How Grocery Shopping Online Can Save You Money

Impulse Shopping

So, there was Covid. Actually, it’s still here. My neighbor came down with it earlier in the week. She was with her family for one hour. They have it too.

We have pretty much stopped wearing masks around here, though there are places that still require it, like my doctor’s office. I wouldn’t want to go there anyway, though I am going to need to get a flu shot and whatever Covid booster they’re offering these days soon.

Being retired and now elderly, I’m lucky that I don’t absolutely have to go to a place of work these days. The trade-off, of course, is we are poor. I tell people who are getting ready to retire to spend that last working year living on what they’re going to be making as a retired person. It’s an eye-opener. I might talk about it another time.

Now, I’m happy to stay home and write. I’m a loner anyway, so getting out and having coffee with friends isn’t an issue. I’ve also got a touch of agoraphobia going on, but I can live with it.

However, even though my husband still goes out and does our shopping for us much of the time, his schedule is such that he ends up grocery shopping later in the evening when all the store clerks have gone home, and there is only one cashier with a 15-customer long line. Also, at that time of day the grocery stores are just out of a lot of the things on our list.

A couple of years ago, we started getting our groceries via Amazon. In our neck of the woods, they teamed up with Whole Foods, a local grocery store that, though sometimes pricey, offers nice store brands and a good variety. There is a $10 delivery fee, and I always leave a $5 tip for the driver. So, that’s a built-in expense.

But here’s how you save money. You build your order and sleep on it. The next morning, or later in the day, you look at your cart again and delete all your impulse purchases…like the cookies and pop-tarts. The stuff you really should not be eating. The fun stuff. What you leave in your cart is the necessary stuff. They’re great with refrigerated and frozen stuff, so nothing much comes to you in a damaged condition.

I saved a good $30 doing that this morning. I placed the order shortly before 9 a.m. and will have it in a couple of hours.

Sure, the $15 delivery and tip are something I would never have done before, but for me, it was worth it.

The new normal.

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