Have you tried on-line grocery shopping yet? If not, tune into our blog for the next three weeks as we look at what on-line grocery shopping is and the pros and cons of on-line grocery shopping. If you have, send us a comment over the next three weeks and let us know about your experiences. Today I am going to give you an overview of on-line grocery shopping as I have experienced it.

Who: Justine Hoover. I plan meals and buy food for a family of five including my husband, an eight year old son, a six year old daughter, a two year old son, and myself.

What: On-line grocery shopping. I plan my meals and make my grocery list as usual. Then I log in to my account on the store website, choose my groceries, pay, and set up a time to get my groceries.

When: Every other week. I actually go grocery shopping once per week, but I have been alternating on-line grocery shopping with going to the store to shop. I do this because I like to shop at different grocery stores and two of my favorite stores do not have on-line shopping. I also like to take my children shopping with me sometimes so they can learn how to grocery shop.

Where: Two stores. There are two grocery stores in the community where I live that offer on-line grocery shopping. Both stores have grocery pickup – I drive my van up to a designated parking space, notify the store that I have arrived (either by calling or through an app), and then they load my groceries into my van. One of the stores has grocery delivery – they bring the groceries directly to my home.

Why: Three reasons. I decided to start on-line grocery shopping for many reasons, but here are the top three.

1.  Convenience – it is so easy to order groceries from my home and either have them delivered to my door or loaded into my van.
2.  Cost control – I can stick to my grocery budget much more easily because the website tracks my costs as I add items to my cart, and shopping on-line cuts down on impulse buys.
3.  Children – I had three children home with me all day, every day this past summer. I usually enjoy taking them shopping with me, but we decided there were other things we wanted to do with our time this past summer.

So far, these have been my experiences with on-line grocery shopping. Overall, they have been very good and I am excited to share the details with you. Join me for the next two weeks as I look more deeply into the pros and cons of on-line grocery shopping for my family.