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!

I'm Back!

I'm back! I know it's been forever since I last posted, and I've never posted on this blog with much consistency, but here I am! I have missed writing, and I have missed sharing, so I've decided to get back at it! I have set a goal for myself to write a post once per month. I know that's not a ton, but I like to set goals that are easy to attain. And if I happen to write more often, well that will just be a bonus! As you can see, I've made some updates to my blog- I've changed out the template & colors, and added some recent photos* of the family.

Speaking of family, we are doing well. Jeremy is in his third year at Charlotte Christian School. He is the upper school Spiritual Life Director and freshman Bible teacher. Jeremy really enjoys his students and coworkers, and I really enjoy the excellent work hours! It has been such a blessing to be a part of Charlotte Christian School! Our oldest daughter, Chloe (6) attends Kindergarten at CCS, which she loves! Our daughter, Claira (4) attends preschool at a local United Methodist Church, and is quite the smarty-pants! Our twins, Haven and Harper (3) keep me super busy at home! They are double trouble and double fun! And our youngest child, Camden (1) is such a happy little guy, with the cutest dimples and bright orange hair! We enjoy all of their unique personalities, and are so thankful for each one of them!

I've been working on a post titled "The best $100 I've ever spent!" and I'll be posting it sometime this weekend, so watch out for it!

Thanks for reading. It's good to be back!

~ Wanda

*Photo credits: Family photo and individual children's pics taken by Jennica Reis. Carter's photo taken by Angela Shea. Two incredibly talented photographers! Thank you both!

A Broken DVD Player...

With the anniversary of Carter’s death, I have found myself reflecting on the changes that have occurred since his passing. April 27^th marks FOUR years since our son passed away. Four whole years without our little man…

Our lives have changed so much in the four years since Carter died. In the span of these four years, we have:

• Had FOUR more beautiful children
• Moved into a new spacious house
• Purchased two new-to-us vehicles
• and accepted new employment at a Christian school

Carter has four siblings that he will never play with, a house that he will never step foot in, vehicles that he will never ride in, and a school that he will never attend. While all of these changes are wonderful things for our family, it saddens me to think of all of the living that Carter has missed out on.  Each of these changes takes us further away from the life we had with him. Further away from the places, people and material items that were a part of his life and hold memories of his life. And that’s hard. Really hard. 

I find myself not wanting to let go of the material things that Carter played with. Especially items that I have a specific memory of him using. For example, this past weekend Jeremy and I spent some time cleaning out our garage. We came across a portable DVD player that belonged to Carter. This DVD player has been broken for a few years now, but I held on to it because of the memories that it held. We purchased it for Carter to use during his trips to NYC for treatment. I have a vivid memory of pushing Carter around in his stroller at Sloan Kettering with this DVD player propped up on the tray in front of him. And I remember somebody commenting that it was “quite the setup” I had for him.

I also have a vivid memory of Carter using this DVD player during his very last hospital stay, about 3-4 weeks before he passed away. It was Easter Sunday morning of 2010, and I was alone with Carter at the hospital. I decided to take a quick shower, so I set him up to watch Curious George on his portable DVD player. At this point in time, Carter had already had his brain bleed, so he had lost a lot of his gross motor and fine motor abilities. He could no longer walk, or even sit up on his own. So I propped Carter up with pillows in his bed and set the DVD player on the hospital tray in front of him. When I finished my shower and came out of the bathroom, I was surprised to see Carter trying to lean forward and reach his trembling hand out to press play. The George episode had finished and he wanted to watch another one! Despite the poor physical condition Carter was in, he was still determined to watch more George! He sure loved that show! It’s such a heartbreaking memory, but one that I will never forget.

And so, there I was in the garage reminiscing, and trying to decide what to do with this broken DVD player. Jeremy suggested that we finally throw it out, and I agreed. As I walked outside to the trash can I found myself examining the DVD player one last time. I looked closely at the buttons that Carter had pushed with his little fingers. I inspected the screen, hoping to catch a glimpse of his little fingerprints. I forced myself to drop it into the trash, I walked back to Jeremy and burst into tears. He held me as I had a good cry. I was surprised with how hard it was for me to let it go. Who would have thought that a broken DVD player could bring about such strong emotions?

Four years, and life is so different now. We miss him terribly, yet we have continued to live, we have continued to move forward. And I know that’s a good thing. Truthfully, there have been many days that I’ve wanted to just crawl in bed, pull the covers up over my head and hibernate in solitude for a month. But that’s just not possible when you’ve got five children ages five and under to care for! They need me! So on those hard days, I pray to God and ask him to give me strength. And the Lord gives me the strength I need to pull myself together, to get out of bed and to face the day. The Lord also gives me great hope--- hope of seeing my son again, hope of spending eternity in Heaven, and hope of being free from the trials and sorrows of this world! Oh how I look forward to that day!

~Wanda Cummings