ONLINE GROCERY SHOPPING TIPS – HOW TO SAVE TIME & MONEY FOOD SHOPPING
Are you wondering how you can save money on grocery shopping? For many of us, especially those with large families like mine, grocery shopping accounts for a large proportion of our monthly budget. If you are looking for some top tips for saving time and money with online grocery shopping, keep reading. Don’t forget to check out my grocery haul videos below for more online grocery shopping tips.
MEAL PLAN FOR THE WIN
My first tip for saving both money and sanity when it comes to shopping, is meal planning. Now, this isn’t as time consuming and scary as it sounds. All it means is that you make a quick list of which meals you will make for tea each night before you shop so that you know what to get and don’t waste loads of brainpower each day deciding what to cook.
If you want to, you can go all out and meal plan for 3 meals a day plus snacks. If I’m honest, I don’t go this far. I buy a selection of breakfast and lunch items to mix and match for daily use, then meal plan only really for evening meals.
When meal planning, take into account which nights you will have less time, such as nights where your children have after school activities for example, and plan quicker meals for these nights.
BOOK YOUR DELIVERY SLOT AHEAD OF TIME
Booking yuor delivery slot ahead of time will allow you to stay organised, have a full range of options to choose from and potentially save money too. I usually book my next slot as soon as I have a delivery. In order to do this, you usually have to add something to your basket (which can be added to or amended later) and “check out”. Check with your specific grocery provider, but in my experience, they don’t actually take any more from your card until the “picking” stage, a few hours before the actual delivery.
Booking ahead of time this way avoids the nightmare that is, realising that you desperately need groceries and all of the slots are fully booked for day to come.
LOOK FOR A BARGAIN SLOT
Another advantage of booking early is that you are more likely to be able to get your hands on a bargain delivery slot. Generally speaking, not all delivery slots are priced equally. Book early and look for a cheaper slot.
ADD YOUR DELIVERY TO YOUR DIARY
We’re all busy, so make sure that you add the date and time that you’ve booked your delivery to your diary or calendar of choice to avoid double booking with anything else. Better yet, add it to a family calendar so that everyone in your household knows when the groceries are due and how long they have to notify you of anything that you may need to purchase.
KEEP IT FLEXIBLE
Remember, just because you have booked a specific slot, there is nothing stopping you from switching it (providing you do it within the allowed timeframe specified by the provider). If you have a slot booked for the next day or so and you’re still pretty well stocked, no problem! You can always bump it a few days to when supplies will be running lower. In my experience, it’s better to have a slot that you don’t need and can postpone, rather than being desperate for groceries and unable to book delivery.
LOOK INTO AN ANNUAL DELIVERY PLAN
If you’ve seen any of my grocery hauls on my YouTube channel, you will know that I have an annual grocery delivery plan. It works out cheaper than payer for every delivery (if you plan to shop weekly).
In my opinion, it works out cheaper than physically going to the supermarket too. Not only are you saving the fuel or other travel expenses that you would have to pay to get there, you are also saving something very important – time. This time that you could be fighting your way around a supermarket you could be working and actually earning money instead. Better yet, you could be spending time with your kids, or actually having a break! (I know, shock right?)
So unless going to the supermarket lights your soul on fire, I cannot recommend an annual delivery plan highly enough.
REMEMBER
Before you commit to a provider with a monthly or annual subscription, do your homework. Compare their slots (some offer 1-hour slots, some 2-hour slots etc), their prices and customer service.
ADD TO YOUR ORDER AS YOU RUN OUT OF THINGS
As you run out of things around your home, rather than adding them to a list, go straight to your phone and open your grocery app. Edit the order your have booked, add in what you need and save chances, simple! Adding things as you go along like this will make you far less likely to forget what you actually need.
SHELF COOK BEFORE YOUR DELIVERY
Before your delivery is due, make sure that you use up what you have lest over from the last delivery by “shelf cooking” All this means, is that making something out of what you have in stock in order to use it up.
BE AWARE OF SHUT OFF TIMES
The shut of time is the time which you can no longer amend or cancel your order. This time will vary from provider to provider and sometimes even from slot to slot. Make sure that you are aware of this time and out an alarm on your phone for a few hours before the cut off time.
TAKE STOCK
Before receiving your grocery delivery, check what you already have in stock! You may be surprised to find that you had loads of something that you thought you were out of and are totally out of something that you hadn’t ordered.
BEFORE THE SHUT-OFF TIME, CHECK AND AMEND YOUR ORDER
Make sure you always go over your order carefully before your cut off time. It’s so easy to accidentally add doubles of things or miss things out altogether. Go over what you have in Strick and check what you really need to order.
Check your total spend. Looking a bit heigh? This is the beauty of online shopping, you can go back through your basket and take out anything that you don’t really need.
SHOP YOUR FAVOURITES
A quick and easy way to shop online is to go back through your previous orders or favourites. As you order more and more, this list will become more extensive and will save oodles of time.
CHECK THE DEAL PAGES
While shopping from favourites is a time-saver, it’s not always the best way to get the best deal. Make sure that you check out the del pages and shop around for anything that you’re not brand loyal to. Toilet paper, for example, is one that I always shop around for, as we are not loyal to any one particular brand, so I look for the best deal.
WHICH IS REALLY CHEAPER?
As a rule of thumb, buying in bulk or bigger sizes is often cheaper. Beware though, as this is not always the case. Look below the price for the comparison price per item or KG to really establish which is the best deal.
STOCK UP ON NON-PERISHABLE BARGAINS
For any item that is non-perishable and something that you know you go through like it’s going out of fashion, be sure to stock up whenever it’s on offer. I always buy my favourite kids’ bath products and washing detergent when it’s on offer for example, as this saves loads in the long run.
IF IT’S WRONG, DON’T BE AFRAID TO SAY
In my experience, if something arrives to you damaged, with a short date or wrong in any way, it’s always worth calling the customer service line. I have always found them more than helpful. They have often both refunded less than perfect items and allowed me to keep them too.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP TIPS FOR SAVING ON ONLINE GROCERY SHOPPING? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS.
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