Online Grocery Shopping: Saving a Packet, or A Total Racket?
This week I decided to try online shopping. For groceries rather than the kind of items that one would usually shop for online, i.e. dvd’s cd’s etc.
With both kids home during the school holidays, the idea of loading up the car with all assorted paraphernalia simply to pop to the shops for groceries, having to wrangle them both into a trolley and then having no space left to actually put stuff, *really* didn’t appeal to me.
You know what I mean right?
So I thought I would give one of our local stores the benefit of trying out their online shopping facility.
The website in question was easy to use, and fast to figure out the navigation, and I was able to get my shopping fairly quickly.
The whole process really opened my eyes to the possibilities and pitfalls of the concept and I thought that sharing my experience might help others avoid the potholes on the virtual super highway.
Whether or not you choose to shop for groceries and basic necessities online, boils down to what you find more valuable to you.
Time vs Money
This is the question you should ask yourself:
If you are able to save an hour by shopping online, is that one hour more valuable to you, in terms of using the time to earn money by working on a project (if you’re a WAHM), than if you were to down tools, and go directly to the store to save money by finding bargains and specials that are not online. Consider everything right down to the gas/petrol required to get to the store, the distance travelled, the energy expended etc.
Here are some other pointers that can help you to improve your time management and cost saving ratio as well as some other interesting facts about doing grocery shopping online.
- Make a Menu Plan: Do not deviate from that plan. Download our handy meal planner to help you plan out a weeks meals in advance. It can be used in both Excel or Open Office, and is fully customizable and free.
- Shops with a List: From now on that is your Indian name. Make a list for groceries, based solely on your meal planner (did you download it yet?) and on any additional cleaning materials, other household items you may need. Ladies, chocolate is not a necessary household item, nor can it be categorized under ‘cleaning materials’, no matter how much you’d like it to.
- Do not browse: Browsing unnecessarily leads to spending unnecessarily. Yes the boxes are pretty. Yes the pictures are colourful, but IGNORE them. You have a list. You are “Shops with a List” remember?
- Environmentally Friendly: Consider that if 20 people shop online, that would otherwise have driven cars to the store, you are actually saving some bad emissions from being released into the air. Yes, the delivery guy still has to drive to your house, but take one car versus twenty? Basic math says you’re helping the environment.
- Temptation Not: You won’t be tempted by the freshly baked cinnamon rolls and coffee if you can’t smell them right?
The Down Side: There is also a down side of course, and by shopping online, you will not be able to see any specials that are only available in store. Items that might have been marked down are not listed on online grocery store sites, so where you could save quite a bit by buying bananas that are ripe right now, and needing to be sold immediately at rock bottom prices.
- Premium Only: Sometimes when you shop online at a big online retailer for groceries, all orders are received at a centralized depot, and very often they will only carry the premium brand version of the product that you are looking for. So where at your local store you may have as many as three to four different brands of nappies available to choose from, they may only carry the most expensive premium brand. Ditto Olive Oil. Ditto Chocolate. But chocolate wasn’t on your list though right?
- Expiry Dates: My online retailer has a feature which allows me to send a note to the ‘personal shopper’ who will be picking out the products for me. I use this to instruct them to please select the item that has the expiry date as far in the future as possible i.e. milk/bread/meat. Failure to do that, results in the products I’m ordering to be expiring within a day or two of them being delivered. Fact.
- Package Sizes: This again, is probably not the same at each retailer, but watch the package sizes carefully. You may be buzzing to discover this amazing bargan! Then when you receive it, you realise that it’s because you ordered the 100g bag instead of the 250g bag. If you aren’t there in person, at least read the fine print.
- Bulk Bargains: Be aware of the bulk bargain trap. Buying the larger item in order to save money, isn’t always cheaper! Make sure you work out the difference in price per pound/kilo/gram before selecting the bulk option. Fact.
