First up, this is an unsolicited article. No one is paying, pushing or promoting me to write this piece.
Here is my typical grocery shopping experience;

Grocery shopping experience diagram -multiple ways to waste
I will admit, I am very impressed with people who can clip coupons, keep a price book and then find everything on their list, in exactly the right size, in a massive store with an average and ever changing 47,000 items in the store. I have tried many times and repeatedly failed at doing so.
We kept seeing a Peapod truck at the neighbor’s house each week. We quietly snickered and thought even though they are super frugal on everything else they had a hidden weakness.
My interest was piqued so we tried an experiment with this online grocery thing. We intentionally keep detailed records so it was easy to load a Peapod cart online and compare to last weeks grocery expenses.
Oh man was it easy to find stuff. They have a search engine! And it was certainly educational. For example, the two red peppers I buy each and every week have gone up from 50 cents in the summer to almost $4 in the winter. Green peppers will do just fine and only cost a buck.
That kind of real-time-pricing-feedback adds up – in our case to $50 less than we normally spend (that would be $2,400 a year). So we went crazy and got the Peapod meal kits (all the ingredients in a box). And it was *still* $20 cheaper and we will waste less food as a result. Hmm.
A few months in we found we saved about $300 a month on groceries. And this probably points more to my ineffectiveness as a shopper and my susceptibility to “buy it now while supplies last” sales. Know thyself.
If you end up trying this or a similar service I would love to know how it works out for you – or if it doesn’t. And if you are inclined to do so please use my Peapod referral link and hook me up with free (Green) Bell Peppers for an upcoming stir fry. Woot!
March 1, 2017 at 1:59 pm
Same here, but with Amazon Fresh. I recently tried it out and wrote a review: http://poorerthanyou.com/2017/01/19/amazon-fresh-groceries-review/
Now, I’m using it for 3 out of 4 of our grocery shopping trips. I couldn’t believe it would save money vs. my favorite grocery store (especially with a $15/month fee!), but it does! And it’s so nice and convenient. I’m a convert!
March 1, 2017 at 5:20 pm
Hi Stephonee! I haven’t tried Amazon Fresh – thanks for the tip – and the link to your review so we can learn more!