Curbside Conflicts

It’s Kaimey here, taking over the blog this week because I’m the grocery-shopper for the Elas, and I have something very important to discuss: grocery delivery and curbside pickup.

If your grocery store doesn’t offer curbside pickup or delivery of groceries yet, I’m sorry. You may suffer from serious FOMO while reading this.

It’s summer now and if there’s something every mom despises in the summer it’s hauling all of the children to the grocery store. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE extra time with my kids and getting to do all kinds of fun activities with them during the summer months. And I can even start out naively thinking, “This will be great. I will involve the kids in choosing our food. We’ll come up with lots of creative and fun things to make. We’ll even look at the prices and give them opportunities to compare costs and calculate totals.”

And then you actually get to the store. Somehow your kids have secretly decided there will not be a moment at the store where they will not be touching each other.  Must be touching, grabbing, pulling, hugging, wrestling or tickling at all times. They try to make you think it’s fun and great they’re getting along so well, but you are convinced this is more annoying than fighting.

They also cannot pay attention to other shoppers who may not find them as delightful as you’re obligated to. So you start out nicely saying to your kids, “Oh, please watch out around you and stay out of the way.” But you all know this doesn’t work. They only listen when you put on your mom look and whisper yell, “I SAID GET OUT OF THE WAY.”

During the grabbing and pulling episodes, they somehow manage to discover every item you’ve never bought previously and never intend to buy, and they are dying for it. They either beg incessantly or just silently throw it in the cart for you to find at checkout. You remember how sweet and innocent you were when you thought you would teach them about healthy choices and picking good produce.

If your kids are still at the age where they ride in the cart, give thanks to the good Lord right now. Everything changes when they are mobile. As a twin mom, I remember when I thought the dilemma was that a store didn’t have the double seats in the shopping carts. But when the kids are free-roaming, it’s a whole different experience. Wanting to push the cart, stopping right in front of me pushing the cart, hanging on the cart making it impossible to push…endless fun.

Enter curbside.

If you don’t know about curbside yet, here’s the skinny: You go online to your store’s website and while you’re in your jammies drinking coffee in peace, you throw items in your cart. You can get fancy here and actually meal-plan, loading all the ingredients for the week’s selected meals into your virtual cart. Or you can just think of things on the fly. Your call. They both work fine.

Toothpaste? Done. Ground beef? Loaded. Frozen pizzas? Get three.

When you’re done thinking through everything you need, you simply select the time you want to pick it up. A favorite strategy of mine is to select a semi-convenient time for Scott to pick it up so I’m removed from the task altogether.

You pay online and while you’re working, cleaning, running errands, or doing something that’s actually pleasant with your kids, someone else is conquering the aisles on your behalf. You pull up at the decided time, and an angel loads all of your items into your car for you, and you go home.

Victory Dance.

You can even select delivery instead of curbside and not even have to leave your house. I know society isn’t perfect, but we’re doing some things right, guys.

Now, here are some downsides:

• The produce. Sometimes they don’t pick the best ones, ok? I like to have really ripe tomatoes. And bananas with no brown spots and just the right amount of green. And probably just don’t even try avocados. BUT you can leave notes on items when you place your order, and I’m not above laying my preferences out there. You can be specific and still be nice.
• Almost every time I forget to put an item or two in my order. So then I have to go in anyway, stop by somewhere else for it, or just decide it’s not that important. Option C is typically where I land.
• It does take some time to get your online order completed. So it could be argued that it doesn’t really save time, it’s just changing what you’re doing in that time, shopping in the store vs. building your order online. It may not save time, but I feel like it could actually save money. (Read: no impulse buying!)
• And you do pay for the service. Which is finally getting me to the point of this blog. Is it worth the extra cost to do it?

People have asked Scott and me what we think. As a financial advisor, does he advocate paying extra for something we’re capable of doing ourselves? Is it wasting money or being unwise in spending?

This is a spending question, just like spending money on anything else. You’re paying for the convenience. You’re paying to not have to battle your kids at the store. You’re paying to not wander the aisles after a long day of work or on the weekends. You’re paying for someone else to spend the time grocery shopping, just like you might pay someone else to wash your car or clean your house.

And we are advocates for people spending money however best suits their lifestyle AS LONG AS they’ve saved what they need to already. If your financial strategy is to spend first and then save what’s left over each month, then of course, you’re going to stress over the necessity of every dime. And you’ll live in constant conflict with yourself.

If you save and designate money first (like we suggest here), then spend what’s leftover, it will be easier to decide if the extra cost is worth it for your situation. And it will be less stressful. Let us know if we can help you with your saving strategies to see if curbside is worth it for you.

I don’t know if it’s the right thing for you. But I DO know the only time Scott pushed back and asked if it was really worth it, I gave in and decided I could run in myself. And that day HEB and Kendra Scott had partnered up to gift every mom who used curbside a piece of jewelry for Mother’s Day. Guess who didn’t get it: me. Seriously! So now I’m done ever feeling guilty about it.   

And I’d rather be swimming with my kids then yelling for them to WALK BEHIND ME throughout the grocery store, so you’ll likely find me in the curbside spot this summer.