Can't deal with grocery stores anymore!

I am so ****ing tired of grocery shopping! It is so damn hard to buy groceries without a freaking car and ****** public transportation and nobody to help me!

I am irate. I went to Walmart today to use some gift cards on some food items and snacks to hold me over until late next week when the person that normally takes me is free. I decide I want to splurge on a bit of alcohol and buy a bottle of champaine for New Years because I feel like I deserve at least that for all the hell I've been through. I rode the bus there and took a Lyft home and all was fine until I dropped the bag with the chanpaine in it and ruined a whole bag of groceries! Oh and I got glass shards stuck in my hand when I tried to salvage what wasn't ruined by alcohol!

I normally buy in bulk when I can get my ride but he's so busy all the time because his work schedule is unpredictable (he is a Limo driver who fills in as a delivery driver during the week when there isn't enough Limo runs) so he can get called in at any time which makes getting a ride difficult and I sure as **** can't be expected to haul 100lbs of groceries all the way up to my upstairs apartment all on my own! But it's either do that or go once a week and grocery shopping is too damn stressful and triggering for me.

I'm at point where I'm ready to say **** it and just start ordering food from now on. I'm currently on food stamps and get more than I can use because they only use my student job as basis for my income and not all the financial aid I get. I feel like other people can use the aid more than me as it is and it's becoming time to renew them but I'm about ready to say **** it and just get a Shipt membership since they just arrived at my city thankfully. I can get a yearly membership at a deep discount for being a student so even though I would be losing a lot of money by getting off food stamps it is so damn stressful going to the grocery store that it's worth it to just pay $100-200 more per month and have my groceries delivered to me. Besides, if need be I'll just tap into my unused student loans. IDGAF at this point if this continues I am seriously gonna snap and run my cart into somebody!

I hear you about the struggle of lugging groceries into a higher level floor in an apartment building. I've looked into the delivery services, myself, but they just do not carry the key specific brands that my kids just will not live without.
I do have cleaning supplies and paper goods delivered from one company. And there are some items that are staples that can be purchased through Amazon. And I invested in a larger collapsable tote that fits in my trunk and can bear the weight of many things. It has straps that I can toss over my shoulder. And the clothe bags that many stores sell on site can fit three to four plastic bags worth of goods. I have filtered water so no need for cases or jugs of that. I live on the top floor of an apartment building, necessity is the mother of invention.
Immediately after my divorce I was without a car but lived on the bottom floor so I can also relate to that struggle. But even with a vehicle...or even with delivery...there's still multiple flights of stairs.

Sorry to hear about the dropped bottle

Is Shipt not available in your area?

Grocery Delivery - Shipt

You use it to buy from grocery stores. You pay online and buy from the same selection that's in the store including fresh foods and a driver drops the stuff off at your place within the hour. Membership is rather hefty ($99 per year or $49 per year with student discount) but it seems so worth it at this point.

Honestly tho I would say if the stores that Shipt works with in your area doesn't have the brands your kids want make them use an alternative brand. Tell them to either eat that brand or go hungry. That's how I was raised and that's how I would raise a kid in the very unlikely event I had kids.

Sorry that happened. I kind of can relate. I hate the drudgery of going to the store itself. I hate that I always have to go when it is busy because that is the "flow" you get into when you work full time... doing everything when it is busy because that is the only time available.

At one point I actually paid someone to do my grocery shopping for me.. but it was no better. There was a drudgery of every Tuesday night having to make up a list and every Wednesday having her write a note that said they were "out" of whatever it was I wanted and so that meant on Saturday I had to go anyway... so what was the point?

I suppose delivery would work but I am just too cheap.

Such a pain in the ***, no? well at least there is Starbucks and DD at stores these days

Lots of people say that, but when push comes to shove best laid plans fail to work out as intented. I gave it a go for a 2 week trial. Now guess what I cannot get? My seltzer water. It's all through Target(only local grocer listed other than Shaw's nearby which went out of the area) which is an ok alternative nearby and they have some oddball items that when I do go there I pick up. But they only sell sparkling water which is a no go for me.
They'll deliver in the morning a small but justifiable enough order.

I'm at the point to where I am seriously considering using the programming knowledge that I've been gaining at school to write a bot script that automatically buys a list of stuff through that delivery app every week and checks out with the credit card I keep on file at a specific date/time that I am always at home so I can get food and do no work whatsoever. That's how lazy I am LOL

Haven't tried them yet but a friend praises them and showed me how the ordering process works and is pressuring me to sign up with his referral link so he gets free money. Looks like I might do things this way even if it is more expensive for me and they don't have everything I want. Anything beats dealing with idiots and annoying kids at the grocery store only to have to haul tons of groceries around.

True enough.

I prefer to buy coffee in bulk though. Normally I buy a big bulk bag of whole coffee beans at WinCo but when/if I start using Shipt I'll just go back to ordering 5lb bags of coffee off Amazon. Price is comparable in both places anyways.

I stand corrected about seltzer water. After playing around with it a little, I discovered that using a specific brand name the word seltzer is out but it is a brand I've used.
Just received a text telling me that she has begun shopping and will be here shortly. The message said that there was noone in my area to do the shopping but she has taken my order and is shopping for it.
And the $99/yr fee translates to $8/month and my cell plan just started adding amazon prime as a bonus feature so there's that swapping out of annual memberships...

Nice.

Which phone plan gives free prime?

That would be good to know for when my yearly prime expires.

I like this delivery service, thanks for the info. There's not really much up here. The one service I can buy certain things in their store but not through their delivery service. I'm going to take the month and see how it goes. My prime is up in February.

