Online shopping is our new norm

**Collaborative post**

I have actually forgotten now just how many weeks I’ve been home with the children. You’ll probably have seen my post from last week which shared the reasons why I’ve decided not to send the children back to school until September when we were given the opportunity to send them back 2 days a week until the end of term.

Staying in has become our new norm and we are very happy with that, in fact, we are thriving and loving it. I do know however that it hasn’t been as easy for everyone.

Up until last week, we as a family hadn’t visited the supermarket since the middle of March. I didn’t want to take the children in with me and figured that if I didn’t have to go myself then I wouldn’t. In the beginning, it was difficult to get a food delivery slot so I turned to local new suppliers. A local company to me who supply meat to restaurants started offering a delivery service of meat, this was done over Facebook by placing an order the day before and it would be ready by lunchtime the next day (weekdays only) – this served us well for all our meat deliveries and I honestly don’t think I’ll go back to buying meat in the supermarket again as the quality and prices are so good. You can buy as much or as little as you like – I tend to get a months worth as a time and stock up the freezer. If you are local to Waltham Abbey and want to check out their facebook page it’s Barbican Supplies ltd.

For our vegetables, I also discovered another local company who supplied restaurants so adapted their business to do home deliveries for a minimum order of £35 – that’s quite easy for us as a family of 4 to achieve, topping up my online basket with bread, milk, cream, fruits and vegetables. They also sell things such as tinned tomatoes, spaghetti, kidney beans, cheeses and recently adding homemade soups and homemade meals to their website. The deliveries are next day and once again, I don’t think I will be heading back to the supermarket as the quality is, of course, restaurant quality and the prices are very good. You can take a look for yourself: zuppeltd.co.uk 

Of course, food isn’t the only thing I’ve been getting online, my medication has been coming via delivery too which means no queueing up in the chemist, no wearing face masks and no forgetting to collect them either. Using an Online Pharmacy is so easy, I can sign into my account, click on NHS prescription and add my medical exception details (I’ve diabetes so get free prescriptions) and then I just have to send over my prescription, once received they will post out my medications to me. I can also ensure I don’t run out of Harry’s Ezcema creams either by sending over his prescriptions and paying for his bath ointments which I struggle to get elsewhere. Delivery of these items are always very quick, the only delay is them waiting for the prescription to be sent and it really is far easier (and safer) than dragging the kids out to queue in the chemist with me.

Online shopping, can become rather expensive, especially when al lI am now currently seeing on my Facebook and Instagram targeted adverts are ads for fabrics, due to me recently buying up loads of fabrics to make the children’s clothes but there may be worse problems to have and I am really enjoying supporting the local businesses currently, and plan to continue to do so.

How have you changed your shopping ways during lockdown? and will you continue now it is beginning to ease up again?