before – and while they work “okay” they don’t work great.
After using this one – let’s just say that I wish I had it during the Target Frozen Food Sale. Enough said.
And Natalie wants one of the Kansas City Mama readers to have a Market Thermal Tote too.
Here’s How To Enter The Giveaway
(Remember, each comment is considered a entry – so leave a separate comment each time.)
1. Leave a comment about worst shopping disaster. (Ex. Melted Ice Cream in the Back of the Van)
2. Become in “Like” with Natalie Jordan on Facebook. Once you are in “Like” or if you are already in “Like” – leave another comment.
3. Sign up for Kansas City Mamas Daily Email Newsletter. Once you sign up or if you are already signed – leave another comment.
Contest will be open till end-of-day March 21, 2011. Winner will be notified by email and has 48-hours to respond before another winner is chosen. Good Luck. Also, Natalie wants to make sure everyone has the chance for a Market Thermal Tote – so you will receive 10% your first order when you used code KCMAMAS.
Disclaimer: Natalie & Thirty-One provided Kansas City Mamas with her own Market Thermal Tote and with a $50 Gift Certificate than the winner can use on a Market Thermal Tote or whatever you would like as a give away, but I received no other compensation.
I’ve had melted Popsicles
Also I have had melted chocolate bars!
I’ve let two free-range chickens rot in my trunk. Sigh.
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I forgot a bag of produce in the trunk and didn’t discover my mistake until I started to smell something a week later….
Worst shopping disaster: When I got home from the grocery store one time, DH came to help me unload the car. Unfortuntely, he forgot the bag of frozen chicken. I didn’t realize it for a few days. I got in my car to leave and about threw up from the smell. Needless to say – we check all areas of the car when we’re unloading it now. =)
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I left 3 pounds of meat in the backseat of my car. . .YUCK!
I’m on the mailing list 🙂
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I “liked” Natalie Jordan on FB. And I already LOVE Thirty-One. I already have the small (lunch bag) size thermal tote. I love it so much I just ordered one for my niece for her birthday!
I put in in the front seat so I wouldn’t forget to bring it in the house. Unfortunately, I grabbed the groceries from my trunk and left it in my car. In the heat. In the middle of July. I realized I needed the chicken for dinner. it turned into a hot, hot, mess.
Glad I’m not the only one that’s left chicken in their car, though!
The worst case wasn’t actually a food issue…it was my kids. While we were out shopping one got sick(yes, puke) in the back of the minivan–leaving a trail until he could get out. While he continued to puke in the store parking lot, two other(I have four kids) began to sympathy puke with him. They were all lined up like little puking duckies!
I don’t have any too horrible stories, but recently I went to Aldi and I forgot all my awesome reusable bags in the cart. When I realized it, I went back in the store, but must have missed the person w/ the cart… Alas, it was sad to me (and I lost my cvs green bag tag w/ them)!
I bought bacon (on sale) in the middle of the summer and then had to wait for my son to come out of Karate, which ran late… Then the next morning when I went to cook the bacon it was definitely not right, smelled horrible and was slimmy! I am sure it was the result of being in the truck of my car when it was probably 100 degrees outside. 🙁
One time when I got home from a shopping trip I went to take my bags out of the van to find that the bagger had put my bread and some food into a bag with a container of Clorox Clean Up. The Clorox clean up crushed my bread and then it leaked all over the place ruining over $30 in meat. We had to return to the store to return our stuff and get new. Now we always bag our own items.
My worst grocery disaster happened last year in June when my hubby removed the bags from my trunk but left the bag in the corner with the frozen tilapia in it. We even rode around for a couple hrs after putting the groceries up and didn’t realize it until later that night. Ewww.
I left a twelve-pack of pop in the back of my SUV in the middle of winter. It exploded all over by the following morning.
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50 kraft string cheeses left in the car in the boiling sun all day. Totally missed the bag in hte back of my car…. 🙁
I had a gallon of milk fall over in transit and burst open. Thank goodness the back of my car has a plastic pet liner on the carpet that caught most of it, but there was milk all over all the bags of groceries!
