If I’m ever lucky enough to have a MASSIVE lottery win, one of the things I promise myself is that I would NEVER have to worry about doing the grocery shopping myself EVER again!
Which made me question why I needed wait to win the lotto in order to give up something I don’t enjoy doing.
Over the past eight years, I can count on one hand precisely how many times I’ve stepped foot inside a grocery store.
This isn’t thanks to being able to do my grocery shopping online – because quite honestly, I just deeply despise doing any kind of groceries.
In fact, it was only after my husband began complaining that all of his friend’s partners do the grocery shopping for their families that I even looked into the realm of online grocery shopping. Of course, before making a time consuming commitment as draining and tedious as doing it myself, I first consulted my friends to see who does theirs.
They were somewhat shocked that I hadn’t been doing our groceries myself!
In my defense, they should have known I wasn’t fooling around especially when I had to do a group live chat with my friends the last time I went into a grocery store. Everything had changed and I had no idea where anything was… so I called my mates looking for some sort of guidance and they thought I was just joking.
It’s Just Not My Thing!
No, any form of grocery shopping just isn’t my cup of tea.
I’ve been there done that when I was younger and now that I’m older I can think of a list of things my time would be better spent on or that I’d much rather be doing than the groceries.
It’s In Their Genes
My theory in fact is that males used to be the predominant ‘hunter gatherers’ previously for a reason!
Firstly it gives them a sense of accomplishment, they actually physically went out there into the wilderness and brought back food for their loved ones.
It gives them something to do as well which is an added bonus! Instead of being nagged to do something menial like taking the trash out which anyone can do- it gives them an adventure with a mission… a purpose almost!
Secretly I was hoping that my husband would fall for my ‘hunter gatherer’ theory for the rest of our lives. That it would somehow reconnect him with his caveman roots and encourage his inner desire to naturally hunt and gather for our family.
Alas it did not!
He Has Mastered The Art
Finding the perfect fruits and vegetables is something my hubby has mastered perfectly and it’s not the most enjoyable of tasks, but he does it so well! But he wasn’t even the least bit concerned when I told him that he could very well lose his gift of perfect selection if he stopped using it.
Why I Avoid Grocery Shopping
I vividly remember the adrenaline rush of walking into any grocery store. The bright lights, screaming children (probably a combination of yours as well as mine), and the shopping list! The ever-elusive shopping list! The one which would be there one moment and gone just as I entered the store!
Who needs a shopping list though with all that excellent marketing! All those specials and gorgeously presented products which make you forget the items you were there to purchase in the first place!
Most of my little ones have no clue what the inside of a grocery store looks like. And I love that! I love that they aren’t being exposed to the same unnecessary and incredibly targeted advertising which I have often fallen for.
That perfectly placed item at just the right height with a discounted ticket which tries to create the illusion of an amazing deal. But one quick Google search often exposes the cheapest price I should be paying for the exact same item.
Very young kids don’t have the patience to wait for things, unfortunately. Sometimes they see something that sparks an instant feeling of joy and they want it straight away and they feel disappointed when they aren’t rewarded with said item.
So I avoid any unnecessary ‘fear of missing out’ entirely by not exposing them to it at all.
HELLO Online Shopping
The last six months I dipped my toes into online grocery shopping, and it wasn’t so bad!
Of course, I made out to my hubby that it was terribly time consuming- but it was in fact brilliant!
I opened two online accounts at different stores and created shopping lists which were saved to their site which made it incredibly easy to reorder the products my family loves!
In addition to this, and this is my FAVOURITE discovery- I found that by filling two carts from each online store, not only was I guaranteed to walk away with the best price for that week, BUT, if I WAITED for x number of days without checking out, eventually the store would send me an email saying ‘check out by midnight tonight and use code xyz to save $15 on your shop!’
Now I know $15 may not seem like much to most, but it was a HUGE BONUS to my family of nine! It basically covered all of our milk for the week! And that is absolutely wonderful!
But Then COVID-19 Hit!
It was going perfectly, up until COVID-19 hit and online shopping ceased!
… or did the pandemic work in my favour… considering that my hunter gatherer husband has gone back to doing what he does best… shopping for our groceries!
You didn’t think that I would go as far as to actually go grocery shopping myself did you? No, I’m compromising, but I’m not silly.
I mean if I physically went out grocery shopping, I’d still have to come home and do all the chores I missed out on doing in that time- it’s not like they would get done as if by magic by the time I got back.
So I’m happy utilising my time wisely.
Besides, I still strongly believe it’s in my husband’s genes… well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it anyway!
Who does the grocery shopping in your family? Tell us in the comments below.
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