- Local Products: This is a thorny issue as we all have it drummed into us that we should buy local products. I understand why. But I do not endorse this when the premium foreign brand is double the quality of the local one, and half the price. Fact. Yes, I’m talking about Tate & Lyle Demerara Sugar Cubes (ZAR 17.99) vs Hulettes Brown Sugar Cubes (R34.99). There is JUST no excuse for this sort of pricing, carbon foot print or not. If local brands want to compete, they’d better do so on equal footing. Charging double the price and hoping to guilt us into buying it will NOT fly with me or any of the other consumers I know.
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WAHMs: Pop Quiz Hotshot, What do You Do?
Oh holy smokes! Your business has started, it’s going rather well. Going SO WELL in fact, that you need to dedicate more time to it.
What if that little bit of extra, uninterrupted time, could mean a BIG difference to your income? (I can hear WAHMs around the world laughing at my use of the word uninterrupted)
What if just having a few extra hours a week of uninterrupted time was all you needed to really break into the next gear, finish that awesome well paying project?
The fact is, that at some point you may need to consider a hiring someone for a few hours of help so that you can complete your major project or assignment.
Some of us are blessed with extended families that are only to happy to take the children for a morning a week, or an afternoon here or there, but there will be that one situation where you absolutely HAVE to get things done, and murphy’s law, that will be the one day, that all your family are busy, or out of town, or ill.
It *will* happen.
So what do you do?
What about those of you who don’t have extended family nearby, or even in the same country?
What do *you* do?
Sooner or later you may need the help of a friendly nanny, baby-sitter, or if you’re really lucky an au-pair.
Moms are notorious stalwarts, and many are taken aback, or even offended at the idea of having to hire someone.
Hello? We are all HUMAN. (Ok, as women we know we’re really super human, but still, we’re not perfect). Why not hire someone, who’s job it is to care for and entertain your kids for a few hours?
I learned a valuable lesson from my youngest son, when I made the difficult, heart wrenching decision to let him go to a playgroup for a few hours for the first time.
I was torn apart.
Completely, feeling like I was a failure simply because I could not do it all, all the time, twenty-four hours a day. Until I realized just how ridiculous that sounded.
At what point did I feel like I HAD to be this perfect person, who did everything?
It really dawned on me how silly it was, when I was packing his little back-pack to go to the playgroup again and he saw what I was doing, and he started clapping his little hands together and shouting, “Yay, Yay, Yay!!” I realised that the person who ran the playgroup, chose this as a career.
She chose it because she loves children.
She chooses to spend her time with 5 little youngsters and making their day as fun, as entertaining, as educational, and as routine as possible. Her absolute mission was to make sure that the kids were looked after as well as if she were their real mother, ha ha, their well rested, imaginative, that never-runs-out-of-patience mother.
Being a mother is something I chose, but reality insists that I also earn an income. My chosen form of income bringing activity is graphic design and photography. It is not child care. Though some aspects of childcare come naturally to mothers, I must admit, that I am absolutely terrible at thinking up fun and games all the time, and certainly not when I’m trying to finish that huge project that demands so much of my attention.
So in the same way that I take my child to the doctor when they are sick, I also choose to take them to a childcare expert when I need time to do what I am good at, and that which allows my children the lifestyle that they enjoy.
So if you find yourself in the position where you are needing childcare, I implore you, do not feel like a failure, think of your strengths and the many advantages that YOU and your strengths bring your family, then make your decision.
If you choose as I did, then this resource below may be of use to you.
WAHM: A Great Way to Promote your Business
Being a Work at Home Mom can be one of the most rewarding things that you do.
But we also know how hard it can be all by yourself.
For example, where on earth would you even begin to find investors for your idea? A partner? A service provider?
You’re just starting out and you need to find every possible avenue to market yourself, your product and your idea. Current Social Networks focus more on YOU the person, as opposed to YOU the business. It can be a veritable zoo of information, and you rarely know which service to use and when to promote yourself.
However, we have found one, thanks to Darren Rowse at Problogger, called You Noodle, which focuses on both. Did we mention it’s free?