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one of the kids picked up my gallon size jar of pickles and it fell through the bottom of one of those flimsy bags. It was the only thing in the bag but it still couldn’t hold up to that jar. We were cleaning glass off the driveway all summer as we would see more shining in the sun.
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Worst grocery disaster – milk in the upholstered trunk. You can still smell it on hot days.
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Worst experince: I had fresh milk burst and spill in the back of my Honda. Could not get the spoiled milk smell out for several weeks even after having it professionally cleaned. 🙁
A bottle of wine fell through the plastic bag and shattered all over the garage floor!
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I had 2.5 dozen eggs on the bottom of the cart. I was “racing” with the cart my then 2 year old son in the parking lot. The eggs were jolted out and all over the HyVee parking lot.
I also subscribe to the emails. Thanks Kelly!
My then four year old daughter dropped a can (small one) of paint in Home Depot. Of course the lid flew off and spilled pink paint all over the floor.
I have done the melted ice cream before. That’s probably the worst mess. We once forgot about some cheese we bought, too. It slid out of the bag and wasn’t noticed when everything was carried in. YUCK!
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Milk, always milk. Why do those darn things break open so easily…and why can’t I learn to be more careful…
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Large family pack of beef left in the trunk. Thankfully it didn’t smell, but it was a lot of wasted money!!
When cleaning out my car I found a sippy cup full of spoiled milk!
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I once left 2 bags full of groceries in the cart when I drove away. I guess that’s what 3 kids 2 and under can do to your mind…
I’ve had milk spill all over the back seat.
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Worst shopping disaster: can’t think of anything terrible. I’ve never left ice cream in the car overnight, but I’ve left refrigerated cookie dough in the car all night. (I did once leave raw steak on the worktable in our storage room for 3 days- I took it out of the freezer and never made it upstairs with it. I obviously forgot about it for 3 days. It was, literally, a bloody mess. And I wanted to cry because I had to throw out good steak!)
Other shopping mishaps, leaving 4 cases of pop under the cart and leaving without it. I went back to the store later and thankfully they believed me because it was no longer there.
The worst shopping disaster that I had was dropping a jar of spaghetti sauce at the checkout counter at Aldi’s. It shattered and sauce went everywhere including my pants. I had to go to 2 other stores covered in spaghetti sauce. I felt bad for the guy working there but he assured me it happens all the time. 🙂
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Grocery shopping with the kids in tow and being ready to pull my hair out… then getting to the car to find I’d locked the keys inside 🙁
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Worst shopping disaster? Going to the store to buy a specific thing, and leaving without it … but with plenty of other things.
Dawn Dishwashing Liquid!
I swear by the stuff and will never use another brand. It cleans everything and I even use it to deter ‘pests’ in my vegatable garden…
….imagine my great pleasure when I found a HUGE 1/2 gallon bottle of Dawn at ‘one of those warehouse stores’ ON SALE! Like buying a bottle of blue gold.
I bought it, brought it home and stored it under my kitchen sink-until I needed it. Finally I run out of my ‘old’ bottle. I go to scrounge around to retrieve the new one… in the back of the shelf. And find the bottle 3/4 empty!
The bottle had a leak and 3/4 of it had leaked onto/into the shelf and I had a BIG MESS of blue goo to clean up! I think I never did get it all, cause it probably seeped onto the floor below…
Not such a great deal after all.
I once found a package of chicken under the back sit that slid out of the bag and was there for 1 week!! I was wondering what smelt so bad….
I heart all your deals and especially Hy-Vee !!
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I once left a package of baby back ribs out and forgot to put them away and my dog ate the entire pack of 3 racks of ribs 🙁
I left ice cream out on top of the fridge and it melted all over the outside of the fridge.
I forgot about a glass jar of spaghetti sauce until I opened the back of my car a day or two later and it rolled out on to my garage floor and splattered everywhere!! Took forever to clean up the glass and sauce mess!
