Stealing Back More Me Time Through Online Grocery Shopping AND A free Weekly Meal Planner | Life Love and Hiccups: Stealing Back More Me Time Through Online Grocery Shopping AND A free Weekly Meal Planner
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Wednesday 20 February 2013

Stealing Back More Me Time Through Online Grocery Shopping AND A free Weekly Meal Planner

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This is an advertorial post for Coles Online

One of the things I promised myself I would do for my family and for me this year was to make more time to do things we enjoy - even if it is just sitting around relaxing and doing nothing much at all.

Now clearly I wasn't born by immaculate conception so actually creating more hours in the day is pretty much out of the question. I have to find another way to grab back the time I waste on doing stuff ... like shopping.

Lets make it very clear I AM NOT referring to recreational or therapeutic shopping. No way Hozay - that type of shopping is permanently prescribed to preserve my sanity. I am more referring to the dreaded grocery shop.


The shopping part is not actually that bad, no really. Its the waiting in lines, lugging the bags to the car and then into the house and shopping with kids ...... arghh!

You know those gorgeous kids that walk quietly alongside their mum, keeping their hands to themselves and helpfully putting things in the trolley when mums hands are too full?

No me either.

My kids unfortunately are a nightmare to take shopping. One of them by themselves - no problem. 

All three? Disaster.

The lead up to Christmas was particularly catastrophic in the shopping stakes for us. I will never forget the day we were shopping for Christmas supplies and my husband and I were commenting on how eerily easy it seemed that day and how the kids were being little angels for once. As if right on cue the universe decided we were being way too smug, we heard an almighty crash and clanking. Feeling sick to the stomach we realised only 2 of our 3 offspring were in the aisle with us.

Yep he was responsible for that racket over in the canned and jar veggies aisle and when we heard the call for a mop and bucket we knew it wasn't gonna be pretty. I don't think we have ever finished a shop so fast in our lives before.

Oh and let us not forget the day I decided to test out a different supermarket, again with kids in tow. This trip saw my youngest end up with his tongue stuck to the freezer courtesy of a dare by his older brothers.

Is it any wonder the idea of saving time and sanity by buying online was pretty damn appealing to me?


Ok, I am going to be honest, when Coles asked me to try and review their online business, I was a little dubious. I had tried it once or twice when my oldest son was a baby and the experience wasn't that great.

Truthfully I cannot remember which company I used, but I do recall I didn't get the baby formula I wanted and God forbid they were out of stock of the Tim Tams this sleep deprived mama desperately needed.

Despite this previous experience, I agreed to give it a try with Coles Online - after all my last experience was 11 years ago and the whole online shopping was in its infancy back then.

Using my meal planner (you can download it here) I outlined all our evening dinners for the week ahead and then created a list of what groceries I needed. Even better I was sitting down with Of  Monsters and Men playing in the background (my fave album of the mo), a cup of coffee in hand and completely stress free.




Once I had added the household and personal items we needed to the shopping list I was good to go and logged on.

Now one of the best feature of the Coles online Shopping site - in my opinion anyway, is the Shopping lists functionality. You can create a shopping list so you do not have to search for the same items everytime you log back on. In fact you can create multiple shopping lists.

Because I have a rotating menu plan, I don't need the same products every week. I can create shopping lists to match the different menu plans and then all I need to do is just select the list that correlates to this weeks menu plan.

How easy is that!


You can find most of the specials that are in store, online as well and you still get your petrol vouchers if your spend qualifies for them so you do not need to worry about missing out there.

As for delivery, well that was the best part. It was as simple as selecting the day and time that suited me and that was it. Dust my hands off, make a margarita - grocery shopping is done!


When the groceries arrived, they were brought straight into the house and placed onto my kitchen bench for me.

Hallelujah - no lugging bags and trying to stop dogs from running out of the house as I come through the door with my arms full.

Everyone knows you cant just carry a couple of bags into the house. Nooooo you have to carry every single bag you can physically manage in one trip without your arms snapping off.

I may have unsuccessfully tried to bribe the nice young guy to unpack them for me as well, but hey - a Girl has got to try right?

The big clincher for me was the fact that every single item except for a plastic container was in stock. I didn't even need the container anyway, I just have a thing for them and when I saw they were on special I couldn't help myself - my hand just kinda clicked on the add to basket button all by its self.

Alright I will be honest - the in stocks were not really the biggest clincher for me. It was the fact they also home deliver coping cordial. Oh Yeah Baby - come to mama. You can get your wine and vodka delivered with your groceries too! Do you not love this day and age ..... seriously!

If you haven't tried online shopping with Coles for yourself yet, you've probably got a load of questions. If you click here, it will take you to their website where a list of answers to the most frequently asked questions is displayed.

Am I now an online grocery shopping convert? Well that is almost like asking me if I would like ice with my Caprioska - hell yeah!



*I was invited to try Coles Online shopping and was gifted a credit to my Coles account to use. All opinions are my own.


Have you tried online Grocery Shopping?
Are you a fan of it?