Groceries: On-line shopping offers more than meets the eye. First of all, King Sooper's offers on-line grocery ordering here in Loveland. For a fee of $10.00 (waved for your first trial) they'll deliver your food to your kitchen counter. That may sound like a lot of money to pay someone for simply bringing in sacks of groceries. Here's what else it's paying for:
Let's say the store manager rearranges products on the shelves. With on-line shopping, some other poor sod hunts for your favorite, now relocated food item. Let's say the store tries to market to you by placing things you wouldn't normally buy right at eye-level. Or maybe they try to sell you 10 of something for $10.00, something which wasn't even on your list. Or maybe they try to market to your kids, thinking that you'll only put up with so much whining before that item lands in your cart. Slave-to-marketing no more! When someone else picks out your victuals, you get to enjoy looking at your flower garden, rather than resisting so much temptation in the grocery isles.
And about that individual picking out your groceries: his or her job performance at least partially depends on selecting exactly the items you specify in your order. I mean, down to the brand, type, weight, and measure. You can even specify things like "Please choose the greenest bananas available." I've given directions for listening for hollow melons, and sitting on my kitchen counter, this very moment, are some hollow-sounding melons. Depending on how trusting you feel, you can even specify to allow for substitutions. Otherwise, if the store is out of stock, you won't see the item in your purchase. Talk about control. Now, when I plan to spend $100.00 for a week's-worth of food, that's exactly what I spend, and not a penny more.
From a fuel-efficiency standpoint, what could be more efficient than grocery-deliver? Instead of those of us ordering, all making separate individual trips to and from the store, one delivery truck travels from the store to several points in sequence, and returns to the store in a single trip. Saves gas, my car from grocery cart dings, and those of us waiting at home for our food are happily going about our lives rather than negotiating crowded food isles. Yes, they honor my coupons. Yes, they honor my Sooper's card. Yes, I think on-line groceries are the next-best thing since sliced bread!
On to dates. We recently experienced the rare opportunity of having Anne spend the night away from home at a friend's house. Time for a date! We went to our old favorite Japanese restaurant, only to find that the owners had changed hands. So there we sat, water and pickled cucumbers sitting on the table, quietly expecting us to place a dinner order when it hit me: we'd not signed a contract, we'd simply been seated. We could order just an appetizer, and then go! Yes, you can get up without ordering, yet how to do that without making someone feel badly, or causing a scene? So after our beef negimaki we trolled for a meal elsewhere. Dinner was found at a trendy new cafe, and then dessert came to us from the basement of a very fancy hotel, speakeasy style. By the end of the night we'd patronized three different spots. Yes, we paid a bit more. Yes, we burned a bit more gas. Over-all, however, we felt elated. The night had been ours. We'd made it our own, and loved every minute of it! (When you get out as infrequently as us, a good date feels like a vacation.)
Nails. Have you had yours done lately? How do you feel about drills? Ever heard of shellac? Creative Nail Designs now offers a new technology in nails. You can apply it at home, they last like professional nails, and all at about a tenth of the cost. The longer you use your system at home, the lower the cost-per-use sinks. You need a CND UV lamp, base and top coats, the nail prep. liquid (I swear it seems a lot like alcohol), and whatever colour you choose. Lastly, you'll need nail wraps to take the shellac off after about two weeks. So, to re-cap: Professional-looking, long-lasting, non-polish, low-cost manicures. I'll do them myself, thanks! (p.s. amazon.com offers the products on-line. If there's another source, it's news to me. Local beauty-supply stores told me I need a license to buy this stuff, yet it can be bought on-line.)
OK, and may I add just one more little tid-bit? A couple of years ago we gave up our cable. It cost too much money to sit in front of the television switching channels to pay for this so-called "service". Then we signed up for Netflix, hoping to more purposefully spend time in front of the "idiot box" as my Mother's so fond of calling it. Then our monthly fee jumped, because I now realize, we were using the mail. For only about $10.00 per month, we can watch any instant "play now" offerings they make available. Needless to say, penny-pincher's that we are, we made the switch. So far, we're happy. Plus, this new routine has me thinking about Internet television, which I know is a growing force in the media-entertainment market.
Well, good friends, there they are, my latest finds. Harold is still adjusting to less time wondering the ketchup isle, and yet...he has yet to leap off the couch declaring a craving to run out and get groceries. Anne has all the television programming we'll allow her to watch, we're having more fun on our dates, an my nails look so nice! While not the keys to happiness, these little finds give us more choices about how we spend our time. In my opinion, that's resource accumulation.
