Food Delivery-One year later

 

Today, I am going to follow-up on a subject that I talked about two years ago.  At this time, I was not sure if I like the idea of having meals from my favorite restaurants delivered or not.  My feelings at the time were, if I could take the time to order from them, I could take that same amount of time to go into my kitchen and whip up a meal or two.  After all, there were three advantages of cooking your own meal.  One, I know what goes into my meals, two, I can shop my grocery store for those meals and spend less money on those ingredients that the restaurants have to buy in bulk and keep on hand because the entrée is on the menu, and three, I can portion control my meals.  In order for the person to get their money’s worth out of a meal, restaurants feel that bigger is better.  Not if you are watching calories.

I still have those feelings, but I now have a soft spot for companies like Uber Eats, Postmates, Grub Hub, and DoorDash.  You can read the original post, and see my results.

What’s changed?

Covid-19, that’s all I can say.  Before March 15, I ordered my meals to be delivered every once in a while.  I really did not have an excuse for ordering out. I had two other people living with me at the time.  It was my nephew and his girlfriend, and sometimes we would have a family meal, and sometimes they would have their meal and I would have mine.  We shared the groceries.  On February 23, 2020, they welcomed a baby girl into their lives, and they went to live with my parents while looking for a place of their own. So now, they live 5 minutes from me.  I have their cat, but as soon as they move, the cat goes with them. She is the sweet little thing. I am talking about both the baby and the cat.

When we sheltered in place, I was not sure how I was going to get my groceries.   This was new territory for me.  Luckily, I did start to order out, but I started getting bored with it. By July, when the governor said it was okay to open up the bars and other eating place back up, It was my cue to start getting back to normal. I was getting tired of pulling up the Uber Eats app on my Ipad, then I thought to myself that I really like this.

Uber Eats pros

Naturally, when I start to think about the pros of using Uber Eats (or any other delivery service) is the convenience.  Sure, there is the “I’m too tired to cook”, and when you have to deal with kids all day and you are sick of cleaning, and you feel like unappreciated by these tiny humans, the last you want to do is to cook for them. This option is also a plus if you are a single person like me who has no kids and you now work remotely from home. I usually order something that I would normally not cook in the kitchen like poke or sushi. Both are easy to make (I have made them before) I do not have the proper skills to make them.  After all, it is not easy cutting up raw fish.

The next pro is no cleanup.  It is nice to get out your paper plates or eat right out of the container, with the utensils they provide, then throw away once finished with your meal.

The last tip is to save on gas.  Most of our lives are spent traveling in a car unless you are unable to afford one.   One of the problems I have especially in the winter months is the routine one must do to prepare to go to a simple place a drive-thru.  First, you plan where you want to go, put on shoes, 10 points if it is snowing really badly, then it is booted.  Next, put on the outerwear, another 10 points if what you are wearing is a double-layered parka, I bought one at Costco last year, that thing is so cozy, too bad I cannot drive in it.  I will have to explain to you my whole winter month ritual while driving when January comes around.  If there is snow on the ground and roads, retreat, or risk doing donuts on black ice. Get to the fast food place and you better have exact change or your debit card out.  At the moment, coins are scarce in the United States.  Put in 10 more points if they get your order right, another 10 for a nice teen.

Cons of using food delivery by Uber Eats

I already mentioned two of them:

Not a good choice for calorie counting.  If you are looking to see how many calories your favorite sandwich in your favorite eating place, this is not it.  Even though they are required by law to disclose that information, sometimes they do not. The best place to find out is to go to the restaurant’s website and look around.

Same with Macro counting, which I will be starting next week.

Budget:  Not good.  Listen, if you want to save money, cook it yourself.  Your card gets charged twice.  Once for the food itself, then the fees for the service.  You will see it on your statement.  It is a small charge but added up over time, it can take a chunk out of your budget.

