The Best Ways to Get Groceries Delivered From the Grocery Store So You Don’t Have to Leave The House – Sometimes you’re sick, sometimes you’re busy, sometimes you just can’t leave the house or don’t want to be around people. Here are my favorite ways to get food and necessities to your house. What I love and hate about each one (and some that are popular that SUCK.) Best Ways to Shop from Home in a Quarantine
I have a big family – there are 6 of us. So grocery shopping and getting takeout for date nights are kind of normal in our world. After years of trying hard to stay on budget while trying to make the best use of my time, I know that this is great to save money and save time.
And – right now in the world we live in – being able to find a way to get things that you need delivered to your door is a game changer!
Walmart Grocery Pick Up
What I love:
I love Walmart Grocery Pickup! You get to combine all the best parts of Walmart – the price and the convenience – with never actually having to go to the store. I’ll be honest, Walmart is one of my least favorite stores to go into. I always find that the store feels dirty and carts feel unclean and I always wind up leaving with more things than I intended to.
But you don’t have to worry about any of that stuff with Walmart grocery. You pull up the app on your phone, I got the items if you want, pay for it from a credit card so you would have an online order, and then you go to pick them up in your allotted time slot.
They have the same great Walmart prices with all of the convenience of grocery pick-up.
What I hate:
The problem that I have with Walmart Grocery Pickup is that I have to go to the store. I know, first world problems. But if I’m sick, I don’t really want to go anywhere!
The only other problem is the substitutions. Sometimes they won’t tell you if they’re out of something until you get there. And if that’s the case, you’re kind of out of luck. You’re really at the mercy of the person who is doing the shopping for you. If you have a really great Shopper, usually they do their best to pick out really fantastic alternatives similar to the one you’ve picked. But sometimes, the substitutions really aren’t even close. One time, I added butter to my shopping list. They were out of it and tried substituting margarine instead. That is completely unacceptable for me. I know, there are ways that you can change it so that you can select your substitutions, but sometimes they don’t even give you that option. Or you have to go digging around to find that option.
Those are really the only problems that I have though with Walmart Grocery Pickup. Honestly, 10 out of 10 would recommend this.
Get a bonus when you get your first order here.
Instacart
What I love:
Grocery shopping without ever having to leave your house? Getting your groceries delivered to your door? Absolutely perfect! That’s Instacart for you!
The only thing you have to do is stop for items that you would already shop for on your app on your phone. Once you get out of them to your cart and paid for them, you can get your stuff delivered to your door within an hour or two or whatever is most convenient for you.
If you are stuck in the house for any reason, especially if you are sick or if you have somebody in your house who is sick and you don’t want to spread germs to the rest of the world, then Instacart is perfect! You literally don’t even have to see anybody if you don’t want to. They even have an option to just drop it off at the door. They let you know when they’re around the corner and even when they dropped it off. But you do not have to come in contact with anybody if you feel like death or if somebody in your house is sick. This is super important so that you don’t spread germs around!
What I hate:
I could go on a rant about all the things I hate about Instacart. But really kind of all boils down to this… They have a huge markup on the items that they buy. I once bought something from Costco and got the receipt by mistake ( which they aren’t even supposed to include when they drop off your stuff so that you don’t see how much the mark-up is) and saw that my cart – that I paid $81 for – actually only retailed $60.
I was really ticked off! And come to find out that this is something that’s really normal when it comes to Instacart. I was really frustrated, but it doesn’t stop me from using Instacart when I desperately need items for my house and I can’t leave.
Honestly, if you are in a real pinch or if you need something to make for dinner in a hurry and you don’t have it in you to go to the grocery store or you don’t want to bring germs to the grocery store, then Instacart is perfect for you. I will happily pay the extra money if I don’t have to leave my house with a sick kid.
Get $10 off when you start using Instacart here!
Imperfect Produce
What I love:
Imperfect Produce is a subscription box of fruits and vegetables that you can pick that would have gotten thrown out otherwise. Usually, it’s things like carrots that are shaped a little bit weird or overstock surplus peanut butter. But honestly, most of the time, I haven’t even seen food that’s all too Okay weird looking!
But one thing’s for sure… the produce that I’ve gotten from Imperfect Produce is perfect! I still love it. It doesn’t matter to me that it’s shaped a little weird or might have a little bit of discoloration. It’s all still edible.
I get a chance to save perfectly good produce that would have normally had just gone to a dump and instead gets to feed my family.
I love that I can pick out the food that I get inside of my boxes. I also love that I can skip weeks if I don’t need produce really easily. All I have to do is think about you.
Get $10 off your first box when you sing up here.
What I hate:
Maybe hate is a strong word to use here. the only thing that I really don’t like about Imperfect Produce is that I feel like four things that would have otherwise just gotten thrown out, the prices are still pretty high.
