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.
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.
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