Online food shopping recommendations please!

[iloveteacakes]

In an attempt to be more organised and manage my food shopping budget better I thought I should try doing my food shopping online. Am thinking this will give me a better opportunity to plan, rather than aimlessly walking round the supermarket and am also hoping I will avoid buying so much unnecessary rubbish.

I have never done this before so wondered who you would recommend- I have the choice of Asda, Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsburys. I am happy to spend a bit more if it means better quality, particularly regarding meat and fruit and veg.

But will I miss out on the offers in store? Will I end up with strange substitutions, bruised fruit and veg and a mountain of plastic bags? Should I just write a better list and walk to Sainsburys??

Ocado (Waitrose) - ok it isn't cheap but I never get any substitutions and there's also a good shelf life on whatever I've been delivered. Unlike my Sainsburys delivery when a load of it was missing and some of it due to go off.

You do get a lot of plastic bags though ime whichever company you go with.

Oh and Ocado have lots of offers shown on website when you are shopping.

I use Tesco
all instore offers are duplicated online
you can request no plastic bags
I must confess I usually buy bagged fruit and veg because I don;t trust them to pick nice stuff
meat you get waht it says on the packet

it does cost though so if you are really budgettin gyou may be better off doing a meal plan and a really good list

Ocado here too - and they take the bags away. DH did a price comparison and found them cheaper than Sainsbury's!! The fruit and veg is always excellent and your receipt clearly shows how long their use-by dates are. The driver are cheery and their refund policy is straightforward.

If you play hard to get with them for a while, they will bombard you with offers, so make the most of it. They don't bother with me anymore, I'm a fully signed up member!

Tesco - fine, reliable, same offers as instore.

Ocado - more interesting and premium stuff, for a price of course. Don't stock some big brands like my favourite Walls bacon. You can set up a weekly delivery to come same time, same shopping list say, every Monday morning. Ocado have earlier and later delivery times (more convenient for pre-work deliveries for me).

Problem for both of them is not being able to choose meat. you can write comments to the picker, but what you think looks like a nice steak might not be what they think looks nice.

Another vote for Ocado - civilised and polite drivers and no substitutions.

ocado every time

Yes, I forgot to mention the rare substitutions...

Most of ocado stuff is Tesco price matched. They used to deliver copies of the Times, I'm not sure what happened there. They have only substituted once, I've had to complain twice though, once about packaging broken (tuna steak so the juicy stuff went everywhere) and once about a mouldy orange. They always turn up on time, food lasts for ages (unless it's eaten), really impressed that they bring me little bottles of vodka to test, they recycle the bags, nice drivers, ds is impressed that they text to remind me and tell me which van they are delivering the food in . Meat is really good but a bit more expensive, lots of offers.

I couldn't recommend them more highly.

Don't forget the free copy of the Times with your Ocado order (or has someone mentioned that already?)

I've not had a copy from them since November.

Free Vodka? who do you have to shag to get that fluffy?

and fabric softner, they accidently put a large bottle in rather then a free trial size so they gave it me for free.

I didn't shag anyone, they must like me! It was only a small bottle, damn!

tesco
no prob here

although hate paying for deliv

i once got a free litre bottle of vodka but that was sainsbos
i still choose ocado everytime now - no hassle over subs etc

i got a free chinese leaf lettuc

wtf

At least they are not trying to get you pissed and hinting that your clothes need a wash!

I've been online shopping for a year now and quite often get codes for free delivery or money off (and I get all excited when the van pulls up because I haven't had to trudge to the supermarket to get it ). Over the year I've certainly saved overall and always go through myspupermarket.com which offers cheaper alternatives and offers.

I haven't used Ocado yet - will try them soon - but I've always been happy with Tesco and Sainsbury (one hour delivery time slot with Sainsbos which I do like).

Asda OTOH were pretty rubbish both times I used them. First time they were an hour late and the second time they were over two hours late, offered stupid subs and had charged double for some items. Will not be using them again.

Asda for basics and then Abel and Cole for organic meat, veg and some quite yummy veggie pies.

avoid Asda. Quality is dire.

Ocado every time for me. And they bring it in to the kitchen too.

Ocado. Always on time, drivers v polite. The use by dates are guaranteed (say milk has a guarantee for 6-7 days for example). Not too many subsitutions. Choice is amazing - loads of things just not available in other supermarkets. Quality normally very good - only once did I complain when the 2 pawpaws I ordered were completely rotten on delivery - so rotten they were actually liquid. Free Times. Usually other freebies too. You can see all the offers they have.

I have been using Tesco for years and really happy with them.

Had a free delivery code so gave Asda a try. Total disaster, complete waste of time. Wrong stuff delivered, had to wait all day for them to return only for it still to bewrong and staff at customer services were rude and unhelpful - so avoid!

ocado , i pay £10 month delivery and then have 1-2 orders a week delivered £40 -60 worth. I have actually saved money as when i used tesco or asda i did a lot of bulk buying and wasted loads. I top up at grocers or aldi for fruit and veg and washing powder etc.I budget £80 -£90 per week for family of 5.

I used to use Tesco, I found that most of the delivery was really close to it's sell by/use by date, lots of substitutions aswell. I did try Sainsburys, wasn't too bad, substitutions were silly though, I ordered a small wooden train (£1) for a brio set, they brought me a whole train set instead (£15). Not quite the same really.

mysupermarket.com
You choose where to 'shop' from Tesco/Asda/Sainsburys/Ocado and then it shows you what the same trolley would be costing in the other places and if you want to swap, you can. Also shows you alternatives that save money (e.g. own brand yoghurts to replace branded ones) and ways to reduce the calories you are buying. You can also type in your shopping list, and it's then really quick to find the items you're looking for. All the instore offers are there too - although you only get them if they are valid on your delivery date, not the date you do the shop.
I've only ever ended up with tesco, and always opt for the no plastic bag delivery option, and the no substitutions option.

Thank you for all the responses. Interesting to see how highly Ocado is rated- very helpful to hear about other people's experiences. I will also definitely have a look at mysupermarket.com, Biccy, and hopefully 2010 will be the year I have a sensibley stocked kitchen rather than three loaves of bread, some biscuits and no milk!