The BEST $100 I've ever spent!

As a mother of lots of littles, I am always looking for ways to save time and make life easier. Today I'd like to share with you one of my biggest time and sanity savers.

Harris Teeter's online grocery shopping!!!

Last spring I paid $100 to sign up for one year of Harris Teeter's online grocery shopping service. 
It has been the BEST money I've ever spent!

For those unfamiliar with this service, here's how it works:

1. Register online at www.harristeeter.com
2. Select the groceries you want to purchase.
3. Select a pick-up day, time and store location.
4. Select a payment method.
5. Pick up your groceries through their drive through lane!

There are five things that I LOVE about Harris Teeter's online grocery shopping:

1) You can shop from the comfort of your home, sitting on your couch in your pj's! You don't even have to leave the house if your husband picks it up on his way home from work!
2) You can place as MANY grocery orders as you want during the course of the year. There is no limit! There have been times that I have placed 3 orders in a single week. You can place an order every single day if you want/need to! I have even placed 2 orders in the same day, when I forgot a few items!
3) You don't have to get out of your vehicle when picking up your groceries! When you pull up to the pick-up lane, you simply ring a bell, and a clerk will be out within a couple minutes. The clerk will come to your window to swipe your CC for payment, and then they load the groceries into your trunk. Easy peasy!
4) You can use coupons! Harris Teeter will allow you to use coupons on your online orders, and all of the normal store polices for coupons apply (including their super doubles/triples promotions). The only difference is that they will subtract the value of your coupons from your NEXT online order.
5) You can add a note to your order, with specific requests about an item. For example, if you want your bananas green so that they will stay fresh longer, you can request that. Or if you want the biggest turkey they have in stock for your large family gathering, you can request that too.

There are three different payment options to choose from:

1) Pay $4.95 for a one time grocery order.
2) Pay $16.95 for one month of unlimited grocery orders.
3) Pay $99.95 for one YEAR of unlimited grocery orders.

I chose the one year option for $99.95. To find out how much I'm paying per order, let's do some math. Over the past 9 months I have placed 54 online orders. That's an average of 6 orders per month. There are 3 months remaining in my one year pre-paid period. If I continue with my average of 6 orders per month (6x3=18), I will reach 72 orders by the end of the year (54+18=72). That works out to only $1.38 per order!!! ($99.95➗ 72= $1.38) So, paying for the one year fee is obviously a much better deal for my family than paying for the one-time or monthly fees. I'll gladly pay $1.38 to save me the hassle of wrangling 5 young kids through the grocery store!

Harris Teeter will waive the $4.95 fee on your first order so that you can try it for free. They also periodically run promotions where they will waive the $4.95 fee if you place a minimum order of $50 or sometimes $100.) This is a great way to try it again for free. But the awesome thing about when they run these promotions is that they also work for those that have already paid the yearly fee! Harris Teeter will deduct $4.95 from your order if you have already paid the yearly fee and meet the requirements of the promotion. For example, if I place a $50 order during a promotion week, they will automatically subtract $4.95, making my total only $45.05! I have done this several times, and it's a great way to "earn back" some of the money I paid for the yearly fee!

During the past 9 months (and 54 orders!) there have been mistakes with my order twice. The first time several items from my order had been left out. Apparently, the clerk had forgotten to grab a couple of my grocery bags from the holding fridge. To correct the error, a manager drove to my home and delivered the missing groceries! They also brought me a bouquet of beautiful flowers as a token of apology! The second mistake occurred when we received two extra bags of groceries that were not a part of our order (the customer's last name also began with a C). I called the store to inform them of the error so that the other customer would receive the correct items. They appreciated the call, but told us to just keep the extra groceries. That was a nice bonus! (Although we gave the cat food away!) In both cases the customer service was excellent!

I have been so thrilled with Harris Teeter's online shopping! It has made my life so much easier! I don't know how I would manage without it. It has saved our family gas, time, money, and sanity! I have NEVER had to corral all five kiddos in the grocery store thanks to this service!

So what are you waiting for?!? If you live in the south and are a mom with lots of littles, or a working woman too busy to shop, or an elderly lady with health/mobility issues, you need to try this out!