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A Peek Into Last Week (+ 10 goals for this week)

My Not-So-Great Experience With ALDI Instacart Delivery

A Peek Into Last Week (+ 10 goals for this week)

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Welcome to my weekly update post where I share my weekly goals each week. These goals are based (somewhat) on my yearly goals for 2021, with some extras thrown in depending upon the week and what other short-term goals I have.

But first, a little peek into last week…

We’ve been working on decluttering the kitchen this past week. We had a sweet helper while we were working!

Caring for two babies means we have lots of different types of bottles and bottle paraphernalia! We went through everything and got rid of a few things and then put away a lot of the bottles/stuff to save for when we have another baby foster care placement.

We also went through all of the mugs/tumblers. How do we have so many of them??

Ah! The mug cupboard can breathe again. (By the way, if you need a laugh, this picture created quite a stir on Instagram. You can read all about it here.)

And this cupboard looks so much better, too!

This girl brings so much joy into our home. She just loves life and has the sweetest personality. I just can’t even describe what a gift she is to our home. It humbles and moves me almost every time I look at her to think what a completely unexpected miracle she is.

I also went through the pantry, too.

From My Heart…

“This was the worst garbage. I picked this up as an audiobook to listen to. Her voice is exceptionally annoying.”

This was one of many similar reviews of my second book. While there were lots of kind reviews, all I could hear was that I should not ever narrate an audiobook again because my nasally voice irritated people. I was embarrassed that I had ever considered doing it myself.

So guess what I did? I told my publishers that I didn’t want to narrate my third book and they hired a professional voice artist to record it.

Over the past 5+ years since my third book came out, God has done a lot of life-altering work in my heart. He’s helped me to stop living my life to please, appease, and perform for others. He’s taught me that I don’t need to chase after the approval or affirmation of others. That I don’t need 5-star reviews or glowing accolades to be enough.

I am enough in Him. He loves me for exactly who I am because of Whose I am. And I can stand confident in Christ and live as loved, because I am already pre-approved by Him.

And that’s why I stopped letting negative reviews stifle me in insecurity. Maybe my voice isn’t professional voice actor level, but I’m not going to let that hold me back from sharing the message God has laid on my heart through live video, Instagram story, and podcasts.

I want to improve and grow and work on honing my craft, but I’m not going to sit around and wait until I can please everyone to show up on video and podcasts. Because if I wait until I can please everyone, I’ll be waiting the rest of my life.

Last week, I had the privilege of recording the audiobook for my soon-to-be-released book, Love-Centered Parenting. As I spent hours behind this mic, I felt such quiet confidence, passion, and excitement for this message… and such gratitude that I no longer have to live in fear of what others will think. I am loved by my Heavenly Father and that is enough. Period.

And now onto the goals update…

Last Week’s Goals

Personal Goals

~~1. Log 8,000 steps/day = 56,000 steps for the week.~~

~~2. Finish 3 books: The Water Keeper, The Things We Cannot Say, and Made Like Martha.~~

~~3. Fill out my habit tracker every day.~~

Home/Family Goals

4. Read 10 pages of A Boy’s War as a family. ~~Read 5 chapters of The Trumpet of the Swan to Kierstyn.~~

~~5. Whole House Clean Out spaces to go through/organize/declutter: Pantry, under kitchen sink area, drawers in kitchen.~~

Work/Blog Goals

~~6. Run the live coaching event for the 10 Days to Be a Happier Mom group.~~

~~7. Write a post on the books I’ve read so far in January.~~

~~8. Record 8 hours of the audiobook narration for my new book.~~

Fun Goals

~~9. Have a family game night.~~

~~10. Do a craft project.~~

This Week’s Goals

Personal Goals

1. Log 8,000 steps/day = 56,000 steps for the week.

2. Finish 3 books: Mama Bear Apologetics, Secrets of a Charmed Life, and Keep the Doors Open.

3. Fill out my habit tracker every day.

Home/Family Goals

4. Read 10 pages of A Boy’s War as a family. Read 5 chapters of The Trumpet of the Swan to Kierstyn.

5. Whole House Clean Out spaces to go through/organize/declutter: Storage room in basement.

Work/Blog Goals

6. Finish a Q&A article I was asked to do for a magazine feature.

7. Get download page set up for the appendix of the book.

8. Work on outline/details for Yell Less, Love More Challenge for February.

Fun Goals

9. At home date night with Jesse.

10. Do a craft project.

Did you accomplish any of your goals last week? Let us know in the comments so we can celebrate with you!

