Groceries delivered right to my door!!

I've been wanting to try it for awhile and I finally did it. I did my grocery shopping online and it was delivered right to my front door. It was actually kind of fun scrolling through the items online and picking out the food items I wanted.

I didn't plan to shop online that particular day, but I was clipping digital coupons on Publix.com and saw you could do your shopping online and have it delivered. I thought why not find out what it's all about. Since it takes time to physically go shopping and that day I was crunched for time, I thought why not try it out.

Of course my first question was, is it going to cost me more? I saw that there were some coupons out there to try it and I found a coupon for $10 off, so I figured it couldn't be too much more. At Publix the delivery fee depends on size of your order and delivery time. My delivery fee was $5.99 fee for shopping online at that time in my area. I did notice a service fee also at check out and you can waive that fee if you want. I also found not every area has online shopping with Publix, so you have to put in your zip code on their website to see if you qualify. I did, so I thought let's shop.

It was pretty easy to do. You see photos and prices for the products. And yes, you can also get the BOGO's (buy one get one.) You do need to put in a quantity of two if you get a BOGO. If you are a coupon shopper though, right now you can't use coupons with delivery. I wasn't too concerned because the items I was buying, I didn't have coupons for. I do use coupons, so I will still have to do my coupon shopping in the store.

I was able to select all my items and get my $10 discount. What I liked is you can choose a window of time,  you want your personal shopper to bring your groceries to your home.  I believe the fast you can get it is within two hours. I found you do need to put in a phone number for your personal shopper to contact you. Once they start shopping you receive a text. When my personal shopper couldn't find an item, he would text me asking if I wanted a replacement item or a refund on the item. I didn't realize they would text you during their shopping, so I was glad I heard the text.

It was great you knowing what he was able to get and what he couldn't get. I forgot to put on the list bananas was bummed because I thought I would still need to go to the store to get the bananas, but guess what? I text him to if he could get me four bananas regular and he got them for me. I was super excited.

When he was finished shopping, I received a text telling me when to expect my groceries to arrive. He was right on time. He had all the groceries and brought them to my door. I bought alcohol, which I thought was interesting that you could do with online delivery, but I guess you can in a few states and Florida is one of the states. He did ask for my driver's license for it, which was good.

You can add a tip when you sign your receipt if you want or give cash. I asked him how he gets paid because I was curious. He said he had been a personal shopper for about two weeks and he gets .48 cents an item, mileage and tips.

While I was shopping online, I did notice some of the items are a few cents higher. Not much higher, but the site does say some of the items are higher.

Overall, it was a good experience. I have researched this online shopping more and found there are other grocery chains and stores in Pinellas County that do this too. You can get groceries from Safeway, Amazon Prime, Walmart, Sam's Club and Costco. Each one has their own delivery fee. You can also order online and pick the items up at the store and most are free to do this.

I think it's a great option to have in case you get sick and can't make it to the store or maybe your crunched on time. I also think if you have your basic list for each week, it gets easier to shop because you don't remake the list each week. I also tried by ingredients for a recipe, which I thought was good because it would help stick to meals instead of impulse buying. There are coupons out there and deals for first time customers at most of the stores, so look for a coupon online. 

Simple ways for you to help raise money for your child’s school

Did you know there are several ways you can raise money for your child’s school just by just shopping and it doesn’t cost you anything? It’s true, as you head to the stores to do back to school shopping here are a few simple ways parents can help schools earn extra income. Some of the ideas are things you may already have at home and could be throwing away, not knowing it’s worth actual money.

Have you seen those small little labels on some of your boxes of food? They are called Box Tops. Since 1996, America schools have earned more than $800 million dollars from Box Tops for Education by collecting those labels. My daughter’s elementary school earned $1,600 cash last year and more than $29,000 over the years.  Schools can receive 10 cents for every box top collected. Start looking at you food boxes more closely and start clipping the box tops. If you don’t save the box tops, it’s like throwing 10 cents out the window.

If you have a printer at your house or your office, start saving the empty ink cartridges. Did you know that every “used” ink cartridge is worth at least $2? You can recycle up to 10 ink cartridges each month. Not only are you raising money for your child’s school, but you are also recycling. You can recycle the ink cartridges locally at any Staples or Office Depot Office Max. There’s also another great way to make your school money by using Funding Factory. This is a way for your school to collect recyclable empty printer cartridges for money. You can register at www.FundingFactory.com. Since 1997, organizations have raised more than $35 million in cash and rewards.

Office Depot Office Max also offers a program called Give Back to Schools, where 5% of your qualifying purchases can go back in free school supplies to the school of your choice. It’s very easy, all you need to do is sign up.

Do you shop on Amazon? If you do, start shopping on www.smileamazon.com, it’s the same as shopping at Amazon, but a percentage of what you spend can go to your child’s school. It’s not a huge amount it’s actually 0.5 percent, but it can add up. More than $54 million has been given to charities over the years. If your school is not registered, let them know so they can register. This is an easy way to raise money.

How many of you use the computer to look up things? I know I do. I discovered by using www.GoodSearch.com as your search engine, you can raise money for your school. It’s simple and easy to do. Every search you do, GoodSearch.com will donate a percentage of your purchases to your school.

It’s great to see businesses willing to help our schools, but we as parents need to make sure we are doing our part by participating. It only takes a minute to clip a box top, cut a label or charge our search engine on our computer. If each family helps we can make a difference in our children’s education.