Don’t get me wrong! I don’t think that you would be able to find produce that’s organic or as good a price as this.
But I’ve been spoiled by Aldi and so it’s really difficult to see if this is truly a good price for the food that I’m getting.
If you are a family that goes through a lot of produce, or if you just value doing your part to eliminate food waste, this is a fantastic way to get a good deal on produce or surplus food and to save food from the dump just because it looks a little funky.
Misfits Market
What I love:
Much like with Imperfect Produce, Misfits Market is another subscription box or produce alone. Unlike with Imperfect Produce, every item from Misfits Market is organic. With Misfits Market, you can choose the contents of your box based on the size that you need. They have small and large boxes. For my family of 6, we always get the large box.
We get to pick what kind of produce we need each week and then stock our box. They always fill the box right up the top. And for a flat fee each time, we can pick whatever things we really want inside of it.
They make it really easy to skip a box if I need to or change my shipment date depending on when my needs are. I never have to leave my house. It’s just delivered straight to my door.
Use code COOKWME-OC5EOO to get 50% off your first box!
What I hate:
I’m not actually sure that I hate anything about Misfits Market! I’ve been using them now for more than a year, and have never had a box that I didn’t love. They used to not let you select what’s inside of your boxes. And a lot of times, that led to some really weird Google searches!
But now that they let you choose what you get inside of each box, it makes sure that you are not throwing anything out that you don’t want. (Once, before I could customize my box, I got two giant eggplants… my kids are allergic to eggplant so they had to get thrown in the trash. But that hasn’t happened since I can customize the box now.)
If you love to eat produce and really want a steep discount on the kind of produce that you’re getting without compromising quality then Misfits Market is the way to go.
Grove Collaborative
What I love:
If you’re like me and are low-key both a hippie and love saving money, then Grove is perfect. I get all of my cleaning products sent to me when I need them from Grove. They have great deals on prices and they’re plan is to be completely plastic and carbon neutral in 5 years (if you don’t know what they means, it’s OK! It just means that their goal as a company is to keep the planet healthy.)
I pick the products that I love that don’t have harmful chemicals in them sent to my door. I use this to get my seasonal cleaning scented products from Mrs. Myers (which is one of my favorite joys in life).
Like I said, they’re also reasonably priced. They work hard to keep prices low to give more people great quality products. They also have free shipping if your order is over $25, and have free samples and bonus gifts if you hit a certain amount in your cart.
You can get your favorite essential cleaning products sent to you in a subscription for as often as you’d like.
What I hate:
I pay a yearly membership fee to be part of this. It’s not that much for the whole year, but it does only make it worth it (I think, at least) if you subscribe to the monthly boxes (you pick what goes in it, don’t worry).
Overall, I still love Grove. I’ve been with them for a few years now and love them.
Get a free 5-piece Mrs. Meyer’s cleaning kit here
Thrive Market
What I love:
Organic items are hard to come by… plus, they’re expensive! Thrive Market is an online health food store with lower prices and their own lines of generic food items that are still high-quality.
It’s been the only place that has the weird food that I buy for my family (monk fruit, collagen peptides, ghee, etc.) where I don’t feel like I’m, choosing between a selling a kidney and getting good quality foods.
What I hate:
You do have to pay a yearly membership fee. It’s not that much, but it’s still only really going to be worth it if you’re a weird hippie like me and get alternative health foods pretty regularly. But it’s ONLY worth it if having things that are organic AND on-budget is important. If you’re not super into having organic foods, then it’s not worth it.
I love to use them when I need some pantry staples that Walmart Grocery Pickup doesn’t have in stock, or if the food choice I need is even too weird for my local stores.
Get 25% off your first order here.
Vitacost
What I love:
What’s not to love about vitamins and specialty health food products sent to your door? That’s Vitacost. I love them. They also regularly have buy 1 get 1 deals on their vitamins. Which makes my cheapskate heart SO happy.
I order some specialty foods from here that would be either hard to find elsewhere or are super expensive. I love dark chocolate covered espresso beans. They’re my weakness. I can get the Vitacost-brand dark chocolate covered espresso beans sent to my house at a lower price than I can even get them from Amazon. They’re fantastic.
But it’s not just dark chocolate covered espresso beans. They have flours, sugars, organic food, dry goods, and more… all at a MUCH lower price than you can find at the store.
What I hate:
They only do free shipping on orders over $75. But really…. that’s kind of the only fault that I have. Their prices are great, their selection is great, their generic (Vitacost brand) products are just as good as the brand name ones.