YouNoodle harnesses the power of social networking, and showcases start-ups, websites, new businesses and existing ventures.
Giving you an easy to use platform to showcase your ideas whether they are brand new and still in the building phase, or if you are already established and simply wanting to promote your products and services to a unique market of people.
Some of you may wish to keep your ideas to yourself, naturally the fear of being copied or beaten to market is frightening for some, but ask yourself, what guarantee do you have that you keep your ideas to yourself, and someone doesn’t beat you to market anyway? Why not put yourself out there, and put your stamp and your face behind your ‘big idea’ right from the start.
It is about taking ownership of your idea and seeking out like minded entrepeneurs, and more importantly POTENTIAL INVESTORS. As a WAHM what an amazing opportunity to be able to reach the ears of the people who may be able to help you launch your idea into the stratosphere, all while you are sitting at home.
Don’t forget to connect with NessWorld while you’re there, you can follow NessWorlds’ progress by following this link to my profile and connecting with us there.
Remember if you are going to promote yourself and your business, have your summary, most professional profile photo, and some business graphics ready. If you are in the Cape Town area and need help getting the perfect profile photograph taken, you are welcome to email me to arrange a quick low cost photoshoot (I will offer special rates to NessWorld fans), and of course I can also be of service in getting business graphics designed for you (graphic design services I can offer globally thanks to the wonder of the internet), and optimized for web use, again, please contact me via email with your requirements, naturally I will offer special rates for NessWorld followers and fans.
I started NessWorld as a way of helping other WAHMs (work at home moms) get access to these kinds of professional services at affordable rates (when you have a household to maintain, we know what kind of strain that can put on your marketing budget!) and this is my way of helping out.
Free Resources for WAHMs: WiseStamp Email Signature
In the past, using free email addresses like Gmail and Hotmail, was the domain of travelers, students and people who needed their email to be mobile, and easily accessible from anywhere on the planet where you could find an internet connection.
These days email is pretty much accessible from anywhere, but in many cases having a more generic email such as a Gmail address is preferable to having to tote around information for more than one email address, and having to log into different control panels in order to access email.
Particularly if you have several email address for various roles, Gmail makes a perfect catch-all address so that you only have to check one email account to get all your information. This is particularly useful for Blackberry users for example, so instead of having five or six mail accounts on your phone, you just use the one Gmail address.
One of the ways that you can dress up your gmail account is by using the Wisestamp Email Signature. Its a great way to give your email that professional edge, even if you’re sending it from a web based source.
It’s available as a plugin for Firefox, so you can quickly and easily just click on the Wisestamp logo on the bottom right of your browser, and it will insert a very professional looking (and fully customizable) email signature with graphical icons linking your readers to your social networking links etc.
It looks like this (for example):
(Editor) www.nessworld.com
(Design) www.yoursitehere.com
(Photography) www.yoursitehere.com
(Mobile) +1 123 555 9876
Doesn’t that look much better than simply signing off with your name? Looking professional can make a big impact on retaining those good clients!
Remember, this works as a plugin for Firefox , so you need to be running the Firefox browser in order to make use of it. You can download it here.
read moreFree Resources for WAHMs: Transacting Online
So you have taken the plunge and decided to start working from home, congratulations!
These are indeed exciting times!
You have a product to sell, and now you want to be able to sell to customers online. Fantastic. But what now?
When Work at Home Moms (WAHMs) start their own business, they very often do not know of many online tools available to help them.
Some mistakenly turn to some of the larger companies, who quickly quote and roll out very expensive, e-commerce and website options, and as a result, many small business are hamstrung right at the start by massive start up costs. If you just do a little research on the web, it is possible to discover your own way of setting all this up, without the need to sell a few vital internal organs in order to finance it!
Now is a better time than ever to start your own business from home, whether you decide to sell cosmetics, tupperware, scrapbooking supplies like Creative Memories or have your own line of products that you want to bring to market it is far easier than you think, and costs virtually nothing in terms of getting set up to sell these products on line, and better yet, accept credit card payments.