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We left a gallon of milk in the back of the car. Until we smelled it. We didn’t STOP smelling it for MONTHS.
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Thought we had forgot the milk and cottage cheese at the store. About a week later we found out that we did make it home with them. Of course it had to be August and we were driving to see relatives out of town. It was a LONG trip.
The worst shopping trip ever was when I used my 20 1.50 good life cat food coupons gloating all the way to the car and on the way home because I had made a bunch of money, but then realizing I had LOST my coupon binder. NOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo……! Fortunately, I had just recently built it after your coupon class and didn’t have months invested into it, and could take it like a man and make a new one. Still that completely STUNK! That was the worst ever!
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I just signed up for the Kansas City Mama’s newsletter! How did I not know about this until now?
I am a busy mom of four and a daycare provider. I shop at Sam’s Club a lot and drive a big vehicle. I had some groceries roll under the triple stroller and let’s just say we couldn’t wait for trash day!
Great bags – I like Natalie Jordan’s facebook page!
The only bad thing about warmer weather — I can’t make as many stops and keep food cold! This tote look so cute and functional!
I love the 31 bags!
After a shopping trip last August we were unloading the car and I was getting the younger kids inside, I asked my oldest child (17) to make sure he had gotten everything inside. He said he had. A hot August couple days later the younger boys (7 and 8), who sit in the back of the van started complaining about a smell, we thought it was coming from the water they had spilled on the van carpet giving a musty smell. A couple days later, after not using the van since the previously described trip, we realized the smell was coming from the turkey we had purchased on the shopping trip several days before. Doesn’t take long for a turkey to thaw in an extremely hot van…
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A leak from a gallon of milk! It’s so hard to clean up and then you are left with that terrible smell!!!
I don’t have my own disaster, but someone I know bought a ton of cheddar cheese for missionaries in Haiti but didn’t realize it needed to be refrigerated. Soooo… after a couple days in his trunk, he threw the cheese into his bag and went to Haiti. Needless to say, the missionaries ate it and got sick! He learned quickly why…
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Somehow the milk rolled out of the bag and under the back seat. I thought I had lost my mind and had forgotten the milk. Well, a few days later I realized it was in the car … and well, we live in the South and it was the summer so you can just imagine that smell!
Unloading my groceries from the car, I accidentally dropped a whole watermelon in the driveway. It split in several pieces and seeds and juice went everywhere!
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When I gave the bagger my bags and there was a rotten squashed cherry tomatoe in the bottom. He didn’t appreciate that and it was kinda embarrassing to get schooled by a high school bagger.
Worst shopping disaster: trying to pick up a few things at target with all 4 of my littles, and my little girl decided to pee in her pants in the aisle. I had to keep everyone together, and clean up the pee, and change her clothes. It was horrible.
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I’ve had way too many, but most recently, I was carrying groceries to the basement storage area and dropped a glass bottle of Arthur Bryant’s sauce down the stairs onto the concrete floor. There are still bbq sauce stains on the wall at the foot of the stairs.
How about most recent shopping disaster- my 14 month old wet through his pants in Target, right before we were going to go to lunch. Guess who got a new pair of jeans?! (off the clearance rack of course!)
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Forgot the milk in the car!
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Would love a Thrity-One thermal tote to avoid a shopping disaster!
My worst disaster, or experience, is anytime I try to use coupons at Walmart. I just avoid trying to use coupons there like the plague.
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I took all the groceries upstairs and left the extra bags to put away in the morning. I went downstairs in the morning to find a huge area of the carpet covered in hand soap. It still collects dirt till this day, even after using a cleaner multiple times.
during the infamous target frozen food deal, my yummy strawberry weight watchers bars melted. soo disappointed.
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I asked my son to put a bag with frozen stuff in the garage ( I meant the freezer). He put it in the garage all right. Ice cream and all, right on the floor where it melted everywhere!
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Try having several dozen eggs in the back of the van and a car pull out in front of you and you through all the eggs forward breaking more than half of the things – lets just say cleaning up egg out of carpet almost impossible! Thank goodness for odor eater cleaners!