Items can go missing.  Three weeks ago, I order a drink with my meal.  I do not order one that often because I am trying to stay hydrated and have water with my meals.  Not only that, but it is also easier to have this stuff at the house.  Like I said, I only order food that I cannot recreate in my own kitchen.  Anyway, I felt like having some iced tea.  I did not have any in the house, not even a teabag.  I had sugar, but no tea. So, with my poke bowl, I place a bottle of iced tea in my cart and paid for it.  When the meal arrived, no tea.  I stated that on the review site.  I hope I get my $2.00 refunded.  This was the second time this happened.

So, the question remains today, do I still like food delivery despite the pandemic.  Um, yes.  I love it.  Before I can put this post away, I want to talk about the other type of food delivery.

Shopping for groceries…

You heard me right, having your groceries delivered, more important, delivered with other items.

I have used Target’s delivery for two months.  I miss going into the store, but you know, Covid-19.  So far, I love it.  The first two deliveries, I paid $9.99 for the delivery charge, and the third time, I signed up for Shipt.  The one thing that I noticed about Shipt is how inventive the driver is. I had been tempted to use Shipt for a while, but I never had the nerve to use them before now.  The first is free, and then it is $99 annually.

Likewise, I used Kroger’s delivery, and I was not pleased with it at all.  I ordered at the store that I normally shopped at (which was the one near my doctor’s office, while the one near my house sucks), and they switched the order to the one by my house.  They did not get half the items I asked for.  I knew now all stores are the same, even if they are from the same company.  I thought that at least they would have the substitutions, and they did for a few, but not all of the items I asked and paid for.   

One of the food services I did not mention that I used was Walmart.com.  I used them when the pandemic started.  I never got out of my car, and yes, they do deliver, but the store they would have delivered from, is like the Kroger’s close to my home.  It is not in a favorable location, and they do not care about the products that I would be looking for.  The reason I stopped picking up from the location was they too had a lot of substitutions or were out.

I think that most of the time, it was when I had the groceries delivered or when I picked up.  They were later on in the day when products have been picked over.  I work at home and I need my beauty sleep, which is no excuse for not getting the quality of foods that I seek.  This is not a problem for prepared food delivery, but keep in mind if you use Uber Eats that each restaurant does have an inventory of entrees that made for delivery. 

 

Sites mentioned in this post:

 

Uber Eats

Kroger’s

Target

Walmart       

Part 3 Decorating the Home and Taking Care of Family During the Holidays

The holidays are about decorating, right?  You are only half right.  In fact, I would be happy if the house was not decorated, meaning I am not going to stress out if I do not have any decorations.  You do not have to be elaborate with the decorations.

This reminds me of a little story called, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.  In the story, turned in a 30-minute television special in 1965, Charlie Brown is in search of the Christmas spirit, so Lucy suggested that he direct the Christmas play.  Meanwhile, Snoopy, his dog is decorating his doghouse.  Now, how many dogs you know who can do that?

If you know the story, you will see that Charlie bought a little tree, whose pines keep falling, and brought it back to the school, to which the other children made fun of the decision he made.  So, after his friend, Linus talked about the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown took the tree and gave it an ornament from Snoopy’ s doghouse, which won first place.  He places the ornament on the tree, and it falls over, devastating him more than when the children made fun of him.  If your decorations feel like Charlie’s then you are missing the point of my analogy. 

If you have very little decorations from the beginning, you can always do what the children did to the tree after Charlie left.  They were secretly following Charlie Brown to see what he was going to do next.  When they saw him walking sadly away they decided, with Linus’s help to fix the little tree, and when Charlie came back to the tree, it has been transformed into this beautiful little tree, and they wished him a “Merry Christmas” and sung.  One day during the season on the My Ambiance Life blog, I may talk about the true meaning of this cute, little show.

How are your decorations?

Obviously, in the story, we see two decorators, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Charlie decorates very little, entertains very little (See A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, equally as funny, yet meaningful).  He is not the life of the party, and this is the same kid, who is modeled after Charles Shultz’s childhood, who got rocks in his Halloween bag (It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown), never got to kiss the little red-headed girl (You’re in Love, Charlie Brown, It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown, and Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown), and finds out that he is not the first owner of Snoopy (Snoopy, Come Home).  If this is you, take solace in knowing that you are not alone.  Snoopy, on the other hand, loves to decorate, cook, and dance.  This is not a chore for him.  Nothing phases him, and he is glad to do it.  Snoopy also takes care of his own (to a certain point).

