Shopping Online USA

Posts Tagged ‘grocery’

The simplicity and practicality of doing your grocery shopping online is becoming much more widespread as our technological era continues to progress. Quality food is incremental to each and every household in order for people to survive and flourish, so it comes as no shock to learn that online grocery shopping is becoming a much more realistic way to attain necessary food products. The need for a quality pantry supplier cannot be written off, and although heading out to the grocery store to purchase goods might seem simple enough, it is important to consider hindering circumstances that apply to those who have trouble getting out for various reasons, ranging from a simple condensed schedule, to physical impairments. For those who are homebound or pressed for time, yet still in need of fresh goods, shopping online for groceries is a highly viable alternative. Being able to have fresh groceries delivered to your doorstep from a punctual company, once an order has been placed, can essentially be a breath of fresh air for someone in need of a helping hand.

People enjoy doing their grocery shopping via the internet for several reasons. Firstly, flexibility is a main concern for many. Often times people are forced to work hours that do not coincide with the business hours of a grocery store. If the specific hours of operation are proving themselves to be a scheduling conflict for a fast-paced individual, shopping online is a fantastic way to attain the products that you need for your household without having to worry about making your purchases within a specific time frame. An online shopping experience can minimize the amount of effort that is required to ensure that your sustenance needs are thoroughly met whenever they arise. In addition to giving a new sense of effort reduction and time conservation to the realm of attaining groceries, using the internet to meet your needs is often a much more affordable alternative to using a standard franchise grocery store. Online grocery databases often offer a plethora of bargains and price cuts that are practical ways to maximize funds and stretch your money a bit further. By requiring just a few minutes to immerse yourself on the web and place your order, you are able to attain all of the goods you need to keep your household functioning at a proficient rate, ranging from standard products for the household, to personal care items, to beer, wine, cigarettes, and general merchandise. All of your fresh purchased goods are delivered within a timely manner to your front door with professionalism and care.

Choosing an online pantry supplier is a smart decision because the extensive database offers consumers the price range and variety that they desire. Within just a few minutes of browsing the web, you can complete your grocery shopping and schedule a punctual and convenient delivery for your products that will ultimately give you a new sense of freedom and simplicity. It is no secret that the society we live in is chaotic, so new integrations involving technology are always helpful in making the most of a busy day in a hectic life. Whether you need to accomplish a routine shopping task, or you need to get your hands on specific foods in order to prepare for a seasonal holiday or special occasion, online shopping is a way to simplify the need for food while eliminating time consuming trips to a grocery store.

The kitchen is the center of every home.  It is where our nurturing meals are prepared, the meals that bring us together.  Yet keeping the kitchen stocked and organized can be such chaos that we dread grocery shopping day.  In order to make your week a little bit more pleasant, I will share with you some of my tricks for a smooth and simple grocery shopping and weekly menu experience.

The biggest help to making this errand more pleasant is preparation.  I find that if I just try to make a grocery list, it does not get any easier.  I actually have to prepare to prepare comes a list of meals for the week before I plan the grocery list.  I usually plan for five dinners, which allows for leftovers to be consumed and some meals to be ad-libbed.  I personally enjoy the freedom to be creative some nights, but would be overwhelmed if each day I had to think about what I had in my pantry and how I could use those ingredients to create a meal.  What’s the trick to make it simple to pick dinners for the week?  I keep a running list of meals that my family enjoys.  The day before we go shopping, we sit down and brainstorm which meals we’d enjoy.

Once you have a list of meals, it is much easier to make a shopping list.  Some recipes will call for the same ingredients, so make sure you write how much of each thing you will need.  When making your list from recipes you can write on your grocery list precisely how much of something you will need.  I have learned to make detailed lists stating that I need 7 onions and 2 packages of mushrooms (for example) to prevent wasting food.  When this method is the backbone of your shopping, the rest of the experience is much smoother.  Want to make it even easier?  Use a narrow list notebook.  On the left page, make your list of meals and the list of ingredients that you will be purchasing on the right.  That way you can look at them both with ease.