Local Take-out/ Curbside Pickup
What I love:
If you have a favorite local restaurant and you are sick or someone in your family is sick, the best thing to do is not to eat at the restaurant. So it’s usually pretty simple to go ahead and grab take out to go and then bring it home. A lot of places even offer curbside pickup, so that means that you don’t even have to walk through the crowded restaurant. This is a really good thing if you are sick or you don’t have the money to leave a good tip (remember: if you can’t afford to leave a tip, you can’t afford to eat dinner at a restaurant).
This is especially good to support the local economy too. If there is a problem locally a lot of people are sick, supporting small businesses in your local area is really important to do.
What I hate:
Options for getting curbside pickup and take out when you’re talking about local places are usually pretty Limited. Sometimes it comes down to needing to use GrubHub ( which we will talk about with bottom… spoiler: I don’t recommend it). But I really don’t think that there really are a whole lot of downsides when it comes to ordering takeout or curbside pickup when someone in your house is sick or you are feeling incapable of leaving. Like I said, it saves you money so that you’re not using a tip, plus then you aren’t ordering drinks or more desserts or appetizers.
All in all, I do recommend checking out your local restaurants for takeout or curbside pickup options when you are sick at your home. You can even call them when you’re outside and ask them to drop it off to your car if you don’t want to go inside. Remember, they’re doing you a huge service at this point and it would be really nice to tip them.
Amazon (Subscribe & Save)
What I love:
I haven’t run out of toilet paper in a year. And it’s all thanks to Amazon Subscribe and Save. I set up my order for toilet paper to come every 3 months and then it comes straight to my door without me ever having to think about it. If I need to make my order come sooner, I can do that. If I need to add something to the order, I can still do that too. I thought that’s for toilet paper! You can do Subscribe and Save for almost everything on Amazon. It’s super easy to do.
What I hate:
It really isn’t anything that I don’t like about Subscribe and Save other than the fact that even if I have a full box, I have to wait a certain amount of time before I can ship. The time that it takes to wait at your shipment is really the only downside especially when you’re sick. A lot of times, you just want to get your box of tissues or your pack of toilet paper really quickly. If that’s the case, I suggest using Instacart or Walmart Grocery Pickup. But with Subscribe and Save, they let you save a certain percentage with each purchase.
When it comes to saving money, I recommend using Subscribe and Save for products like dish detergent or laundry detergent or toilet paper. Things that you use around the house but don’t really think about needing until you are almost out. Using Subscribe and Save helps me to both never run out of things, and get a discount on things that I know that I’m going to buy.
Check out what items you can get with Subscribe and Save here.
Butcher Box
What I love:
I absolutely love Butcher Box. I place an order for the grass-fed and pasture-raised meats that I want to be delivered to my door, and I save a ton of money this way. Butcher Box delivers high-quality meat (beef, chicken, pork, seafood, etc.) to your door. You can pick what you get in each box as well as the size of the box (either small or large) and you can add things to the box on top of what normally goes into it.
For my big family, a large box usually lasts us 2+ months.
What I hate:
One time, I missed an email (or it went to spam? Not sure). And they shipped an order that I didn’t need and didn’t have space for. I messed up the scheduling. And, even though I emailed them RIGHT after I got the “thanks for your purchase” email, they couldn’t stop the shipment or refund the purchase. It was a bummer, but I think that was mostly my fault.
I’ve only ever gotten high quality, delicious meats from Butcher Box. I always feel like I’m getting a great deal and love the meat I get to eat and feed my family. (High-quality meat is super important when you’re fighting a cold or are trying to start healthy.)
Save $30 when you sign up here.
Hello Bello Diapers
What I love:
I’ve been using Hello Bello diapers for my baby since she was born. Cute patterns, sustainable, safe for baby’s bum, gentle on skin… AND delivered to your door when you want them. Can’t beat it. I get to pick how often I want my diapers delivered, the patterns I want, and I can change my order easily if I want to.
What I hate:
They ran out of a few of the diaper designs that I was hoping to get for my baby before my order shipped and instead of telling me that they’d run out, they just chose random replacements for them. I know this is so trivial. But it was my only complaint that the 3 different flower pattern diapers that I was hoping to get were replaced with 3 of the same jungle pattern.
All in all, there’s little I don’t LOVE about Hello Bello. Not to mention… Kristen Bell and Dax Shepherd own it. I freaking love them.
Uber Eatz / Grub Hub
What I love:
I guess you can love that these things deliver food to your house? But I actually don’t love anything about them.
I guess if you’re sick and can’t leave the house, then getting that burger or Chipotle bowl you’ve been craving is a good place to go, but… there has to be a better option!
What I hate:
Where to start. From the CRAZY steep markups (I’ve heard of people paying $25 for the delivery fee and tip alone to get McDonald’s… MCDONALD’S, PEOPLE!), to the horror stories of the drivers eating the food or drinking drinks… yeah. No. Hard pass from me.
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