I have been using MetroPCS for years(2011). The downside is buying a phone outright but then I don't get socked with a monthly rental/loan payment fee. Recently, they introduced Prime as free to all customers. My exh swapped his prime account over without any complications. Mine comes due this winter so I haven't called metro yet to set that up.
But for $60/month I get unlimited everything. No complaints with coverage either, I've been to all sorts of places in this country without much of a hitch and sometimes coverage in spaces other providers don't seem to work as well.

Good to know for future reference.

I never finance phones myself. To me it's a waste of money buying a brand new phone when it first comes out. I sniped my used LG V20 that came out in late 2016 about 6 months later off eBay for around $200. I do that instead of financing or buying from the store because the price tags on the phones at the phone store are much higher. Also brand new phones usually offer very little compared to phones from a year earlier.


After all, why pay $1000 for a phone that offers very little over the previous model when the same phone can be bought for under $300 6-12 months later?

I'm with you there about first wave tech gadgets, including phones. I know that I can bring into service unlocked phones. Sometimes, I snag one on sale. I'm a fan of my LG Stylo first gen. Though I'm considering a new phone in the near distant future 6months-1 year, I'm also waiting around to see what transpires with 5G technology.

I am a "grocery lugger" myself since I don't drive. When we had our room mate, it was not a problem but he moved to be closer to his job as he is not up to the drive every day. When my husband is home of course there is no problem. Like you, I buy in bulk, especially for all the pets. BUT..lucky me...I have the pharmacy, grocery store, doctor, dentist, and even the hospital, in about a two block radius. The small hospital even has a medi-vac chopper pad. I don't like to grocery shop because it is boring. Now shopping for the pets or for fun stuff...I'm there!! Hope you have a good day...

Use a grocery store with its own delivery service. You might have to bite the bullet and do without those products you prefer. Remember, they are a preference not a requirement. It is only fair that such adjustments be made.

Another possible solution is to use paratransit. Your mental health might qualify as a disability and thus you could be entitled to transportation. This unfortunately will mean having to rely on their schedule not yours but heck, it is a solution anyway. Also, I wonder if you are on disability or social assistance. Most that I have heard of have a provision for transportation costs. You are still reliant on someone else but, heck too, this is better than what you are doing now right?

I'm so sorry you have to deal with all of this, DarknessIsMyFriend If you feel like ordering everything online may be a better solution, then I'd say go for it. Just be careful with the extra money you're going to spend. Let us know how it goes. Sending many hugs to you

I looked into both Amazon Prime Pantry and Walmart's delivery service and both options would be more expensive than the delivery option I'm considering.

As for your other suggestion, disability transit services aren't a viable option because I work and go to school so I can't just work around other people's schedules. If I could, I would just rely on my relative instead. Unfortunately, his schedule is unpredictable since he's both a Limo driver and a delivery driver and he could get called into work at any given moment.

Also, the only public service I'm on is food stamps. I qualified only because they consider only my student job as basis for their low income requirements, despite the fact that I get an extra 2-4 grand a year in financial aid. I told them about my financial aid but they still gave me a pretty sizeable chuck of food stamps. I think there are other people that need such aid a lot more than I do and would rather the help be given to somebody in greater need than I am.


So yeah, I've made up my mind. Going to use up the last of my food stamps this week. I'm not going to renew them. I am going to get a Shipt membership since I qualify for a student discount with them. I should be OK financially. Worst case I tap into a small student loan to cover my other living expensive if it turns out grants/scholarships and my crap pay student job aren't enough on their own.

Wow, it sure is great to know that i'm not alone in how I feel on this grocery store subject. The older I get the worse it gets or so it seems. I do not have a vehicle any longer since I wrecked my a year ago. I have to depend on a friend who sleeps during the day when I need to get my business or grocery shopping done and wants to go late at night. By then i'm already in a bad mood because i'm tired and have to face all the "crazies" at the store. I have to go to a very popular low income store because i'm on a fixed income. So I have to deal with people who are greedy, mean, irate, begging for food or alcohol and hog all the food. Plus they always have a problem at the check out counter. They either don't have enough of the money on one card and don't bother to check on the other card before they come to the store and make everyone wait for them in line. it's a control thing and drives me totally nuts. I literally have to come home and pray after I've done my shopping for either my bad thoughts that I have towards these people who get everything for free and still manage to make others miserable for pray for something wrong I shouldn't have said. I feel for all of you I do.

I definitely understand. For a while my husband and I didn't have a car and it was such a hassle to go grocery shopping. We had to go to a store that we didn't really like, instead of a nicer one closer to the house, because there was more reliable taxi service from there. Even so, at busy times, we had to wait a while for a taxi. Uber wasn't an option here at that time.


We tried online ordering, but the stores we tried would charge you the full amount and then sometimes they'd be out of something, so you wouldn't get the full order. Then you had to follow up to get a refund for the items they didn't have. It was a hassle.

We have a car again, but these days due to these awful neighbors that stole our parking spot, we have to park several blocks away from the house. So, we either have to limit the weight of what we buy to be able to carry it, or make a stop at the house and then go park the car. Fortunately we are moving soon and will have a real driveway to park in.

Just updating you, that I'm choosing to give it a go with an annual membership with shipt. I had a bigger order last week. She helped carry it up for me this last time. Same person as my first time. I had left my big tote and a couple cloth bags in my apartment that I helped get it all into one trip.
The prices aren't any different than what I usually pay. Yes, I gave a tip. Found out that a friend a couple towns over is a shopper herself. So, it's certainly a valid business and reputable.
I noted contact for substitutions so she and I texted back and forth on a couple of items. I'm feeling stocked up at the moment and will use again in the coming week.