This tote would be extra cool – because I make about 3 stops to get the best for my gas.
I once had a stray can of Coke rolling around on the floor in the backseat. It leaked the entire contents before I discovered it.
Got all the way home only to discover I’d forgotten to put the 12pks of soda off the bottom of the shopping cart into the car.
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I don’t have a shopping disaster. Yet! But it could happen any day now as I seem to be losing my mind. I’m sure I left it around here somewhere!
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Just hit “like” on facebook.
I haven’t had any bad experiences lately. I am sure I have had them.
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I’ve been known to forget my purse and not realize it until I am checking out. Now that’s a disaster!
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Worst shopping disaster (so far…) So I was at Sephora and found the perfect nail color. I opened it at the store to see the color in side the bottle, then screwed the lid back on (so I thought…) and went to the checkout. Since I was only purchasing the one nail color, the clerk asked if I’d just like to keep the polish in my purse and I said sure! I got home to discover that my purse, and everything in it, was coated with “I’m fondue of you” OPI nail polish 🙁
Once my husband tried to carry in too many groceries at once and ended up dropping the gallon of milk. It exploded everywhere!! So sad for the spilt milk and for the mess to clean up!
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Worst shopping disaster…had a bottle of Coffee Mate ‘roll’ out of a bag. Found it DAYS later…nice.
I left a 25 pound bag of ice in the floorboard of my moms truck (that I was borrowing) overnight. By the time I remember the bag (the next day) all that was left was a big puddle under the car and an empty bag.
Miss Natalie has some cool looking stuff – keeping it in mind for gifts!
I’ve really had pretty good luck shopping (knock on wood). My biggest disasters always involve my 1-year-old being fussy because the trip overlaps with nap time.
Love, love, love the newsletter!
WORST shopping disaster: My worst shopping disaster was when I take my Son with my shopping @ the grocery store. Never the less training in underwear. We are shopping and throughout my shopping process my son says to me. “Mommy I peed my pants” so we go ahead and stop shopping granted I had had quite a bit of stuff in my cart anyway, we get out to the car and (on a military post they take out your groceries) they put my groceries in my car for me. We drive off. We get to the house and of course getting my Son taken care of too first. I come back to the car and am emptying the car out when I notice this gel type slime coming from the bottom of a couple of bags. I had two 18 packs of eggs that the woman placed into my car either were broken already or got broken during transfer and were ALL OVER MY TRUNK OF MY CAR! Ahhh….. This was horrific. Just saying I will be placing my own groceries in my car from here on.
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I have had many a bad shopping disaster. The worst was when I left about 6 blocks of Cream Cheese at the check out in a bag and the store was quite a distance so I wasn’t able to get them back.
Worst shopping disaster was shopping with my six month old son. I was about ready to check out and realized that I totally forgot my wallet. Suddenly my son started screaming. I put away the perishables ,but ended up leaving the rest in haste to take care of my son. It was probably the wrong thing to do, but I was a sleep-deprived concerned new mom. Now I always check to make sure I have my wallet before I leave the house.
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Worst shopping disaster…thawed ice cream, thawing Rhodes cinnamon rolls, and warm cheese. I wasn’t even away from the store very long so I’m not sure how all my frozen and cold things became expensive trash. 🙁
Worst shopping disaster….a two liter shook and sprayed all over the back of my station wagon!!! YUCK! Very funny a few days later, but not at the time!
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Worst shopping disaster: my husband and I both forgot to take our Costco purchases out of the trunk when we got home. Remembered the next morning. Frozen hamburger patties, chicken nuggets and milk ruined.
I love It’s a Small World Ride and the Teacups at Disney.
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My worst shopping disaster was when I went to Aldi’s and got frozen blueberries and they got lost in my reusable bags and melted into a big smelly mess! Now I am very careful.