This is not a comic strip.

Of course, I am comparing real life to a comic strip, and we are not adults who go “Blah, Blah, Blah” when we talk.  This is the real deal, and this is Part 3 of a 3-part series on the holidays.  Part 1, covered on My Ambiance Life, introduces you to the series, and in another post, talks about taking care of you and your mental health during this time of the year.  Part 2, which is on P. Lynne Designs blog, talks about going homemade for gifts and decorations.  In Part 3, I will be tackling how to decorate and entertain on a budget, organizing everything, and taking care of your family during this time.  I hope you will take from this tip on how to decorate like Snoopy on a “Charlie Brown” budget.

Decorating on the cheap (or fake it til you make it).

I like nice things, and I love decorating even more.  Sometimes, especially the last couple of years while I am trying to pay bills and putting together my business, P. Lynne Designs, I may not have the fancy stuff to decorate and make my home livable.  In fact, sometimes it is hard to do so.  I know what I like and do not like.  I try to come up with ways that I can do that on a budget.  December is the month where I draw up my budget for the next year, so I have to know how much I am allowing myself to spend on new decorations.

Last year, I went to Dollar Tree, and in a way, I have become sort of a Dollar Tree snob.  Now, I do not buy everything at Dollar Tree.  I do go to Target, Walmart, Ikea, and even At Home if have to.  I also look to see what I can make, now that I have a Cricut Maker to use and a new sewing machine.   This year, I have to be careful because of the cat.  I want to make sure that I do have cat-friendly products, so I nor my nephew have to run to do an emergency run to the vet.  I am also working on a budget of $200 (low end) to $500 (high end), but closer to $200. 

One of the things I do advise to signup with lots of rewards programs.  I have signed up with Ebates, Be Frugal, Dosh, and Acorns.  Each one of these programs, I linked my debit card to that program.  The way these programs work is you shop as normal.  When you go to a store that one of these programs are attached to, you will get money back.  It may not happen right away, but it is like paying yourself for shopping. 

Ebates (which I have been with since 2010), sends a “big check” 4 times a year, which I am not happy with (I want to be paid once a month, LOL), allows you to shop both online and in store.   With the in stores, you have to activate online in order for your card to tell Ebates you have been shopping.

Be Frugal works the same way as Ebates, except you do not have to enter a debit card on your account.

Dosh and Acorns work the same.  You put your card number in, and every time you shop, you are automatically given a cash back to our card.    

Entertaining your guests.

Plan your holiday dinner NOW, if you have not already started.  You can find some great deals similar to the ones I mentioned above.  I am a member of Kroger and Giant Eagle rewards program.  If you do not have time to shop, use the delivery programs, such as the ones that Kroger has or Shipt.  Be mindful of food delivery services as some do have a fee. Shipt is $99 yearly or $14 monthly.  So, if you do not have it in the budget or will be shopping on the way home from work, this may not be a good fit for you and your budget.

The way to create a budget is to figure out how many people you will have over for dinner then figure out the cost per person.  in the case of my family, which includes my parents, brother and wife, sister, me, oldest nephew and girlfriend, my brother’s youngest, and my sister’s two children (oldest is my brother’s child), this adds up to 11 people.  I am going to round up the price from USA Today estimate of $49.87, reported in 2016 to $55.00 in 2018, and we have the cost down to $5 for each person.  Of course, you may have more or less depending on where you live.

Last on this part is family.

Family, rather you are married, single with or without children, or with a partner, is important especially this time of the year, and it is important that you do not leave them out.  So, I combine this segment into something I like to call, “divide and conquer”.  

The way it works is a combination of organizing teamwork and individuality, and everyone has to cooperate to get things done.  You are the overseer of all things.  In decorating, do the task at the same time, but assign each person with a task.  Someone gets and decorates the tree, another hangs the garland around the house.  You have little children, they can set things up like the nativity scene, the Menorah, or unity candles for Kwanza, anything that is safe for them to do.  No glassware type stuff and only if they can handle it. 