Keeping a regular routine about your shopping will make it much easier as well.  In my family, grocery shopping is something we all do together.  We treat it like a weekly scheduled appointment: it always happens the same day of the week at the same time, immediately following my yoga lesson.  I am sure that just like us, if you have the time blocked out it will take away some of the hassle of finding the time.  I suggest you also set aside fifteen minutes or so for the list-making.

As we all know, not all items are weekly purchases.  If you keep that notebook accessible throughout the week, then as you get low on pantry staples you can add them to the list.  During the 15 minutes you’ve set aside for making your list, do not forget to consider whether you need household items: cleaners, shampoos, soaps, etc.  Life is much simpler if you pick these up during the same trip.

I have one last major hint to make your voyage more streamlined: rewrite your list.  It might sound like extra work, but I know that if I didn’t rewrite my list each week it would lose my mind.  If you’re like us, you stop at more than one store in order to make the most of your money.  In order to simplify each stop, I separate the list not only into which store the purchase will be made, but group items so that following my list takes us on one trip through the store: dairy items are listed together, as are produce items, baking items, etc.  Believe it or not, this can cut our shopping time by about 60%!

So as you get ready to go shopping, keep these ideas in mind.  Remember, they are just suggestions.  You should only implement the ones that actually assist you, although I do strongly suggest giving them all a try.  You have nothing to lose by taking some of the frustration out of food, and we can always use more time to spend together relaxing.  Use that time to create a meal as a family.  Our new favorite is pizza night: I make the dough while my husband is at work and when he gets home we all get together to do the toppings.  Pizza night works well with a movie. Togetherness is vital to happiness.

Find More Trip Shopping Articles

Going to the grocery store, no matter how many items you need, can be a daunting task to most mothers with small children. You worry about them staying in the cart and not falling out because they keep standing up, or one of your children throwing a rather large tantrum in the middle of an aisle, and you worry about spending more than you intended because the children want snacks and toys. By the time you’re done with your shopping and in the car again, you just feel so stressed out that you vow never to bring your children grocery shopping with you again! It doesn’t have to be this way. There are many tricks and tips any mother can use for their small children when going to the grocery store or just about any kind of shopping errand. Here are a few tips that may turn that shopping nightmare into a pleasant experience, even for the children. First, never go the grocery store hungry. This means you and your children too. When you’re hungry it’s harder for a mother to respond to her children appropriately because let’s face it, when were hungry and a stressful situation comes up it is much harder to handle and much easier to reach for the nearest chocolate candy bar while letting our children duke it out by themselves in the grocery cart. If possible, plan to have a meal before going to the grocery store or a healthy snack. That way you can control your stress levels better and ultimately buy less of those “impulse” items you don’t need. Also, bring a snack for the children to have at the store. Bring cereal in little baggies and give it to them after you arrive at the store. That way they are less likely to have “the wants” and you won’t spend money buying impromptu snacks for them while there. The snack can even be something special that’s reserved for grocery outings – a special lollipop, granola bar, fruit snacks, etc. Put together a busy bag. This can be a small bag with a couple of crayons and some paper, a favorite book, a small wipe board, or anything that would keep little minds focused on something other than the grocery trip. You can even reserve this busy bag for grocery outings so the children look forward to using the items in their bag when they go with you. Make a grocery bag – a crayon, pad of paper, a couple of books. One of the most important rules of grocery shopping with children is to make a list. Whatever you need, make sure it is written down or inevitably you will end up with all the things you don’t need but wanted, and forget all the things you really did need. Making a list doesn’t just help you with remembering what you need; it also gives you a definitive mission with a certain time frame. If you go into a grocery store without a mission of what you need, your time in the store will be much longer and the children with certainly protest in their own ways – i.e. tantrums, crying, complaining. Also, when you have a list you can involve your children in the task. Tell them what you need to get, where you are looking for it, and even tell them how much things cost. Let them occasion be a learning experience in finance. And, along with making a list, don’t doddle. If you feel yourself being pulled away from the task at hand by other things not on your list, resist the temptation. Chances are you children will recognize it and react accordingly. However, before doing any of the above, do not go into the grocery store if your children are already being disobedient or throwing tantrums. Your entire grocery trip will follow in the same pattern. When they are not behaving as you would like going into the store, quickly take them back to the car, put them back in their seats, get in the car yourself and tell them you are going to have a time-out for a few minutes and then start over. This “time-out” can be a good time to review their behavior and what you expect of them or just have some silent time for them to calm down and get themselves ready to start over. This technique has worked wonders on my two young children. Though, we all know there are days when children or a particular child is having a bad day and despite every effort, will not cooperate in the least. If you cannot cancel the grocery trip and do it another time, then have a close friend or relative you can call in such an emergency. This friend or relative can meet you at the store and take the child off your hands while you complete your shopping. However, the time with the friend or relative should not be fun for the disobedient child. It should be a time-out or quiet time sitting in the car with them so they know it is not a reward, but a punishment. Some parents really look forward to shopping at the grocery store or going on certain errands, and it should be that way. Hopefully these tidbits of advice can help keep it that way. Some of them may work for you and others may not or you may even be able to mold some of these techniques into your own working methods. Whatever your needs are, have a happy shopping experience!