I bought 4 1/2 gallons of fresh milk from a local farm (they’re bottled in glass). When I got home I asked my son to unload the groceries. He opened up the back of my truck and out fell the bottles and smashed to the concrete they went. No more fresh milk. =( Most expensive shopping disaster.
A gallon of milk that rolled around in the trunk, banging against a bag of Fritos every time I turned a corner
Un-stopered cooler full of frozen Polish sausage and brats overnight in the trunk before a work picnic… about threw up at the warm rotten meat smell and the juice soaked my trunk carpet. I can still smell it on sunny days and it happened over 5 years ago!
Worst shopping disaster: Big shopping trip to Aldis with three young kids and new to town. Forgot atm card PIN. Embarrassing and tiring.
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My worst shopping trip was when my 2 year-old decided to have a melt-down in the grocery store. She was screaming loudly and then ran and knocked over a display of chips. I was very embarrassed!
Worse time – had a shopping trip where not only did I leave my card in a store and had to drive back to get it, but had the kids screaming in the car the whole time because it was naptime.
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My worst is the purex deal at CVS a few weeks ago apparently the bottle I bought did not have its cap on all the way and it tipped over in the car. I ran errands all day and did not discover it until late in the day. I still have soap in my trunk.
I am now in like with Natalie 🙂
Un-stoppered cooler full of frozen Polish sausage and brats overnight in the trunk before a work picnic… about threw up at the warm rotten meat smell and the juice soaked my trunk carpet. I can still smell it on sunny days and it happened over 5 years ago!
One busy day I bought a package of frozen chicken breasts at Sam’s. My list of things to do included a stop at our church for something I now can’t remember. I forgot about the chicken in the van and by the time I remembered it was completely thawed and just barely cold! I quick threw it in in the fridge and it was fine, or at least no one got sick when we ate it 🙂
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I went shopping at Hen House and asked for drive up and when I drove up for my groceries they had given them to someone else!!! I gave them my reciept and they reshopped the items and delivered them.
I’ve hated everytime I have left a bag of groceries or household items at a store! It usually happens at WalMart when I’ve got both my reuseable bags and some of their plastic bags on a rounder. With a 19 month old kiddo and living more than 10 miles away (each direction), it’s hard to muster the motivation to drive back to get them.
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I would love to win this. Thanks for your daily emails I got a bunch of coupons that I used and saved over 45.00 at Hy Vee this week alone.
My worst shopping disaster would be leaving a bag behind. It has happened more than once.
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Worst shopping disaster for me hands down… at U.S. Toy chasing after my 1 year old who was trying to run out the door. I let go of the stroller holding my 3 week old baby. He went flying down that huge ramp near the entrance. Mortified but thankful he was okay more than anything!
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Being overcharged for products and not noticing until you get home. With kids, it is not enjoyable to have to go back to the store to have the problem fixed.
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I forgot I had milk in my car and left it there overnight.
My worst shopping experience was when I was coming home to me and my hubby’s apartment. We lived on the second floor so I usually tried to carry as much if not all of my groceries up in order not to make multiple trips. Well, I actually tripped going up the stairs, landed on the eggs which ruined some other groceries, then I dropped the milk I was holding. It broke on the steps! Milk was everywhere, it was not easy to clean and stank up the foyer for quite a long time. It was so depressing, but it’s ok I didn’t cry over it 😉
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Worst shopping experience…losing my then 2 year old son in Walmart. He was probably “lost” for all of 30 seconds, but it seemed like an eternity.
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Worst non-food shopping disaster (because I wasn’t able to check out)…. well, this invloves a newborn, a diaper, an upset stomach, and a new mom who didn’t bring a back-up outfit. Enough said…
My worst shopping trip was being so excited leaving Hen House getting my great deals and then finding out I locked myself out of my car!
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I don’t really have a worst shopping disaster … but i know someone who left cheddar cheese in the back of their car! ew! those who ate it got SICK sick sick.
Fudge pops melted kids were very sad.
We live twenty minutes from closest town, that only has one grocery store so prices are high so we normally drive 35 miles or so, everything tries to thaw in the summer.
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