Food shopping online

Fusspot

Thanks for all your replies. Do you shop online every week or monthly? I use Ocado as they are so reliable, I used to use Asda but found they were very unreliable. But at Ocado you have to spend £40 in order to book delivery.

Also, do you buy fresh foods online too? I tend to buy tinned food, cat food and cleaning products online but am a bit wary of buying fresh meat and veg and things like that online.

I do agree its far easier online. When I used to get a taxi from the supermarket, the driver would get the bags out of the taxi for me but I would still have to carry them upstairs to my flat. Now you can get free delivery for evenings so that rules out taxi fares anyway.

Farway

Fusspot wrote: »

I use Ocado as they are so reliable, I used to use Asda but found they were very unreliable. But at Ocado you have to spend £40 in order to book delivery.

Also, do you buy fresh foods online too? I tend to buy tinned food, cat food and cleaning products online but am a bit wary of buying fresh meat and veg and things like that online.

Ocado is changing to M & S, currently W/rose and although I've never had delivered from either the normal fresh stuff in their shops seems OK to me, with M & S looking a tad better, at least around here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47383159

PasturesNew

I live alone, with a tiny budget and few needs. I've never had "the finer things" in life, so the basics are fine for me.

I don't shop online and never have because it's tough making that minimum order value if you're not a boozer or pet owner or consumer of pricey foods.

I also don't like the idea that what arrives will come as a surprise/shock as what I wanted/needed might not be present, there might be substitutions + what if they don't come at all + what if anything else goes wrong....

I prefer the certainty of going out to the shops I want to go to, to find food that I fancy, when I CBA to go out food shopping at all. 95% of my food shopping is at L1dl/4ldi, which don't do online shopping in any case.

My last three shops have been:
4ldi: Big stock up and lots of treats, £10 spent.
L1dl: Quick stock up of cold drinks for yesterday's scorchio weather ... and some salady type of food, £6 spent.
Sainsbobs: Sunday lunch a bag of 5 doughnuts and 2 litres of fizzy pop, £1.20 spent.

I'm now inundated with food and don't need to go again for a long time. The shopping I did was "exceptional weather stock ups" in case I "Might not fancy leaving the house all week if the weather's going to be this hot".

Fusspot

PasturesNew wrote: »

I live alone, with a tiny budget and few needs. I've never had "the finer things" in life, so the basics are fine for me.

I don't shop online and never have because it's tough making that minimum order value if you're not a boozer or pet owner or consumer of pricey foods.

I also don't like the idea that what arrives will come as a surprise/shock as what I wanted/needed might not be present, there might be substitutions + what if they don't come at all + what if anything else goes wrong....

I prefer the certainty of going out to the shops I want to go to, to find food that I fancy, when I CBA to go out food shopping at all. 95% of my food shopping is at L1dl/4ldi, which don't do online shopping in any case.

My last three shops have been:
4ldi: Big stock up and lots of treats, £10 spent.
L1dl: Quick stock up of cold drinks for yesterday's scorchio weather ... and some salady type of food, £6 spent.
Sainsbobs: Sunday lunch a bag of 5 doughnuts and 2 litres of fizzy pop, £1.20 spent.

I'm now inundated with food and don't need to go again for a long time. The shopping I did was "exceptional weather stock ups" in case I "Might not fancy leaving the house all week if the weather's going to be this hot".

Do you have far to carry your food shopping home? I don't have an Aldi or Lidl near me.

PasturesNew

Fusspot wrote: »

Do you have far to carry your food shopping home? I don't have an Aldi or Lidl near me.

I drive. L1dl is just 300 yards from my door, 4ldi is 0.4 mile. The nearest supermarket is over a busy junction and is 0.8 mile. Asda is my preferred supermarket, but that's 8 miles away.

When I am out, I'll sometimes stop in other shops in passing, if the mood suits me, but I've usually got enough food in the house so talk myself out of bothering

Although I could walk, I often drive just because you never know what you'll get. e.g. yesterday I didn't plan to buy 12 cans of fizzy pop as I didn't know they sold my favourite - and there it was, a scorcher of a day about to start and my favourite fizzy pop was for sale, so I bought 12 cans. Regretted that as I'd walked.... had to not buy chips due to weight worries re carrying.

I_luv_cats

Fusspot wrote: »

Just wondering, do you do your food shop mainly online or do you go to the supermarket?

I live on my own and find it easier to food shop online and get it delivered to the door as I don't drive but I am just wondering if going to the supermarket may save me more money.

Going in person you might spot reduced items & get to choose the freshest of produce.

Online you get the donkey-work done but can spend more as might need fresh food top-ups in the week.

Bit of both (here) catfood / litter online offers can break the back of dragging them home + adding fresh food to make up the minimum order. (midweek £1 slot)

If chop and change the vouchers are more frequent!! :rotfl:

Shropshirelass

Once a month I get an online shop delivered, buying basics and heavy/awkward items. I usually manage to book a free or 50p delivery. Weekly I go to local high street or market for fresh stuff, butcher's, fresh bread, some things I like to get from Co-op (home grown strawberries and potatoes for instance. I've never had a poor potato from them). I like to choose fruit and veg myself. And often get bargain from the butcher, who has become a friend.

NeilCr

I shop online

I tend to use a previous order to shop from so that keeps me disciplined. I quickly scroll through the offers etc that appear before I check out so I don't get tempted! . As I shop for a week the biggest issue is dates - quite a lot can be frozen but, occasionally, you get short date items that can't be

With regards to substitutions I get a choice of whether or not to allow these. I am happy, usually, as they tend to be sensible in what they decide to replace with

peachyprice

I only buy dry goods online occasionally. I did try doing whole shops but got fed up with poorly chosen fruit, veg and meat and other fresh foods with short shelf lives.

I'm pretty good at only shopping once a week, go armed with a meal planned shopping list and make sure the food I am buying has dates to last the week. I found with online deliveries I was having to shop during the week due to food being useless because of shorter dates.
It probably wouldn't matter to most households but with the shifts my husband works it just didn't work for us.