For cooking, you can have a potluck if you have extended family.  You provide the meats and main stuff while you have someone bring in the side dishes.  See how that works.   If you are sending out cards, one person can address the cards while the other can sign the cards.

In between all of that hustle and bustle, rest, take in a movie night with your family.  See other decorations or have story time with the kids.  Do not forget some coupling times as well.  It is more important to be with family then to plan for the annual holiday party at your house.  Have a family get together with the kids.  My family gets together on Christmas Eve, have our main dinner, maybe open one present (save the rest for in the morning), and have movie night of whatever is on Netflix or Hulu.  Not sure about this year since mom and dad are asked to do the reading of the final advent candle at church, but we will make it work.

This concludes this series on making the holidays work without the stress.  Please check out part 1 on My Ambiance Life and part 2 on P. Lynne Designs blogs.

Until then, my Peace come upon the Earth and have fun.

Your Food is Ready for Delivery

(c) 2018 by Various Websites such as Shipt, Amazon, Walmart,
Blue Apron, and unknown restaurant.
Photos Arranged by P. Lynne Designs

Disclaimer:  I have links to many of the services you will see on in this post that I may or may not receive a small commission.  The commission helps me with maintaining this blog and other business things.  I like to inform readers of these services and you are not obligated to make a purchase. Thank you

A few years ago, I wrote in my blog, Simply Organized Crafts, an article on home meal prep services.  At the time, I was a willing participant of Blue Apron (not sponsored).  By willing participant, I bought the service with my own money.  The blog post was not a sponsored post, and I did a review on what I thought about it.  I also did a product review on my YouTube channel.  You can watch it here.   The reason I loved Blue Apron (and other home meal services) was the convenience of having to prepare a meal, delivered to your home, and you do not have to go out or hunt down the ingredients at an international food store which you are not familiar with.  You get a hot meal with your family which you actually cooked, and you get to spend time at the dinner table.  This is something that experts say we no longer make time to do anymore.  The food is fresh, and it can make time for couples and or families to share together a hot meal. From there came grocery store home delivery services.

Grocery Store Delivery

Grocery stores looked at this and felt that people no longer wanted to shop in their stores, especially when Amazon offers food delivery services, and with the acquisition of Whole Foods, other chains were starting to feel the pinch of fewer shoppers to their stores.  So, they started delivering food to homes as well.  Companies like:

Peapod

Shipt

Curbside (by Giant Eagle)

Walmart

Kroger Grocery Delivery (formally known as Clicklist)

Started popping up for home grocery delivery, turning the dreadful grocery shopping trip into a wonderful experience. Just think, you go to an app on your smartphone, pick out the items listed, select how many you need, and put it in your virtual shopping cart.  Two seconds later, you are in virtual checkout mode, paying for groceries via debit or credit card (sorry, not available for those with an EBT/Snap card).  A personal shopper is picking out your groceries and other items and getting them prep for pickup by you or delivered to your location of choice.  How convenient is that concept?

Restaurants want some love too.

Since I no longer have the blog, I cannot refer you to the post on home grocery or home meal prep, but that is not the point to this post.  I am here to talk to you about the convenience of coming home, too tired to cook, and having a hot, delicious meal delivered to your home by your favorite restaurant faster than you can say, “pizza!”.  This service was started by the concept of delivering pizza and has grown to include steak, cakes, bubble tea, and even sushi for starters.  Services like Grub Hub, Door Dash, and others have made it fun to eat out, and the best part is you get to stay at home, warm and comfy in fall and winter months with your family.  Even Uber is getting into the act.  Not only do they deliver people to their destinations, but they will also deliver your food as well.

