**updated**-Dave Ramsey anyone?

So for y’all that order everything online, how do you do with produce and meat/seafood from the counter? Just take what they give you?

I like to pick through produce to get things not over ripe or old. Like Avacados. I’ll get two that are ripe, 2 that are almost ripe, and some tbat are firm, so that I have some for the week and not have to eat brown, mushy avacados on Friday.

Im picky with seafood and meat as well...


How do you work around things like that?

This is the main reason I haven't used the online services at HT...
 
So for y’all that order everything online, how do you do with produce and meat/seafood from the counter? Just take what they give you?

I like to pick through produce to get things not over ripe or old. Like Avacados. I’ll get two that are ripe, 2 that are almost ripe, and some tbat are firm, so that I have some for the week and not have to eat brown, mushy avacados on Friday.

Im picky with seafood and meat as well...


How do you work around things like that?
Also curious..
 
Amazon Elements wipes are good. I was buying either Pampers or Luvs diapers from Amazon and would still end up buying the Target brand if I was there for something else (like their brand of children's ibuprofen) because the cost was close enough not to matter.

It is definitely a luxury to go to the grocery store without 'help' but my children almost always go with me. Because life skills.

Round trip, it takes an hour and the store is 12-15 minutes' drive one way. They know the things we usually buy and know it's not ok to take things off the shelves unless I ask them to. They are old enough now that I can send one or two up the aisle, or even an aisle over, for something with confidence. They understand that we check for the lowest price and don't need to buy it if we have plenty at home. They help check over produce so we don't bring home anything bruised.

They also know some of the staff and converse with them easily. They help unload the cart, bag the groceries, and help unload and unpack when we get home.
I also like taking my daughter with me. (18 months old) she stays entertained the entire time and will hold the grocery list and like putting stuff in the cart. Usually wears her out, so we usually try to go and be back home before her nap and know that she will usually sleep good.
 
This is the main reason I haven't used the online services at HT...
Also curious..
When we do the walmart pick up, I have never had anything bad. Produce is good and most times we end up with more than we actually bought. I don't know if other places are like this, but with Walmart, if they don't have what you ordered in stock, they always upgrade you. I remember ordered 2 single rolls of paper towels and ended up getting an 8 pack instead...
 
So for y’all that order everything online, how do you do with produce and meat/seafood from the counter? Just take what they give you?

I like to pick through produce to get things not over ripe or old. Like Avacados. I’ll get two that are ripe, 2 that are almost ripe, and some tbat are firm, so that I have some for the week and not have to eat brown, mushy avacados on Friday.

Im picky with seafood and meat as well...


How do you work around things like that?
This is the main reason I haven't used the online services at HT...
When we do the walmart pick up, I have never had anything bad. Produce is good and most times we end up with more than we actually bought. I don't know if other places are like this, but with Walmart, if they don't have what you ordered in stock, they always upgrade you. I remember ordered 2 single rolls of paper towels and ended up getting an 8 pack instead...
Our experience has been the same as @Cherokeekid88. The paid shopper does a pretty damn good job. You get an opportunity to rate and give feedback on the order - this directly affects their rating at the store. One day Rachael sat and talked to her "shopper" for a few mins when she picked up the order from Walmart. It was an older guy who was super nice, she said he really enjoyed the idea of getting things for people and really just wanted to do the best he could for them. Now, there's no guarantee you'll always get somebody w/ that same attitude but to date it's worked out well for us.
Also, yeah, if they're out of stock you can end up w/ some crazy replacements as upgrades.

Regarding wanting a very specific level of ripeness... yeah, unless you can specify what you want, you're SOL there.
IIRC there is a place on the order form you can add a comment so you could probably specify there.
 
We should start doing that for the 1/3 to maybe 1/2 of our grocery shopping that Walmart would work for, so that 1/3 or 1/2 would be cheaper. Then we wouldn't have to make a special trip to whichever circle of hell that Walmart transforms into that week. We still need a second grocery store no matter what (Publix, awesome), because Walmart's selection is really poor. Normally we just don't ever go to Walmart because of that, unless I need 5W-30 and then we pick up stuff like toilet paper and deodorant while we're there.

It would probably be easier if we had kids and needed more generic stuff like ketchup and Kraft Mac 'n Cheese and Oscar Meyer bacon like normal people apparently buy. About 10-12 years ago, we could do a lot more shopping than now, before they realized they could slowly cut the number of products in half and most people wouldn't care.

Every time we leave there, she needs to see a therapist and I need to go to anger management. It's better if we go to the Walmart in Denver, which has more polite customers but is too far away just to go to a Walmart.
 
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So for y’all that order everything online, how do you do with produce and meat/seafood from the counter? Just take what they give you?

