For the past couple of years we have been signed up to Tesco’s Delivery Saver service. By paying a fixed fee, we could have as many ‘free’ deliveries as we wanted from their online service as long as we met the minimum spend. There have been many positives to the experience: the people driving the trucks have been punctual, helpful and courteous; we have got almost everything we ordered and, when necessary, substitutes have been sensible; orders can be tweaked over a period of time as you spot gaps in the store cupboard or think of a recipe you would like to try. However, coming to the end of year two, we have decided to take a break.

One significant change since we started using the service is the increase of the minimum spend from £25 to £40. The former wasn’t too hard to hit even through we get a separate weekly veg box and chose to buy the majority of our meat from a local butcher. Milk and fruit and a few tins, along with things like toilet rolls or washing up liquid that are needed less often, got a good way towards £25 and was easily rounded off if we wanted a bottle of wine for the weekend. £40 was pulling us more into the territory of buying things we didn’t need just to make up the required amount and thus the effective cost of delivery becomes less of a bargain.

For the next little while, I think we’ll experiment with the novel idea of going shopping! We might also look at less frequent online shopping – for example, a monthly online shop for non-perishables, picking a cheap delivery slot, will work out less expensive than paying for the yearly pass. Right, where’s that shopping list…