T-Minus 463 days: Using InstaCart

If you read this blog, you do so because you are interested in hearing about moving to Florida and about Disney World. You probably aren't too interested in the Great Pandemic of 2020. But the fact is, the pandemic has sidelined our work toward preparing to move.

I work from home, so, nothing new there. What is new: I am working 14 hours per day due to the impact of the pandemic on my company. My oldest son is in an online degree program, so, nothing new there. My youngest son's school closed, so, it is like having an early Spring Break for him. My wife is working from home, so, that's what is new. Work is slow and she isn't busy all day, so that gives her time for some spring cleaning.

We have decided to follow the government's advice and stay home (especially now that COVD-19 has been reported in our town). As part of that decision, we decided to have our groceries delivered by InstaCart. I have looked into InstaCart previously, but never used them.

I set up an account on the InstaCart website and selected my store. And then went through the website and created my grocery list. The items are all marked up versus the shelf tag to help cover the cost of the shopper and the delivery. In addition, there is a 5% fee on the order. There is also a 5% tip on the order too. I changed the tip to 10% initially, and after the groceries were delivered and we were happy, I changed it to 15%. The point is, it is much more expensive to have InstaCart deliver your groceries versus you shopping for your own groceries.

Another option with InstaCart is curb side pick-up instead of home delivery. Curbside pickup is more expensive than if you shopped yourself, but it is cheaper than home delivery (by about 15%)

I have to admit, I really liked the InstaCart home delivery. I made my list on a Wednesday for a Saturday delivery. I was told if InstaCart knew something would be out of stock. I was also allowed to select an alternative product if the item I wanted wasn't available. Then, while our shopper was shopping, she was continually texting us and telling us if something wasn't available or if we wanted something different.

InstaCart told us when our shopper had checked out, loaded her car, and was headed to our house. It also told us just before she arrived at the house. My instructions were to leave the groceries on our front porch - and she did!

Yes, InstaCart is more expensive compared to shopping yourself. But I would have no problems using the system again. Next weekend, I am going to try the curbside pickup!

T-Minus 465 Days: COVID-19 and Take Out Food

The world has stopped to pause for COVID-19, and so have we. Our purging and moving plans have been put on hold. In their place, we are spring cleaning the house from top to bottom, and my work has required many extra hours in response to the pandemic. We hope we'll be able to get back to our moving plans soon.

T-Minus 471 Day: Corona Virus

Our life has been sidelines by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Everything is getting canceled and closed. Follow along as we try to do our weekly grocery shopping.

T-Minus 476 Days: Pictures for Market Place

We had a nice and fast system going: gather up items we don't want and toss them into a Rummage Sale pile. And then we saw several videos where people sold items on Facebook Market Place and we decided we would give it a try. That decision was kind of a poison that has slowed the entire process down. Now, instead of just tossing stuff into a pile, we are gathering all the parts and pieces and cleaning them and staging them for pictures. This is a lot of extra time consuming work!

Stay tuned and learn whether or not this was a profitable idea!

T-Minus 478 Days: Purging Legos

If you have kids, you probably have legos. I have a huge collection of legos.

We have decided it is time to purge all of the large mega blocks and duplo blocks.

We put some of the blocks through the dish washer and then dried them by hand. 

The rest of the blocks were sanitized using Lysol wipes. 

It took all day to sort and clean the blocks, and I hope it was worth it. Our plan is to sell the blocks on Facebook Marketplace to help pay for the move!

T-Minus 480 days: Purging Cars

When you move to Florida, will you take your car? What if you have multiple cars?

We have three cars right now:

• 2008 Dodge Caravan with 125K miles
• 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix with only 50K miles
• 2018 Dodge Caravan with 40K miles. 

I decided the only vehicle we will take to Florida is the 2018 Caravan. We will try to survive with one vehicle for as long as possible. So, in 2019 we got rid of the:

• 1997 Chevy Truck with 65K miles
• 1986 Pontiac Bonneville with only 45K miles

A pickup truck is very handy when you need one, but, you don't need one every day. No one ever drove the Bonneville so it just sat in the driveway and rotted away.

We need to sell two more cars. The next car we are selling is the old Caravan. We kept the van so my oldest son would have something to drive. He attends college across the internet and doesn't drive anywhere, so, the van is sitting in the driveway rotting. It is long past time to get rid of it.

I charged up the battery and we spent most of the day washing, waxing, and cleaning it. I took it out for a test drive and, unfortunately, I think the front right caliper is locked due to sitting unused for so long. A caliper replacement is going to be several hundred dollars, but, I don't think the van will sell with a stuck caliper.

The Grand Prix is my car, and we won't sell that until we are nearly ready to move. I like the car, but I work from home and rarely use it. I don't think I put even 3K miles on it per year anymore. When cars sit around, they start developing problems. Right now the car has a barrings issue, the anti-lock keeps disengaging, and the muffler needs some work (although I believe the muffler is under warranty).

The old Caravan is worth somewhere around $2500, which would go nicely toward our moving budget.

T-Minus 484 Days: Purging Toys

My children are ages 16, 20, and 26. What that means is we have been buying toys for 26 years, and the kids are too old to play with any toys. We have donated many of the toys of the years, but we have kept some of the best sets. For example, we have a ton of Little People. We have a large pile of Rescue Heroes. And, we have more legos that any human should be allowed to have.

When the kids grew out of a toy and there was no one to hand it down to, we packed the toys into a tote and cataloged the tote into our 270 tote "Tub City".  Fifty of those totes contained toys: books, board games, dolls, action figures, race car tracks, trains, match box car, tonka trucks, and just about anything else you can imagine!

We already went through all of the kids books and board games and purged those. This weekend, we went after many of the remaining toy totes. Our goals were:

1. Make sure each tote contained what the inventory said it contained.
2. Complete sets were all put together into one tote (not spread around several).
3. Make sure everything was cleaned and ready for sale.
4. Skip all the totes containing barbies or stuffed animals

We didn't have the emotional connection to the toys like we did the clothes and the art work, so, it was very easy to go through them. I came across many old toys I had when I was a kid and had given to my kids. The toys are now antiques!

It took hours to accomplish these goals, but we did it! We took half a dozen totes and sent them directly to the rummage pile. The rest? We need to sort through and purge.

We have now went through 52% of the totes! 27% of our totes are sitting empty.