I like to pick through produce to get things not over ripe or old. Like Avacados. I’ll get two that are ripe, 2 that are almost ripe, and some tbat are firm, so that I have some for the week and not have to eat brown, mushy avacados on Friday.

Im picky with seafood and meat as well...


How do you work around things like that?

This is the main reason I haven't used the online services at HT...

Also curious..

We used HT service for a little while and were actually very pleased with their selections. So pleased in fact that we started thinking that they must spend the majority of their time picking out meat and produce so that you will be completely satisfied with their service. Then the started slipping a little bit. And if you're cooking something that takes specific ingredients that they don't have in the store then you have to start finding substitutions. In the long run it's easier to go to the store for 85% of our needs (store meaning grocer or Costco), we definitely still use the service from time to time though.
 
So for y’all that order everything online, how do you do with produce and meat/seafood from the counter? Just take what they give you?

I like to pick through produce to get things not over ripe or old. Like Avacados. I’ll get two that are ripe, 2 that are almost ripe, and some tbat are firm, so that I have some for the week and not have to eat brown, mushy avacados on Friday.

Im picky with seafood and meat as well...


How do you work around things like that?

To me, grocery store meat is trash anyway, so take what they give me. If I want good meat, I'm going to a butcher. Fruit/veggies...the wife tends to buy the 'expensive stuff' because we're convinced it ages better and lasts longer.
 
Fruit/veggies...the wife tends to buy the 'expensive stuff' because we're convinced it ages better and lasts longer.

I think it does last longer, but I've never researched about why that may be (or if it's just in my head). My theory is that a lot of the organic stuff may have a different distribution chain than much of the generic produce, so it's maybe treated better, or spends less time in a warehouse, or is artificially ripened with ethylene less, or something like that. Again, no actual facts behind that, just theories with no research.
 
Our organic fruit and veggies have a much shorter shelf life at the house, even when both seem to have the same ripe-ness at time of purchase. Organic avocados and bananas are notorious for having about half the shelf life after purchase than non-organic items of similar ripeness.
 
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I think it does last longer, but I've never researched about why that may be (or if it's just in my head). My theory is that a lot of the organic stuff may have a different distribution chain than much of the generic produce, so it's maybe treated better, or spends less time in a warehouse, or is artificially ripened with ethylene less, or something like that. Again, no actual facts behind that, just theories with no research.

Yeah, we don't have any tangible proof either, just the shelf test. I buy Walmart cheap fruit or aldi cheap milk, seems to turn in the matter of a day or two. I buy the $4/apple apples or the $6/half gallon milk...it seems to last for weeks.
 
Y’all are some milk drinkin fools.

the 4 of us go through a gallon about every 1.5 weeks. And some of that is from me cooking on weekends (pancakes, grits, etc). I don’t drink milk; last time I drank milk I was 9. So, I guess I don’t get the craze. My dad can drink a gallon a day if he doesn’t watch it. I don’t get it.
 
All I'm hearing is that kids really complicate everything.
Shopping with a lactose intolerant vegan is easy. She shops for herself and I shop for myself. We do like the same Wal Mart grape drink mix. So that's easy enough.

Edit: she has recently developed a gluten intolerance too. Multiple adjective grocery items are definitely not cheap.
 
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Totally worth it. I’d do it again too. Plus, I’ve learned and grown a lot because of them.

I joke about it from time to time, but I know I would enjoy being a father if that was the path I had chosen. Until then, I'm glad to see many of my friends be such awesome parents to their kids!
 
Anyways... off groceries and kids and on to other stuff...

Sometimes it makes sense to pay a higher bill off before a smaller one.

For example:

Owe $300, monthly payment of $25
Owe $400, monthly payment of $100

If I have $500 to spare, I'm going to pay the $400 off because it frees up more money. I can then pay off the $300 bill faster. If I did it the other way, it'd take longer by only freeing up $25 a month.

Dave Ramsey is a great starting point, and no doubt foolproof to get out of debt. But if you've the smarts, you can adjust your plan of attack accordingly and come out ahead a little better in some ways.
 
Back on to ordering groceries online...

The SIZING gets us almost every time. Order a bottle of ketchup, end up with the tiny bottle. Order a can of beans, end up with the monster can. It's hard to recall the ounces and pound to what we need.

My wife ordered two one-pound packages of ground beef last time... We made a taco.

Just kidding. But that's what it felt like.
 
I can add what we do to keep a lower food budget. We cook a lot and prepare food on Sundays to eat throughout the week. Just this past Sunday, I smoked 8 sweet potatoes and a few pounds of chicken thighs and legs. Today is Thursday and we are still eating from that $12 purchase. We have had 7 healthy meals (combined) for very little cost. We frequently do our own soup with dry beans, fresh tomatoes, seasoning and lentils in the crock pot. An $8 investment feeds us for days on end and it's super tasty.
We realized years ago just how much we wasted on going out to lunch frequently. Same for breakfast on the way in to work. It adds up fast.
We still go out for a meal on the weekends for a change of scenery. But when you eat out once or twice daily, it becomes very costly and is never a healthy choice.
 
