Life Hack: Tesco Same-Day Delivery

The one thing I hate more than anything in grown-up adulthood is Life Admin. You know the stuff I mean: the school trip forms, switching your energy provider once a year, meal planning. I’d just really rather not when it comes to all that, I’d rather plod along in my happy little world where I’m sure I’m still a teenager, ignoring headaches like council tax and nutritional information.

Some aspects of our house food shop come under this annoying Life Admin umbrella. The general co-ordination of having enough of the right foods in the house at the right time seems quite the challenge sometimes, but it’s an absolute necessity so the family isn’t constantly living off ’emergency pasta’. I used to be on the stocked cupboards like a master: with only one grown-up at home (that would be me) it was always an impossibility to ring a husband or a partner to ask them to pick up a pint of milk or a punnet of strawberries on the way home from work. If I wanted anything from the shops, I damn well had to get it myself, and would have to drag the two kids in the dark/cold/sleepiness to do it.

NB: emergency pasta = pasta, topped with cheese, side of cucumber. BOSH. An almost-balanced dinner.

Never hugely fun, but you do what you have to do to have your milk and toast ready for the morning.

Now I work a bit more than I used to there are so many other things I’d rather do than race around the supermarket. Actual work, for one. Spending time with my kids, for another. Sleep, ultimately.

Which is why I’m happy to tell you that Tesco has a solution to those out there who hate advance meal-planning as much as I do! Yep, it’s a genius thing and I can’t believe nobody has done this before: the same-day grocery delivery service.

Ordering your supermarket shop online is an amazing thing (I’ve already got my Christmas delivery slot booked…) but the frustration of logging on and realising that you can’t get your food delivered for another three days is SO real. If I’m ordering 12 loo rolls and a green curry paste in the morning, it generally means we’re desperately in need of toilet paper and I’m craving a Thai Green curry.

Neither items will be any good to me more than 48 hours later, am I right?

Tesco invited me to give their new service a go this week, which I did on a day when the kitchen shelves were looking particularly bare and yes, you guessed it, we needed loo roll.

I hopped back into bed with Elfie, my laptop and a cup of tea, and after logging on to Tesco.com together we chose the groceries we wanted delivered later on that day.

The process is entirely the same as your usual check-out: select your slot, choose your food and you’re away. The evening times are understandably that little bit more expensive, but to be honest if I wasn’t ordering groceries I’d be ordering a takeaway or whinging mercilessly about having no food. So spending a couple of extra quid on my expedited delivery is a much nicer prospect than either of these options.

As per usual I placed my order, received my confirmation, and that was that. Instead of having to get in the car, drive to the shop with two uncooperative children and spend half an hour stressfully putting what would probably be the wrong things in my trolly, I got to clear my inbox and go to the gym instead.

And then BOOM! A mere 12 hours later Chris my friendly delivery driver was at my door just as the last bit of bog roll had been turned into a ‘potion’ (thanks, Hux) and in time for me to cook an evening meal of Thai Green Chicken Curry.

I’m so happy to live in an age of the internet where convenience is not only key but expected, and such brilliant life-enhancing services like this are possible. Being able to order my food to my house the day that I need it – well, that’s proper Back To The Future stuff.

I’m putting in my order for my Delorean right now… do you think I can get one at Tesco?

Huge thanks to Tesco, a brand we use and love, for working with us on this post.