How Instacart Can Change Your Life

Bold claims for a Monday morning after a holiday, I know. How many times have you had the best intentions of meal prepping for the week but gotten too busy and realized on your way home from work that breakfast for dinner {aka cereal} is your only option? Do you go grocery shopping on your lunch break because it’s the only time you can squeeze it in? Side note: I actually love the winter for this reason, it’s cold enough outside you can just leave your groceries in the car for a few hours. I used to think that things like this {breakfast for dinner, grocery shopping at lunch} were brilliant mom hacks. However, I’ve recently been proven wrong by my real secret weapon, Instacart.

The grocery delivery concept is not new to me. When I lived in Chicago {and was single, and had all the time in the world, I digress…} I used a grocery delivery service because I didn’t have a car and as a lady who likes to buy more groceries than she can carry down a few city blocks it seemed like a good solution. Even as recently as the beginning of this year we started using a different grocery delivery service but they only delivered from one store which wasn’t our favorite and the wait times were pretty long {at times 12+ hours} so it felt like we were compromising just a bit for convenience.

Instacart recently launched in the Detroit area and has impressed me from the very beginning. So much so that within minutes of hearing about their service I cancelled my other grocery delivery membership and switched over to Instacart immediately. Why the rush? Because Instacart is offering their service for free for the first year. For. Free. Should I go on or have you already clicked over to their site?

If you’re still not convinced, here are a few benefits I’ve found with using Instacart.

1. You don’t have to spend your free time grocery shopping.

This is the most important reason for me. I’m busy and perhaps if I had a life where I had few responsibilities and commitments during the day {I’m looking at you retiree’s} I’d love perusing the grocery store aisles, scanning my clipped coupons, and picking out the perfect melon. But let’s be serious, I have very little free time as it is and I want to spend it with daughters and husbands and friends and painting my nails and watching Bachelor in Paradise {too soon?} and a whole list of things other than going to the grocery store. Are you with me?

2. They shop where you shop.

Right now in Detroit Instacart offers grocery delivery from six stores {based on your location}: Kroger, Whole Foods, Costco, Meijer, Plum Market, and Petco. To qualify for free delivery you have to place an order over $35 which is pretty simple to do and it’s typically available to be delivered to you within just an hour or two.

3. It makes meal planning a breeze.

I am a pretty organized person and in my professional life I have 10+ years of project management experience but for the life of me I cannot successfully plan out meals for a week. It’s something that I’ve made my resolution for a few years running and yet I always fall short. I arrive at the grocery store without a list and buy things we don’t need or won’t use that week, which means we end up wasting food. With Instacart you have two options – take your time and plan your meals for the week by sitting on your couch {why not with a glass of wine?}, filling your virtual cart, and checking your refrigerator and pantry for items you might already have on hand. Place your order and you’re set for the week. Or, you could just place an order every few days depending on what makes the most sense for you and your family. Either way, you look like a hero.

We had family over for Father’s Day yesterday and I wanted to whip up a pasta salad but realized we didn’t have Italian Dressing or mozzarella cheese that I wanted to add in. So I quickly pulled up my Instacart app, added a few thing to my cart, and not even an hour later I was ready to finish prepping our meal. All before our guests even arrived!