Ditch the carts for efficient grocery shopping!
I am certain that if you polled 100 busy moms about what the most dreaded task they endure as a parent in an effort to be organized, the majority would tell you that taking their kids grocery shopping is at the top of the list.
We all know how it goes – they want to be in the cart and then out of the cart, they force you to drive one of those huge car shopping carts that are the length of a real SUV, they hang on the side of the cart and then jump off unexpectedly causing you to nearly run over their feet, they want fruit snacks and sugar-laden cereals and DONUTS and throw a fit until you weaken enough to give in.
Okay, maybe this is a bit of an exaggeration (at least I hope so!), but we’ve all experienced some of these things during grocery shopping trips with our kids – I know I have!
Once I found out I was pregnant with our third child, I knew I had to find a solution to the grocery shopping madness to have a more organized life and I did – online grocery shopping.
You’re not going to believe me when I say that I never step food in a grocery store anymore. NEVER. Well, sometimes I do run into our local market for a last minute whim ingredient, but I do my grocery shopping exclusively online now and love every single minute of it.
First of all – let me break the common misconceptions about online grocery shopping:
It is NOT more expensive to shop online. As a family of five, including two little girls who eat like they are teenage boys, we have a pretty strict grocery budget. I did a lot of comparison pricing when I first started shopping online and I end up spending exactly the same as I would at the grocery store. Here’s my theory – when I shop online, I order exactly what I need and don’t throw all those don’t-really-need-them snacks and extras into my cart. Bonus points go to online shopping because now I don’t have those unnecessary chips, crackers and cookies at my house to eat either!
The other big thing I hear is that people think it must cost a fortune to have your groceries delivered. This is absolutely not true – most services offer free delivery if you order over a certain amount of groceries and if you shop with them regularly, they drop that fee completely. And even services that do charge a fee keep it very low – usually around $5 – which, in my humble opinion, is well worth it.
Let’s talk about what I LOVE about buying groceries online:
I can order groceries as late as 10pm and have them on my doorstep by the time I wake up the next morning, helping me organize for life.
They have everything I need and sometimes even more than my grocery store offers including tons of organic options, personal care products like shampoo and toothpaste and household supplies. The service I use also carries a large variety of local products and foods, which I try to buy as often as possible.
The ordering site saves a list of things that I order most often to make ordering extra quick – I can usually do a week’s worth of shopping in about ten minutes.
They offer discounts for items that I buy in bulk – for example, when I order a case of 12 yogurts, I get 15% off.
Unless you are ordering beer or wine, you don’t even have to be home for most services – they deliver the groceries in cold, reusable totes or boxes on your doorstep that you can unpack at your convenience.
Want to get started? Use these helpful tips:
Keep sizes in mind – it takes a while to figure out how big a 72 ounce bottle of ketchup really is or if you will need a two-pound or a five-pound bag of baby red potatoes. My suggestion – always order up.
Make your grocery list before you sit down to order, just like you would if you were going to the grocery store. You don’t have the advantage of being able to wander up and down the aisles looking for meal ideas, so plan ahead.
Submit your order early around any holidays or three-day weekends – delivery times book up quickly!
HAPPY (online) SHOPPING!