Find More Trip Shopping Articles

Want more time for the fun things in life? Use an Internet grocery list to streamline your grocery shopping, saving dollars and hours every week.

Sisyphus was doomed to roll a boulder up a hill endlessly, and we are fated to always have to shop for groceries. But don’t despair, with the web there’s no excuse to not use a great printable grocery shopping list to streamline your daily and weekly grocery shopping.

Here are a few key tips to streamline your grocery shopping. The key is to do fewer trips to the store by using lists to get everything you need. If you’re really good at this, you might be able to do just one trip a week.

Start off with a great grocery list. You can Google on ‘grocery list’, ‘printable grocery list’, ‘grocery lists’, or ‘grocery list template’, or see the end of this article for a link to my favorite free printable grocery list. Find a printable grocery checklist you like and print it out.

Print and post the list. This is the most important step – keep the list handy all week long where you can check mark items (or write them down) as you realize you need them.

Review the list just before shopping. Go through your fridge and pantry and scan the list – what are you low on and need to buy now?

Group your shopping trips together. By doing just one or two trips a week and using a complete list, you’ll minimize the number of times you need to dash out to get just one or two items at the last minute. You’ll also ensure that you can do most of your shopping at your favorite low cost center, even if it’s not close by. You might consider picking a day of the week (Saturday? Monday?) to do the shopping, and doing your meal planning the night before, making sure your list has the items you need for the next 4-7 days of meals.

Improve the list. Stash a few of the used printout grocery lists in a corner. After you have a few weeks of experience, why not make your own customized grocery list? Just grab the last few weeks of lists and go to the website where you got your first grocery checklist and copy the list, then delete the irrelevant items and add your own personal items that the list was missing.

That’s all there is – go find your packing list now, print it out, and enjoy the great outdoors!

**I DON’T OWN THIS VIDEO! **ALL THE RIGHTS GO TO MYSPACE.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

The cost of living has become painful. One trip to the gas station and grocery store will clearly put you in touch with this pain. As painful as the .00 per gallon for gas is, it represents less than 3.5 percent of the family budget. Their food purchase is almost 4 times as much in the family expenses coming in just under 13%.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Consumer Price Index for the past year indicates the five grocery items that rank at the top of the inflated price list that you are now paying at your supermarkets. Number One on the list is FLOUR, increased by 37%. Not only does this increase affect the bag of flour you purchase, but every item that is made using flour….breads, bakery goods, etc.

Number Two on the list is EGGS, increased by 34.8%. Again, this goes beyond just the dozen or two of eggs that you buy for your family. The bakery goods and breads are also affected. The third most inflated priced item at an increased rate of 29.2% is SWEET PEPPERS (green, red, yellow). The GOOD NEWS here is that peppers are one of the easiest plants to grow with very little work. I will address home gardening in the next newsletter for all your summer salad needs.

