TIME HACK + MONEY SAVER + SANITY SAVER

If you’re like me, you despise grocery shopping – especially with two little people in pursuit. If you live within reasonable proximity to a town, you should be able to take advantage of this strategy if you’re not already.

This is one of my favourite sanity, money and time saving hacks. I’ve been doing it for years and I can’t recommend it highly enough… Order your groceries online and get them delivered to your door. It’s simple and a god send to all working parents.

Believe me, the time to set it up far outweighs the benefits you will enjoy including:

• Spend less by:
  • stocking up when your staples are on special
  • saving on fuel costs
  • not being tempted by any of those naughty impulse purchases!
• Save time to redistribute to things that matter more – seriously it takes me about 15 minutes to do my order each week + no travel time (there and back) + no browsing time… I save redistribute about 3 hours per week – pure bliss!
• Stay sane: (priceless)
  • no more battling trolleys and toddlers or little peeps adding things to your basket while you’re deciding which brand of toothpaste to buy
  • not having to apologise to every other shopper for children wandering in their pathway
  • not having to debate why they can’t have a treat every few seconds, especially at the check out where everything is within reaching distance… you get the idea…

If the service is available you’d be crazy not to pay the small delivery fee to gain all these benefits.

It’s simple to set up…

1. Choose your grocery store of preference
2. Go to their website and create an account for online shopping. Some companies will ask if you’ve purchased there before so they can check previous purchasing behaviour and set up your ‘Bought Before’ list automatically. Others will require you to create your initial list.
3. Create an order/list by searching for products by name, or some have a handy scanning app that allows you to scan the barcode to add a preferred product and brand to your list. This is a great fun activity for the little peeps to help you with and it’s much quicker than searching in the website or app.
4. Check out your first order, which will require you to add payment details, bagging preferences, whether or not you would like to substitute out of stock items with something similar and choose a preferred delivery method and time. I highly recommend delivery over click and collect – it’s so much more convenient, and there is the extra benefit of saving on fuel. Sure, there’s a delivery charge, but that’s more than likely a small fee compared to the cost of fuel and your travel time.
5. Wait for the delivery and unpack the stash!

Tips for newbies:

Check your go to brands against the specials list to see where you can save a dollar or two.

Add a recurring reminder to your calendar to do the order. I do mine on a Friday night to fit with a deliver either Saturday or Sunday depending on our weekend schedule. That way we’re set up for the week, and I know when I will be home to take the delivery.

Some companies allow you to choose the previous order and order the basket again. This is a quick way to keep your weekly essentials on the list without having to rechoose them again – it shaves minutes off your ordering time, but every little bit counts right?

If you’re not fussy about brands and would prefer alternatives if your preferred brand is not available, tick the ‘substitute’ option.

From time to time there will be mistakes. Check the list as you put the groceries away. If there are any issues, call the customer service line immediately and get a credit.