I started using Uber Eats a few months ago.  I was bogged down with working and too tired to cook.  Actually, I was close to running out of my monthly stash, and I wanted something different.  I ordered a dish from a local Italian street food place called Piada, and order a bowl dish and some cannoli chips with a spread for dipping.  I paid by debit card, including the delivery fee of $4.99, and in 20 minutes, I was eating my meal and continued working.  The last time I used it was 2 days ago when I ordered a Poke Salad (not very good) and some Thai Iced Tea with Ginger in it (it was very good).  My total was $13.00 for the meal, plus a delivery fee charge of $6.99, making the total, $21.99.  The difference between the two delivery charges depends on the distance between the eating place and your home.  In other words, mileage for the driver.  Could I have gotten up and driven the place?  Yes, I could have, but once again, I was bogged down with work, and having no time to cook.

I Need Some Backup For my Claims…

Certainly, I am not the only one who uses these services.  Yesterday, I asked my Facebook friends if they have ever used a restaurant delivery service like Grub Hub, Door Dash, or Uber Eats, and out of 1,080 friends, I got 3 answers.  A friend uses it at least once a week, another only use it for pizza, and the last friend uses it by ordering and picking it up herself, while a family member uses it for pizza only.  She also mentions that she mostly cooks and take out (which is where all of this originated from) is very rare in her home.  I also asked if it affects the family dynamic by not cooking together and the last person who answered my question said that it does not matter if the meal is home cooked or not, what’s important is the family sits down for a meal together.

Family Matters

I happen to agree with my friend.  We need to sit down to eat together as a family, no matter where you are; no phones or computers, sit down and have a conversation with your children, your spouse or partner, a roommate, your parents, or anyone who is living with you.  A person does not need to feel like a guest in their own home.  During this time, play a game called, Catch-up.  In this game, the rules are very simple. 

Ask the people around the table how their day was before the meal was prepared or delivered.  You do not have to ask for report cards, reprimand a child for not taking out the trash, or ask a spouse where the water bill was $200 this month.  This is a time of peace, good conversation, and a hot meal.  Enjoy each other, and the only rule is to leave the electronics where they are.  No phone conversation, no texting, no playing the latest game, and no scheduling of play dates, hair and nail appointments, or in my case, business appointments.  If there has to be a problem to be solved, do not come to the table mad, explain in a calm, peaceful way, and listen with intention.  Do not criticize the person in need and do not belittle them.  It is not easy for them to come to you in the first place. If you must correct people, especially children, do it in a calm, peaceful manner.  I am not trying to tell you how to parent, but if you want a peaceful time to eat and enjoy a meal, this is not the time to yell and scream at a person.  The world is stressful enough without making dinnertime a place of stress as well.  Not only that, it does nothing for the digestive system when you are trying to eat, and you tense up due to stress at the table.

Conclusion:

There are some many ways of getting hot meals today.  This includes cooking the traditional way (going to the grocery store to pick up what your heart desires or have it delivered, and sling pots and pans), home meal kits (prepare a meal based on a recipe and ingredients, handpicked by a company, delivered to your home, and slinging pots and pans for a delicious meal); or order in (restaurant prepares the food and you either pick it up or have it delivered to your home).  It is not a new concept.  Even fast food eating places are getting into the act.  You can order McDonald's, Wendy’s, or White Castle from the comfort of your own home and have a company like Uber Eats deliver it there.  Some call it lazy while others call it convenience.  I am on the side of convenience.  Some people cannot cook, nor do they want to.  I have also done the traditional, “order pizza in, skip the lines to get a table.”  I do have one delivery service, who I do not recommend, but only because the delivery fee was $36.00.  I cannot remember the name of the service, but for the same meal from the same restaurant I was ordering from, the delivery could have been $6.99, the same fee as the one I ordered from two days ago.  (they are within a block from each other).   This is the only thing that I have to ask you to watch, the delivery fee.  Ask yourself before you put in your debit or credit card number if the food and the delivery fee worth it, especially if you are on a budget.  It may be more convenient for you to drive over and pick it up or not order at all.

Also remember, it is not if the food was cooked by you or Mickey D’s (McDonald’s), what matters is family, and it is more important that you spend time with them. 

I want to thank my three Facebook friends for answering my question, Friday.  I will have more questions to help me with future blog posts later on, and I do not have to mention your name unless you want me too.

You have a blessed day.