Note: There are affiliate links which benefit me and with Instacart both of us.
We are a “shop local, think global” family and so always recommend shopping locally. However, our ‘regular’ grocery store may not have a particular ingredient and no one has time to drive all over the county to find it. Never speak with your favorite store manager. You would be amazed how often that works = particularly in today’s competitive environment.
Using one of my often hard to find ingredients: Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten
If you would like to search without giving up too much personal details, your first step will be to look up the street address of your nearest Post Office. plug in your zip code and copy the address
The following links includes codes which may, if you buy something benefit us both. If it just makes your life easier by helping support local business without gallivanting all over – that is fine with me too.
next go to Instacart https://www.instacart.com/?code=WCARR1801EE
You will need to supply an address, so be ready to paste the Post Office address for privacy or use your own “if you don’t care” then just use your own.
Once you save the address, to Instacart will display a search bar (and a list of various stores served in your area.
Type in the ingredient – for example “Vital Wheat Gluten” hit return and poof, InstaCart will show you the stores in your area have be listed Vital Wheat Gluten in their on line offerings.
If you are lucky, you will see your regular store. If not, well where’s your spirit of adventure, expand your shopping horizons – visit a new to you location.
You can then click on each listing to compare pricing.
If all else fails, there is always using a search engine like https://duckduckgo.com/ Duck Duck Go or Amazon https://amzn.to/48Bvm6N Where I have a list that includes ingredients always likely to be in my pantry. Caveat: Amazon, but that is increasingly the most expensive option. and quite often you need to look at more than one – the most expensive option is usually listed first.
FRUGAL TIPLET: Instacart has added so many stores, and individual arrangements various quite a bit, for ingredients I always try to find those with “InStore Pricing” or, sometimes using the Retailer “dot com” may give you a better price.
Last but not least, I “threw this together” because of a question in our FB Bread machine group: KBS Bread Maker Tips, Tricks, and Recipes – still needs work, so in you are not fluent in “speaking in Wheat” – your comments and questions are welcome.
No matter your Middle Class Income bracket, Inflation is real. The Following is based on pricing “near me” from our actual expenditures (yes, one of my “hobbies” is Kitchen Table Economic Spreadsheets)
1
2020
2021
2022
%Inc
Aldi – House Brands
ct
ct
2
01.09
01.39
02.09
52.15%
Milk Whole Half Gallon
64
fl oz
3
02.02
03.59
04.29
47.09%
Butter Sweet
16
oz
4
02.10
01.79
02.79
75.27%
Creamer Coffee
32
fl oz
5
02.75
03.85
04.29
64.10%
Cheese American
15
oz
6
01.99
03.59
04.99
39.88%
Beef Carna Asada
16
oz
7
02.09
02.65
04.79
43.63%
Sourdough Loaf
24
oz
8
9
12.04
16.86
23.24
51.81%
Subtotal
10
11
45.41
50.22
10.59%
BGE
343
kWh
12
02.20
03.49
03.95
55.70%
Auto Gas Regular
128
fl oz
13
14
*ALDI prices often vary from area to area – Although ALDI has the lowest “mark up” among stores that do not offer “In-Store Pricing” – the above is based on delivery by Instacart I compared these with the same items in other states. Prices were similar
P.S. The Beef for Carne Asada or Carne Picada is excellent for use in Taco, Fajitas, Italian Beef, Chili, and pretty much anyplace you would use either ground or sliced beef – just change up the seasoning blends. AND… For someone with hand grip/arthritis issues, it is worth the extra few cents per pound
Although I have posted this link and comment to my small Aldi Aficionado group on Gab, I think I should start sharing some of those short posts here.
I know many people are not ALDI fan, but as a “reader of ingredient labels” My choices are more about nutrition than price (although that helps)
Still the title of this article is also an example of “headlines that annoy me” Spoiler: You Do No Pay To Use The Cart – You pay for the cost of having an employee return it for you.
I am putting this here so I can just give the link to “interested persons” This is “off the top of my head” so feel free to ask additional questions – eventually I will find a shopper/delivery person willing to help with additonal informtion and their viewpoint without jeopardizing their standing.
I recently, I opened a small group on the free speech platform GAB called ALDI Aficionados it is tiny, but if you happen to be a GAB member – please do drop by and talk “ALDI”
NOTE It does contain an InstaCart referral code which may result in benefit to your for your first order only and for me for a future order. If you do decide to give them a try, I hope you will consider using my referral code which “should” give you a free delivery and a credit to you and me for your 1st order https://inst.cr/t/NHE7cDZhr
Some details vary in different states, not all ALDI are currently partnered with ALDI and there are also differences (i.e. pricing varies even within the state and curbside pickup is very limited for ALDI
I think less than 5 of the 50 plus stores in Maryland.)
So the “bad news” first, There is a mark up per item averaging 10-14% depending on your area for ALDI. The prices you see are for the items in your nearest store – I played with this using family members zip code and as you know prices and partners (stores served) can vary from area to area even within the same state.
InstaCart has improved their website in the last few months, (added limited weekly finds available to order)
The “special request is still an exercise requiring patience “Most” but certainly not all of the current shoppers are relatively new and so may not be quite as good at subbing.
Tiplets: try to get a slot EARLY in the day. And right now expect that it may not arrive in the requested window. If you have a late day slot it is not uncommon for there to be insufficient shoppers at that time and so your order may get cancelled. Earlier slots (I try to get the 1st morning 10am-12 ) seem to be averaging about 1-3 hours later.
Be aware that as soon as you place your order, they will put thru an authorization against your debit or credit card. It will be higher than you order.
