March 20, 2012 Sunflower Florets
 

http://cellar.org/2012/sunflower-flo...61_600x450.jpg

Even though it looks like liquid is oozing out of the tips, in reality, it is beads of dew clinging to the florets that spiral inside a sunflower head.

Photograph by Jozsef Szentpeteri
via National Geographic

*blows a whistle and waves towards the nearest mod*

Sunflower-seed encrusted Spam? :yum:

I'm hungry (and lazy) enough for that to sound quite appetizing right now.

Spam encrusted sunflower seed?


Seed-encrusted Spamflowersun? (I think I met him at that hippie festival...)

Cancel that. My groceries have arrived *skips up and down*

This is my first go at online grocery shopping. So far it has proved convenient mostly, with mild annoyance at a couple of substitutions. Didn't save as much money as I'd hoped doing it this way...though, frankly there's no telling what th equivalent spend would have been had I gone into the store in that mood. Probably twice as much thinking about it.

Walking along aisles and dropping things into a trolley can mount a big bill without hardly noticing. Online the list and price are there in front of you and updating as you go. Dead easy to see the cost rising and make alterations as you go.

I love the idea, but aren't any possible savings eaten up by the "convenience fee?"

Delivery fee you mean?
I can be quite low and if it stops you munchie-buying it might be worth it. Sez me who orders my worst take away excesses while aboard the drunk bus.

I loved grocery delivery when I lived in Newcastle. More than worth the 5-10 GBP. Saved about that much in train fare (for wife and myself) to the super Tesco/ASDA and an hour or more in travel time.

It seems like whenever we went to shop at the places in walking distance, we'd end up going to 3-4 stores and still sometimes end up without everything we wanted (and a ton of extra impulse stuff).

Yes, delivery fee. Here in America we never call things what they are, so it's a "convenience fee."

Adding another $20-30 to the cost of the groceries doesn't seem cost effective to me ... even if I factor in the time I would have spent going up and down all the aisles, including forgetting that I meant to pick up feminine products back in aisle 5 when I've made it to the frozen section at the opposite end of the store.

I'm not that rich.

Ooh, higher than ours from memory...

The delivery charge was £3.75.

If the total value of the order is below £40, then the delivery charge is £6.75 and if it's above £100 it's free delivery.

If I were to take a bus into town, and a bus back it would cost me £3.50 and I'd have to walk at both ends of the return journey, from the store to the bus station (5 mins) and from the bus stop to my house (7 mins) carrying the bags.

If I went by taxi it would cost me £12 there and back.

The only way the fee is significantly more expensive than travelling there myself is if I get a lift with Mum. And that just means she's the one paying the cost of petrol not me.

What you don't get though are the short date savers. The reduced for quick sale meals and bakery goods for instance.

I think it works well as a monthly basics shop to be supplemented through the month with smaller shops.

Next time I might try tescos and see what that works out at. Or even ASDA.

Not as cheap as a bus up to LIDL but then again that would mean shopping at LIDL...


Have to say I'd recommend it to anybody who has a family and therefore gets savings on bulk items (rather than just the toilet rolls and stuff like that which even a singleton can bulk buy) as a basics shop.

I read that as 'simpleton' then when I realized it was 'singleton' I figured...hey, it fits me either way! :D

Where'd that word come from anyway...simpleton? It's a funny word!

Fibonacci!

... if you really want to know...

The use of 'ton' in this way mirrors surnames. It's a humourous made-up word from the 17th century.