The Food Fairy Came!

This post is intended mainly for any readers I have who are (God, I hate this term) homemakers. The rest of you can roll your eyes and go read something more interesting. Like...the weather.

For the trapped-at-home moms out there: The Food Fairy arrived! And she looked like a member of ZZ Top with a lip ring.

I don't know why I haven't taken advantage of this before now. Stop&Shop has this wonderful service called Pea Pod, and for a delivery fee of $6.95 (minus $1.00 because I scheduled my delivery for a "special" time where you receive a dollar off), they did my shopping, put the food into bags, loaded them on the truck and actually carried them into my house!

In my glee, I overtipped ZZ, but you know what? He saved me from listening to the incessant pleading of a three-year-old to buy gum, or candy, or ice cream or any product featuring one of his favorite (at that second) character (damn you marketeers of corporate America!). Plus, because I created my list on my computer during a (relatively) quiet moment, I could think about what I was doing and work from an organized list. AND--I could add to it later, when I realized we were out of milk. (Again. Honestly, it would be cheaper to buy a dairy cow and leave her in the back yard. Plus, she could mow the grass for us. But I digress.) Items were on sale, just as they were at my local store, and--if I were the type of person organized enough to do so--I could have used coupons for even larger savings. If they were out of an item on my list, I could elect to have them substitute a similar product, or not.

I suppose the only downside to this is, if I purchase produce, I don't have the opportunity to inspect each and every piece. However, as we've spent the past year shopping at a market which insists upon shrink wrapping produce together into a styrofoam tray, this is not such a bad thing. I've gotten used to cutting out bruises and bad spots.

Truly, Pea Pod is a wonderful, time saving and ultimately (because the tendency to impulse buy is reduced) a money saving thing. I love the Food Fairy, even if she does look like ZZ Top and I'm going to summon her to my home again!