Since I want AM slots, I keep a running order until it hits the magic $35 needed for Express benefits. These benefits are no delivery fee, but there is still a service fee. And no upcharges based on time of day or day (I do not remember exactly since I have Express membership for a year, but it was several dollars before I did Express)
Just as if you went to the store yourself, if it is out of stock then depending on your instructions you will not get exactly what you want. The default is “let shopper choose” which I do not recommend. If you are fussy about brand, pick don’t replace. If you okay with alternatives, choose that and you can be detailed in the instructions. For example, my arthritis makes hard to lift a gallon of milk so I order two 1/2 gals 2%. . BUT my instructions are “If 1/2 gallon unavailable – okay to sub ONE gallon 2% or whole milk”
It is easiest to do the replacement and other instructions during the checkout, and MOST of the time those instruction now carry over from order to order.
Be prepared, especially if your order items price pound that your order may be higher than when placed. It may also be lower, InstaCart makes adjustments when it processes from an authorization to final total.
Refunds may take a few days to show up depending on your payment method.
It may be helpful to “keep an eye” on the order starting about 10 mins before your time slot and then once they start shopping – I wait until first item is moved to “shopped” = use chat to let them know you are available if they need you to approve subs.
Until this craziness (Covid-19), I preferred to put minimum tip on the order and then use cash on delivery. Anyone who has ever worked for tips will understand why but right now that may not be in your best interest.
With some many new folks working, I have gone to 15% when I place the order. The shopper can only see the value of the order “to them” – not sure what other info, but have been told definitely not the identity of the customer.
You can make changes (add/remove) right up until the InstaCart shopper official starts. Sometimes even while they are shopping if you use the chat function. To keep my “morning” slot I usually place the order as soon as I get to $35, and then add as needed. Why $35 = because that is the minimum merchandise amount needed for your Express benefit (free delivery, no service fees related to time and day requested)
Rarely have they upped the hold authorization against my card – which really only matters if you are using a bank debit card.
It may or may not be important – but if applicable – in most case EBT WIC and other government subsidy for food cannot be used. This varies from state to state – even when they are acceptable “in store”
The markups are a percentage, so if you start with a higher price such as you might find in Safeway or Kroeger then the actual $$’s will also be higher. It also varies according to Instacart’s agreement with a particular chain.
I do know the 5 “shippable” items I get from BJ’s every month or two are marked up a minimum of 20% AND the delivery and service fees were much higher than using Safeway & BJ’s own services.
And again, the percentage and base price seems to vary wildly from area to area even within a state.
A note about the Instacart Express “deal” With ALDI it is usually okay, but for other stores often much higher percentage. However in these times, since they partner with many places in my area including BJ’s & Costco for fresh foods as well as many of the Albertson chain of stores (our area has many Safeway) Petco, CVS, and a few others.
The down side is that If for example your local Safeway has a weekly special for hamburger or a bogo, those will NOT apply when you order thru Instacart.
I don’t know “for sure” about Costco – but for BJ’s their 2 day ship (which means right now it takes about 7-10 days to arrive) is about 20-25% less costly. So we try to get things that cannot be shipped when we have medical appts closer to the store.
Ongoing, if there are items you frequently order, do “Favorite” them. There is an option to shop your Favorites and that can be a time saver. Annoying and time consuming but a big convenience as you go forward.
If you do opt for the Express membership – it can be used for any of the stores in your area that are partnered with InstaCart. It may not be possible to see what stores are partnered in your zip code until you have created your account. And you will need give InstaCart your loyalty card or membership number. So you if you want to use InstaCart for BJ’s and Costco, etc, you will need a membership. InstaCart charges are additional.
Hope your experience turns out as positive as mine have been
I continue to be grateful for both the ALDI employees & InstaCart shoppers and other delivery services
If you have other questions, I will be happy to help if I can.
Again, I recently, I opened a small group on the free speech platform GAB called ALDI Aficionados it is tiny, but if you happen to be a GAB member – please do drop by and talk “ALDI” or use the newly returned private chat option to reach me @wheat is my screen name (yeah I always use my real name)
If you are a shopper/delivery person willing to help with more information to help your customers work with you, please comment (they won’t be made public) with how to reach you by email.
February 15th, 2020 at 11:58 am » Comments (0)
Frugal Beginner’s Tiplet: Meal Planning McCormick Spice has always been a decent brand and
has a pretty good newsletter. This week , their topic is Meal Prepping
The kind that helps you eat healthier and less expensively with home cooked meals inside of picking up Drive thru on the way home. This article is very basic but may help those new to “Frugal Living” get started. This is a recipe from their website that could easily be prepped ready to slide into my Ninja Foodie Oven – It was not needed to make any significant changes, to take advantage of the Ninja Foodi Digital Oven’s capabilities.I tend to follow the concept presented by Janet Zimmerman to leave temperatures the same but start checking for “desired degree of doneness” at about 3/4 the time suggested by the recipe.
Speaking of Janet Zimmerman concepts, another of my favorites is that the “rule of thumb of reducing temp by 25 degrees F should be replaced by using a percentage. It has been my experience that 15% works for me and still following the check for doneness beginning at 3/4 the suggested time. Sheet Pan Chili Chicken Tacos | French’s
I am putting this here so I can just give the link to “interested persons” This is “off the top of my head” so feel free to ask additional questions – eventually I will find a shopper/delivery person willing to help with additonal informtion and their viewpoint without jeopardizing their standing.
I tend to follow the concept presented by Janet Zimmerman to leave temperatures the same but start checking for “desired degree of doneness” at about 3/4 the time suggested by the recipe.