The fourth most increased inflated price goes to MILK. MILK is up by 23.1%. This is one the most essential purchases on the grocery list for a family of any size with growing children. Number 5 on the list, up by 21.6%, is DRIED BEANS. This may be the most insulting of all, because it represents the most basic and last resort for the poor to put something on the table for the family to eat. One of the other world’s basic food staples, RICE, has gone up by 10% in the last month alone. Costco and Wal-mart have recently limited the quantity of RICE that you can buy. Families will need a cost of living calculator to keep up with these flour prices, egg prices, and milk prices to figure out all the changing weekly grocery prices.

If you have visited our website and read the “BeSmart….ShopSmart….Shopping Tips”, you know that we want you to save 40% to 50% off your weekly grocery shopping trips, including meat and high priced items such as coffee or laundry detergent. Of course, this is possible when you use your store loyalty card, store and manufacturer coupons, and take advantage of the BUY 1 GET 1 FREE OFFERS. We are very concerned about your bottom line savings on your groceries with these inflationary increases on some of the most basic food staples.

Being a good “Scout” you need to “Be prepared”. First, study your local grocery circulars. Become price conscious as to what the marketplace is asking for these particular items as well as what your cupboard and refrigerator is lacking. Secondly, read the ad papers thoroughly to OPTIMIZE YOUR SAVINGS. For example, at a chain drug store, reading through their weekly circular….in smaller print that the rest….I discovered that if I bought the brand name skin lotion at the regular price, I would receive the same brand name liquid soap for FREE — .99 value.

Another discovered sale at Safeway/Dominic’s was getting FREE Safeway brand pasta (sale priced at a .00 per/box) when you purchased a 26 oz. jar of a brand named Spaghetti Sauce. The spaghetti sauce was reduced to a sale price of 3/.00….that’s just .00 a jar, and less the free pasta….becomes a .00 item. This becomes a .00 MEAL, and represents an overall savings of .25 per each box of pasta and jar of sauce. NOTE: PASTA is one of the most flexible items you can have in your pantry for making simple dishes quickly, or creating a great meal of leftovers. Whole grain pasta is recommended for people with diabetes.

Use the ad circulars to plan your meals when you shop. I have advocated planning your menu around the SALE ITEMS in their circulars. Make sure you mark out what day of the week their shopping advertisement begins and ends. Some start on Wednesday and end on the following Tuesday. Others begin on Thursday and end on the following Wednesday. You could miss out on a sale item of importance by not knowing this.

For example, in their sale circular a brand name roasting chicken was on sale for 69 cents/per lb. at the local grocery store. Unlike the major store chains, this local grocery store week begins on Wednesday, not Thursday. So, if you didn’t pay attention to this fact, and wanted to purchase the roasting chicken on Wednesday before the sale ended, it would have been TOO LATE. The new week began, the sale was over, and the price increased by 80 cents to .49 per/lb. The same 5-lb. Roasting Chicken went from .45 to .45 — a lost savings of .00 per a 5lb. Chicken. That’s ONE GALLON of GAS. PAY ATTENTION and SAVE!

Don’t let image fool you that you are going to get the BEST PRICE because a store is known for its LOW PRICES. A recent story of comparative shopping prices revealed the following prices for a gallon of Skim Milk

?.69 at Aldi (discount store)
? .99 at Costco (saving club/membership needed)
? .99 at a local supermarket
? .49 at Wal-Mart

Who would have thought that? That’s an image buster for Wal-Mart always low prices advertisements! And don’t forget about looking at your local drug store such as CVS or Walgreens for some of these grocery items. Recently I was able to purchase 2- 64oz. Walgreens Brand Orange Juice for .69 compared to other grocery store offers of 2/.00, and 2 dozen eggs for .00 (.50 per dozen) compared to .89 per dozen elsewhere.