My Not-So-Great Experience With ALDI Instacart Delivery

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

As you all know, I love ALDI. If I didn’t have multiple Kroger stores nearby that offered such great markdowns and digital coupon deals, I’d likely be shopping at ALDI every week.

Last week, I took you along on my grocery shopping trip — and so many people said they found it really helpful for me to do so but asked if I could showcase different methods of shopping. So this week, I decided to try a different method: ALDI Instacart Delivery Service.

I challenged myself to see if I could get everything we needed for our menu plan this week and spend less than $70 while using ALDI Instacart Delivery. Well, I definitely learned some lessons in the process…

1) Instacart Charges You More Per Item

I noticed right away that each of the items cost just a little bit more on Instacart than they do by shopping in-store at Aldi. It was just about $0.10-$0.50 per item, but that adds up quickly! I estimate I paid about $4-5 more than I would have spent in-store because of this.

2) Instacart Does Not Offer the Weekly Sale Prices

Also of note: I wasn’t able to get any of the weekly produce specials. Usually, I mostly just buy the produce specials at ALDI. Instead, I went with the more inexpensive regularly priced produce options, but I still would have saved probably $6-7 by purchasing only the sale priced fruits/veggies.

3) The Tip/Service Fee/Delivery Charge Add Up Quickly

Because I don’t have an Instacart membership, I paid $14 for the tip (15%) + service fee + delivery fee. You won’t pay as much each time if you have the membership, but you have to pay the membership fee — which is pretty hefty.

So, all total, I estimate I spent about $25 more by using Instacart than by shopping in-store. And there’s no way we could sustain a $70 weekly grocery budget if we were to exclusively shop ALDI with Instacart delivery.

In fact, the only way I was able to stick with our $70 budget this week was because I relied heavily on what we already had in our pantry and freezer that we have gotten marked down in previous weeks with different sales and coupons.

My ALDI Instacart Shopping Trip

Broccoli Crowns — $2.28
Tortilla Chips — $0.89
10-lb bag of Potatoes — $4.39
3-lb bag of Onions — $1.35
1 pint blueberries — $2.09
3-lb bag of Gala apples — $3.65
2 cans Refried Beans — $0.89 each
Tater Tots — $1.65
2 cans Green Beans — $0.55 each
Oats — $2.65
Oyster Crackers — $0.89
Crispy Oats — $1.25
Milk – -$2.59
Eggs — $0.95
16-inch Pizza — $5.49
Salsa — $1.35
3-lb. bag of Jazz apples — $4.22
3-count Romaine hearts — $3.04
Carrots — $1.55
Cottage Cheese — $1.87
16-oz Mozzarella Cheese — $3.22
16-oz. Cheddar Cheese — $3.22
Powdered Sugar — $1.55
Tax: $3.50
Delivery charge: $3.99
Service fee: $2.60
Tip (15%): $7.78
Total: $70.12

4) You Might Not Get What You Ordered

While I felt like the price — with the extra fees — were more than I’d want to pay on a weekly basis, the overall experience was pretty easy and I was kind of excited to have the groceries delivered to our door… which felt like this crazy luxury!

The only thing was, when they were delivered, 7 items were completely missing! The shopper had just left everything on our porch and then we got an email that it was delivered. When we went out there, we discovered that probably what amounted to an entire bag of groceries was missing.

I’m guessing that somehow the groceries were delivered to a different house or left in her vehicle. It was probably a fluke thing, but it was definitely a disappointment.

The good news? I contacted Instacart and they quickly contacted me back and processed a refund for what I didn’t get…

I shared about my Instacart shopping trip on Instagram stories and heard from a few hundred of you about your experiences. Here were just a few of the responses: