I live in the middle of nowhere. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that it is. I live on a cattle ranch in the middle of the Sandhills in Nebraska. The closest “town” is 10 minutes away but it’s really just a little community. The closest town (with 287 people) is 20 minutes away, it has a gas station and little grocery store. That is also where my kids go to school. There is a town 45 minutes away with a Safeway and Kmart. And then the closest Walmart, Home Depot and Target are 2 hours away. If I ever want to go to a Sam’s Club or mall, I have to drive 3 hours.
I just moved here at the end of August, from Layton, Utah. It was hard moving from a place that had everything that I would ever wanted in shopping and activities, just minutes away. To somewhere that had nothing even close. The first few months I felt like I was driving to the chain stores at least once a week and then I realized how much we were paying for gas and how hard it was on me and my kids.
I was really struggling with living out here, I was overwhelmed by all the grocery shopping that I had to do and having one or two carts full every time I went to the grocery store. Then a couple of months ago I discovered something that I have never really done before: online shopping.
It made my life so much easier to get the things that we use a ton and go through a lot online. I didn’t have to drag my kids to the store and it was just delivered to my house! Did you know that you can buy groceries online? I didn’t either, until I decided to just look. And the best part, you can get free shipping!
I do the majority of my shopping online at Amazon and Walmart. I have a prime membership with amazon, so I get things in 2 days, it’s awesome!!
Here are some of the things I get regularly from Amazon:
Wipes
I get so much from there, it’s just so nice not to have to leave my bed and be able to stock up on things! There is so much you can buy from Amazon….. sometimes it can get bad for me :). Pretty sure the FedEx and UPS people don’t like having to drive all the way to my house almost every day …
I got two of these shelves so I can start actually really having a food storage.
As for Walmart, if you spend $45 on home goods you get free shipping, so I usually do an order every two weeks with things from there. Here are a few things that I get from there:
Flour
Sugar
Cereal
Snack foods
PB & J
Oil
Are you wondering why I am telling you this? No it’s not a sponsored post in anyway. It’s because it has really helped me a ton and I think that it can help you too. Going shopping (anywhere!) is hard with kids, we all have been there in the middle of Walmart and our kids have a melt down and people just stare at you. I love shopping online because when I know I am running out of something soon, I can just order it real quick and by the time I’m out it’s usually at my door!
Of course I still have to go out to the store and get stocked up on milk, produce, bread and eggs. But it’s so nice that I have stocked up on the other things already so I don’t have to do that at the stores and I can just focus on the things that I need for the week’s menu. It really has relieved a quite a bit of stress for me and has been really helpful. Now that I know that I can do grocery shopping online I’m going to continue to do it, regardless of where I live because it is so much easier.
Audrey @ Neverending Decorating
Wow, I thought I had it bad with the nearest Lowes, Mall, Target etc. 40 minutes away. My closest town is 15 minutes away and has county government offices a locally owned restaurant, mom & pop convenience store and that's it. So when I want to go shopping it's 40 minutes one way…but I'm thankful it's not 2-3 hours! Have a good day,
Audrey
Carol Pack Urban
What a great idea! My problem would be during the winter months. FedEx and UPS won't come down my driveway. They deliver to the post office where I get mail. This may still work for me. Hmmmm.
Samantha
Have you thought about getting a chest freezer? You'll be able to bulk buy your milk and bread then and freeze them down. We always freeze our milk, it takes a couple of days to defrost so you have to be organised and I usually write the date on when we defrost it to make sure we use it within around 5 days so that it doesn't go off but it's a great help. We also buy powdered milk to have in the cupboard for 'just in case' days when we forget to defrost some milk and run out! x
Dan Shaw
With all those Duncan Hines and jelly jars I think I need to move to your house.
Ashley
That sounds so nice! I should really do more grocery shopping online. It really is a pain. Amazon subscribe and save is really convenient too.
Ginger
Wow! I had no idea! This would be so much easier. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Celeste Rhythm
this post was AWESOME!
can you use coupons with online shopping??
Kaysi
Celeste amazon does have some coupons that you can clip and use!
Stacey at Real Southern Living
I thought I lived in the country but, you really do! When I had 5 kids under the age of 7 how wonderful to have been able to shop from my computer. I still wish we could have groceries delivered and despise going to the store and forgetting things:)
Diana - FreeStyleMama
My sister used to live in Ainsworth. Are you near there? It sounds big compared to where you are, but I visited her several times and totally understand the middle of nowhere. That is great you can get stuff shipped for free!!
litlsis
Smart of you to make use of it. I've found that Amazon has some surprisingly good deals on specialty items that my local stores charge me a fortune for, so I've gotten some savings that way. I also, honestly find that that the best way for me to save is to stay out of the store whenever possible – I am REALLY bad at sticking to the list. Didn't know there were online coupons – interesting!
Mums make lists
Thanks for much for hosting Alice @ Mums Make Lists