We found the croc pot was invaluable for a lot of easy meals that were reasonably healthy, and affordable and easy. They are good and homey meals for the fall and winter and leftovers for the week are good and get eaten up pretty quick.

but, it really irritates me when I have to throw good food away because it’s old. Our food isn’t cheap as I don’t like to eat crap, so to throw away good quality food really makes me upset. I freeze a lot of food for quick meals if I know it will go bad before we eat it all.
 
This is our normal milk stock:


Beer fridge:
IMG_20180212_184030.jpg



Kitchen Fridge:
IMG_20180212_184048.jpg
 
Anyways... off groceries and kids and on to other stuff...

Sometimes it makes sense to pay a higher bill off before a smaller one.

For example:

Owe $300, monthly payment of $25
Owe $400, monthly payment of $100

If I have $500 to spare, I'm going to pay the $400 off because it frees up more money. I can then pay off the $300 bill faster. If I did it the other way, it'd take longer by only freeing up $25 a month.

Dave Ramsey is a great starting point, and no doubt foolproof to get out of debt. But if you've the smarts, you can adjust your plan of attack accordingly and come out ahead a little better in some ways.
So the wife and I are beginning the first steps with the total money make over and with Christmas coming up, Its gonna be tough and we thought about just postponing it till after the Holidays but you know what? We don't need to go for broke when it comes to gifts...Wife and I will exchange 1 gift each, our daughter will be the main focus and everyone in the family will get 1 gift card per couple and will get the kids 1 present each.

I am sort of thinking the same way as you... My lowest bill owed is about $600, but is interest free. Next lowest bill is about $1400 with 10% interest, so tackling the bill with the lowest amount/paying interest would be the smartest thing to do and would free up more money monthly.
 
So the wife and I are beginning the first steps with the total money make over and with Christmas coming up, Its gonna be tough and we thought about just postponing it till after the Holidays but you know what? We don't need to go for broke when it comes to gifts...Wife and I will exchange 1 gift each, our daughter will be the main focus and everyone in the family will get 1 gift card per couple and will get the kids 1 present each.

I am sort of thinking the same way as you... My lowest bill owed is about $600, but is interest free. Next lowest bill is about $1400 with 10% interest, so tackling the bill with the lowest amount/paying interest would be the smartest thing to do and would free up more money monthly.


Family gets cards. No gifts. And I tell them not to get me or the wife anything. If we want or need something, we buy it. Save $. If I’m going to spend $ on other people for Christmas, I’m going to do it through charity and help out a family that actually needs something. My extended family is doing just fine and doesn’t need anything.

I tell the family to not get the kids anything either. Most don’t listen, but some do. I ask them to co tribute to the kids’ 529 plan instead or gift cards to their favorite store. But, not to spend $ on anything but if they must, give them something ($) they can save and learn from.
 
So the wife and I are beginning the first steps with the total money make over and with Christmas coming up, Its gonna be tough and we thought about just postponing it till after the Holidays but you know what? We don't need to go for broke when it comes to gifts...Wife and I will exchange 1 gift each, our daughter will be the main focus and everyone in the family will get 1 gift card per couple and will get the kids 1 present each.

I am sort of thinking the same way as you... My lowest bill owed is about $600, but is interest free. Next lowest bill is about $1400 with 10% interest, so tackling the bill with the lowest amount/paying interest would be the smartest thing to do and would free up more money monthly.

And herein is a prime example of why I don't think Ramsey's methodology is the be-all-end-all. From a finance perspective, 0% interest is free money so I'd sit on that until the end and knock that $1,400 out as fast as possible. Dave would tell you to pay the $600 and then snowball that into the $1,400.

My advice on the Christmas thing, don't postpone this until after because there will always be "something" after. Learn how to make changes and make it work. It will be challenging, but this is the whole point of the TMM. It's a lifestyle change and one that simply requires you to adjust your mindset. Don't succumb to the notion that showing the people you love on Christmas requires spending money on them. This is one of the reasons I'm not a huge Christmas fan (Thanksgiving FTMFW as it's just about spending time with family over some damn good food). The whole commercialization of Christmas is absurd to me. I encourage you to share with people on what you and you're wife are trying to accomplish for the betterment of your entire family. Forewarning, you will get people that are totally stoked for you and others that wonder why in the world anybody would want to do this. Just stick to your plan and know you will come out MUCH better on the other side. That said, if they can't be supportive about what y'all are trying to do and get all butt-hurt because you didn't buy them anything...to hell w/ 'em.
 
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