Really. I would. I do prefer to sew and I’ve gotten into some bad shopping habits.
For example, I’ve been popping into the shops for just one item that is in my head, then getting home to find I needed other things as well. I’ve been doing a couple of shops a week when I could have done just one big shop. A couple of times I’ve gone to make dinner and realised that my pantry is missing some of the basic ingredients that I assumed would be there. Or worst of all I’ve been forced to shop after school or on weekends WITH KIDS!
To try to overcome all these bad habits I have tried online shopping again at Woolworths, and it works for me. I’m not using it every week but there have a been a couple of weeks lately when I have done my order online and realised that it actually leaves me with more time to sew. Win!
Last week I spent an hour sewing a new peg bag for my washing line rather than shopping – an hour that was much more fun than walking around the shop with a trolley and carrying groceries to my car. With Woolworths I can create the order online as I think of it during the day, then lock in a delivery time and wait for that knock on the door.
I’ve found one of the easiest ways to make sure I get everything is to look at the My Favourites list in my account. Once you log in online you’ll find this at the top right of the screen. This list is simply things I have bought before online or with my Everyday Rewards card so it includes all my usual brands without the searching. You can then tick off things on the list and click “Add checked items to trolley”. Sometimes that is my list taken care of just on this page! (Back to the sewing machine!)
The latest clever function I have found on the Woolworths online shopping site is the “Shop from your List” button, a little grey button that looks like a shopping list with a tick to the right of the search box at the top of the page. This triggers a pop out where you can type your shopping list. Then you click on the “Find these products” button and you will be shown items to add to your trolley. For example, my list started with ‘milk’, so the next screen showed all the various milk products for me to choose one. In each case it suggested items I had bought before at the top of the page so it was a very quick way to shop.
This really avoids the endless searching through the categories that I did the first time I shopped online. In fact, that was one of the things I really didn’t like about using the Internet to shop for groceries: I couldn’t easily find the things I wanted among all the hundreds of items. But I’ve noticed that the more I use this service, the easier it is. Part of that is my own familiarity with the site, but some of it is the way it remembers my items and suggests them to me again. I like to buy the same brands so this suits me.
Woolworths also has a smart phone app and it includes some clever features. There is a scan item function where you can scan the barcode of something in your pantry. Once the app finds the item, you can add it to your trolley or to a shopping list for later. Oh, how I love tech gadgets!
Right now Woolworths are running a competition for shoppers online. Just do your online grocery order and you go into the draw to win groceries for a year. Click on the picture for more information. If you’ve never used their service online before, there is free delivery on your first order too. Nice!
For me, there will be more online shopping. It is a way of managing my time that is worth the small delivery fee.
Now what will I sew next…?
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Woolworths. All opinions are my own, of course – yes, I really do love to sew instead of shop!
