As a homemaker, my work is never done, and anytime I can come up with ways to simplify every day tasks and save myself some time and money, I am thrilled! One task that I’m not really a fan of is doing the grocery shopping. I hate braving the crowds at the store, perusing the many shelves to find exactly what I’m looking for, and I definitely hate standing in line at the checkout register. If you feel the same way I do about grocery shopping, then you should check out Walmart’s new grocery service.
Through Walmart’s pickup service, you can do all of your shopping from the comforts of your own home. You just go online, find a Walmart location near you that offers the pickup service, and then start picking out everything you need right from their website. Once they receive your order, a Walmart employee will find everything you need and fill your order. All you have to do is go and pick it up! What could be easier?
Aside from saving you time and helping you avoid the crowds, this service is also a great way to simplify meal planning and help you to stay on budget. Allow me to explain.
If you’ve ever gone to the store without a list, you know how easy it is to fill up a cart with snacks and impulse buys and then get home and not even have enough food to cook a week’s worth of meals. (Been there; done that!) Doing a quick inventory of your kitchen, and then sitting down to make a quick meal plan, followed by a grocery list, are key steps to ensuring that you make the most out of your grocery store trip, buying only the things you need and avoiding picking up too many extra items that make you go over budget. However, even if you make a list, it is very easy to forget an item at the store and to add extra snacks and impulse items to your cart.
But with Walmart’s new pickup service, you can easily shop online for everything you need, while you do your inventory and make your meal plan. And because the cost of your order is added up as you go, you will know if you are staying on budget or not. If you find you’re going over budget, you can always remove items from your cart, and if you’re well under budget, you may decide to stock up on certain items or even grab a couple of extra treats for yourself!
Another thing I love about this is that I can easily compare the prices of items and decide if I want to buy a name brand product versus a generic product or a smaller package versus a larger package. And because you can do a search for items right on their website, it actually allows you to discover new products that you might not otherwise find while shopping in store.
The other day I tried the Walmart Grocery service. Before logging on, I wrote down, not a grocery list, but a list of meals I wanted to have for the week. Then I went on the site, and I went down my list of meals, picking out all the ingredients I’d need to make them. Here’s a list of the meals I shopped for, just to give you an idea:
- Beef Stew. (recipe ingredients)
- Tilapia & Fries.
- Breakfast Night. (bacon, eggs, and biscuit ingredients)
- Pizza Night. (frozen pizza)
- Chicken Alfredo Pasta. (recipe ingredients)
- Chicken, Bacon, Ranch Subs. (recipe ingredients)
And then because I was well under budget, I then added other items to my cart.
- Chocolate Cake (recipe ingredients)
- Sodas and Sports Drinks
- Snacks – pizza rolls, burritos, and chips
- Bread and sandwich meat
- Cereal, fruit, and toaster pastries.
I found that shopping in this way was a great way to stay organized, and it also helped me to ensure I got the right amount of ingredients I needed. (For example, I needed heavy cream for my alfredo recipe, but I also needed heavy cream for my cake recipe.)
Today, in addition to talking about this idea to simplify your grocery shopping, I’m also sharing my recipe for Beef Stew. I absolutely love making soups and casseroles, and when I make these foods, I often go off recipe, adding more ingredients and experimenting with new flavors, so anytime I get ready to make something like Beef Stew, it is always important that I have everything I need to make the recipe, plus a couple of extras just in case I want to change things up or make a bigger batch. By shopping at home, I definitely made sure that I had everything I needed. And as always, this stew turned out delicious!
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Have you tried Walmart’s grocery pick up service? If you have, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I haven’t tried it, but a friend of mine uses it. I wonder how it works, though, when your city has a bag ban? Austin requires you to bring your own bags to the store. It’s to reduce the plastic in our landfill. I wonder if they use paper? Might have to investigate this and try it out.