Contrary to popular belief you do not need a merchant account with your local bank, and you do not need a credit card machine sitting next to your phone in order to do this.
Get set up to sell your product online, and accept credit card payments, instantly.
With AlertPay!
Who are AlertPay, and what do they do?
Alertpay are a company that facilitate online transactions securely, much like the much more well known company ‘Paypal‘. However, the difference with Alertpay, is that they allow South Africans to receive money for credit card transactions, whereas Paypal, have restricted South African accounts to only be used for sending money using a credit card. So in otherwords, Paypal only allows you to BUY goods using their service, but Alertpay allow you to BUY and SELL goods using their service.
Here are the ins and outs of it in a nutshell.
Let’s say that “Jennifer” has just started selling Avon from home. Her friend “Alison” wants to buy moisturizer and lipstick from her and sends her an email (or orders by phone/in person i.e. it doesn’t matter).
Jennifer logs into her Alertpay account, and sends Alison a ‘payment request’. This is easily done with a few clicks, just like sending an email.
Jennifer fills in the amount that Alison needs to pay her for the moisturizer and lipstick and then hits the send button. Within seconds, Alison has received a secure email from Alertpay asking her to process the payment. The first time Alison does this, it prompts her to open an Alertpay account (free!), but once she has an account set up, it is a simple matter of clicking through the email, and logging in to her own Alertpay account. She can then simply send the money either using the balance in her Alertpay account (you can hold a balance in electronic funds) or by simply filling in her credit card details, and Jennifers email address. Jennifer receives the payment, and then sends or delivers the goods as per her arrangement with Alison.
It really is that easy.
Here are some answers to questions that people ask frequently:
- Opening an AlertPay account is free.
- There are three different types of accounts, Personal, Personal Pro, and Business.
- Transacting with Alertpay is secure. At no time does Alert Pay divulge the contents of your credit card details to the vendor. They are an accredited financial institution (based in Canada) who carefully verify each user. You are required to scan and send them a copy of your identity document or passport, as well as a current bill, as per FICA requirements, in order to be an Alertpay VERIFIED user. Being a VERIFIED user, gives your customers complete peace of mind that you are a real person and not a scam artist! I have personally been transacting with them for well over a year, and they are fantastic, efficient and really the answer to a WAHM’s prayers when it comes to accepting credit card payments online from customers!
- How do you get the money? Once you’ve opened an Alertpay account, you can link it to your bank account. Only YOU can choose to ‘upload’ or ‘withdraw’ funds, they are not able to access your bank account for any reason, merely verify that you are the owner of the account, so your Alertpay account and the bank account you choose must be in the same name.
- To withdraw funds is easy, once your bank account is linked (you can link a savings, cheque or credit card account), you instruct Alertpay to pay all or just a percentage of your Alertpay balance into your bank account. There is a set fee for doing this and it is withdrawn from your balance before they pay the rest into your bank account. It is very low compared to what you would pay if you had to go to the trouble of opening a merchant account, obtain the necessary machines to process card transactions, and then still deal with foreign currency exchange regulations as well – which brings me to my next point:
- You can accept payment from anyone in the world, and in a very large number of currencies. You can convert from any of these currencies into your local currency (at no charge) before withdrawing the funds to your bank account, saving you even more money.
- One of the really great things about Alertpay is the ability to send money around the world, quickly and easily especially to friends and family to and from overseas. All they need is an Alertpay account of their own, and your email address.
- If you hold funds in your Alertpay account, it does not incur any monthly fees, nor does it earn any interest. The amount remains static until you use it or withdraw it.
Alertpay is the fastest way to begin to accept credit cards and earn money through online transactions, and selling your own products and can be an absolutely invaluable tool to WAHMs starting their own business.
Why not sign up for an account now? Remember its free, and one of the most affordable ways of transacting! Your business is a drop in the ocean, and Alertpay is one of the tools that will allow that ripple effect to reach around the globe.