When your comparative shopping list results in SAVINGS at different stores, the discussion of the cost of gas comes into play. Is it worth it??? I usually suggest you map out a circular trip to include as many of the stores as possible on your list. This way you can max out your SAVINGS by getting as many of the sales items as possible with one shopping trip. With a single stop to save .00 on a can of coffee, meat, laundry detergent, or ice cream you will have covered the cost of a gallon of gas for your vehicle.

I believe in buying in BULK when often used family products are on sale. If you have the capabilities, utilize your freezer. When shopping for Milk on Sale, search the back of the shelf for the latest possible expiration date. If you choose to freeze milk, remove 8-to-12 ounces to allow for expansion during the freezing process. You can also freeze eggs in freezer bags; just crack them open into the bag for later use in baking or for scramble eggs. AVOID waisting Money and Food…Rather than throw out eggs or milk that are about to expire make a cake or pudding.

For additional savings, investing in a bread machine would help cut the cost of bread and provide you with Fresh Homemade Healthy Bread daily per your creative ingredients. Put the ingredients in the bread machine and in a period of three-to-three and a half hours, FRESH BREAD for less than a .00 a loaf. The bread machine will pay for itself in a short time with current store bought bread prices.

One U.S. Agricultural Department study estimated that 25% of the food bought by consumers and restaurants is wasted or spoiled before it can be served. TV commercials advertise storage bags that will preserve the life of fruits and vegetables. If you are going to spend the high prices for your fruits and vegetables, then it might be wise to spend .00 for these reusable bags. They will pay for themselves over a short period of time compared to the price of lost/spoiled produce.

For your meat purchases, avoid paying for bones. At .00/lb. every pound of bones will cost you ten dollars for the throw away. Or, you might choose to wait until its on sale. Many dollars are saved by using your store loyalty card when it comes to your meat purchases. Buy Sale Price Meat in larger quantities, cut in portions, and FREEZE. Meat provides flexibility in one’s menu planning. First meal is hot, freshly cooked. Leftover portions can be served as cold as sandwiches, or cubed and added to a fresh salad. Any other cubed leftover meat can be added to soup. THAT’S FOUR MEALS from one piece of meat.

Speaking of soup, homemade or store bought, you don’t have to waste the crumbs from the bottom of the bag of chips, or Doritos (“breakage” in food industry language). Smash the remaining crumbs in the bag, and empty the crumbs on top of the soup when ready to serve for added flavor and fiber…no waste.

To eat healthier and save your time cooking, I recommend purchasing a Ronco “Showtime” Rotisserie. Put the meat on the spit or in the basket, set the timer, and let it cook away, allowing the fat to drip away. Place vegetables in steamer tray on top of the unit. When the timer goes off, take the meat out, and serve. This is a Very Nice MOTHER’S DAY GIFT that will KEEP ON GIVING. But remember: you’ll have to figure out what you want to do with your free time while everything is cooking. It can cook up to a 15 lb. turkey. I have had mine for over six years.

Again, read your grocery ad circular carefully. Try to take advantage of the first opening days’ “Sale Specials”. Some stores run specials within the store that will provide FREEBIES or MONEY BACK for your NEXT SHOPPING VISIT. Last month Safeway/Dominick’s had a .00 kick back for your next visit on a purchase of .00 or more of certain listed brand name products …that’s a 33% savings right there. Many of these items weren’t ON SALE. This week they have two .00 kick back offers, the first is instant at the check out counter, the second is for your next visit.

Lastly, keep your eyes open for offers to add to your Government Stimulus Checks or Tax Refund Checks by Grocery Stores or Department Stores. Jewel (owned by Albertson) is offering a 10% Bonus if you use one of these CHECKS to purchase a Jewel-Osco Gift Card in increments of 0 up to 00. Limit one offer per household. That’s a FREE to 0 depending on the size of your check. Details are available in the store. Using these Be Smart…Shop Smart…Shopping Tips can add another 40-to-50% to this free money opportunity. Make Your Money Work for YOU!

So BeSmart…..ShopSmart…..Save Money…..Be Happy!
By Robert Walsh

More Trip Shopping Articles