I’ll be really honest for a second — I hate to cook! But I think I might hate grocery shopping more than I despise cooking. (Yea, I know what you’re thinking….her poor family! ha ha.) But I know I’m not alone in this. Especially moms! Going to the grocery store is my least favorite thing to do with my child…ok second only to the post office. WOOF. So when my sister-in-law informed me that one of our local grocery stores here in St. Louis had grocery DELIVERY…no not the pick up…DELIVERY….I thought she had to be joking. You mean someone will bring groceries TO MY HOUSE?!? Yep! That’s what I’m saying! Well I’m sure it cost some insane premium fee which makes it so not worth it?!? NOPE! Not at all.
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Wanna know a secret? Just a few days ago I went to the grocery store for the first time in over a month! TRUE LIFE! This is the best mom hack I’ve ever heard of! I’m officially addicted to Instacart. So, Instacart is the app. The app that provides the grocery delivery. So it’s not from a specific store…they actually will go to MULTIPLE stores for you! Yep! There are TONS of reasons why I love this program and here are just a few…
- They go to multiple stores – even COSTCO – In every area there are certain retailers that partner with Instacart. So your shopper will go to any/all of those stores for you. Guess what? They go to Petco. They will pick up your dogs food too!! Annnnnd….wait for it….THEY have a Costco membership! Yep! They will go to Costco for you! In Raleigh, NC I know they will go to Total Wine (yep they deliver booze) and Whole Foods. You can make lists for MULTIPLE places.
- You can schedule your delivery time – They deliver in one hour blocks. So you schedule the time that works for you and they start shopping accordingly. My sister-in-law schedules hers during the first hour of her kids nap time. So she puts away groceries in peace and quiet without tiny humans wanting 50 million snacks.
- They communicate with you while they shop – This to me is the best feature! So an actual REAL person shops for your groceries. They are all Instacart employees. And when they start shopping you get a notification, via the app, that says “hey Meghan. Brian has started shopping for you.” And if you need to contact Brian during his shopping trip, you do so through the app. This stranger doesn’t need your phone number. So for example, one day I requested organic blueberries and the grocery store was out. So “Brian” messaged me and said “hey. they’re out of organic blueberries. Are Driscolls ok?” So they aren’t shopping blind and making guesses for you! Or one time I forgot something and “Brian” had already started shopping. So I just messaged him and asked if it was too late to add XYZ and he was right on it.
- You can add pictures/descriptions of items – This is really handy when it comes to produce. For example, I don’t like green bananas. I like them with a few brown spots actually. So once I add bananas to my cart, I can add a note that says “please no green. even a few brown spots are OK.” Or avocados for example. You can say “dark green that are a little squishy but not mushy.” Whatever your specifications are. And the beautiful thing…if they have questions, they will send you a message or maybe even a picture saying “are these bananas ok?”
- They will bring the groceries to your door – and even inside – The shopper travels with a cooler bag. So all of your cold items are kept cold. Especially if they need to make multiple stops. Then, once they get to your house they physically carry the groceries to your FRONT DOOR! I even had one sweet couple bring them inside and set them on my kitchen table! These people are SO nice! (ps – the same person who shops for you, delivers to your door.)
- It prevents impulse buys or winding up with 6 bottles of salad dressing in your pantry – I am the WORST for attempting to cook a recipe I haven’t made in 8 months and need one random ingredient or spice and can’t remember if I have it or not. So I’ll buy it, get home and realize I have 10 of them! Yep! I know you do it too! Or, Tom puts “chips” on the list so as I’m headed for his Doritos I see SunChips, that I haven’t had in 5 years and don’t need and honestly haven’t missed, and now there are SunChips in my cart! The fact that you can shop from home and consult your pantry, or you aren’t shopping hungry after a good workout, or you don’t have tiny helper hands with you…I truly believe this saves you money!
- It saves your previous purchases – Yep! So when you log into the app you can see all of the things you’ve purchased before. You can very quickly add all of your favorites or weekly buys. You literally go down the list of previous purchases and just hit “add, add, add.” Easy Peasy!
- You can save recipes and their ingredients – So if I cooked this would be an amazing feature. ha ha. But it is really cool. You can add recipes by name and all of their ingredients. Then when you go to cook that family favorite recipe, you just run down the list and add whatever you need.
- And yes you can enter your loyalty card numbers – So at Petco, if you have a loyalty card and you want to get credit for your purchases so you can get those coupons…yep! Done!
- Their fee is actually very reasonable – Ok. so this is what everyone wants to know. There is a delivery fee. The first month is free. So as many deliveries over $35 (which if you can go to the grocery store for less than $35 you are amazing) as you want. But after that it is usually approx a $10 delivery fee. It depends on the size of your order and I don’t know about alcohol. BUUUUUT! If you sign up for an annual membership then its $149 for UNLIMITED deliveries over $35. So let’s break this down….you place an order every 2 weeks, twice a month, 2 big orders for your family each month. That’s 24 orders per year. That’s $6.25 per order. I can PROMISE that your time, gas, impulse buys, and “unsure purchases” will add up to more than that! Oh and you have the option to tip your shopper after they deliver your groceries to you.
When have I used Instacart?
- When we went out of town and a babysitter was at our house with Parker. The morning before we left I was I was crazy busy and of course I didn’t have a chance to get to the grocery store. So once I was at the airport I did all of my grocery shopping, from my phone, and had a huge grocery order delivered to my house during Parker’s nap. The sitter loved it so much she downloaded the app and used it the next day to get a few more of her favorite things brought to the house.
- When we are on the way home from vacation/traveling to see Tom. There is NOTHING worse than getting back from a trip, having laundry up to your eyeballs, suitcases to unpack and put away, and also having NO FOOD IN THE HOUSE! As much as we travel this has been a life saver. On the way home from seeing Tom or going to NC to see my family, I do all of my grocery shopping via my phone and have it scheduled for 9am the following morning.
- Every other week for normal grocery shopping. Again, thanks to my sis-in-law, I use this service bi-monthly….if not weekly. I usually lay in bed on Sunday night, grocery shop, and it arrives first thing Monday morning. I schedule it to arrive while Parker is eating breakfast. I put the groceries away and that is one MASSIVE chore off my list before my week even gets started.
I seriously hope some of you utilize this amazing resource. For a while I felt like it was “cheating.” If I’m at home I should do all the chores….right? Well why can’t a momma get a little help every now and again?!? YOU CAN! And once I realized that it was honestly probably saving me money — its a no brainer. It buys me time, helps my family eat healthier, and most importantly is saving my sanity one couch grocery shopping session at a time.
