At Your Fingertips: Services that Make Life Easier
Another integral aspect of day-to-day living now versus then is the internet! As long as I have access to the interweb, I can live in a bubble and have everything delivered on-demand. I find it hard to believe how easy life is these days. Here are the services that I use.
Who doesn’t have an Amazon Prime account these days? Books, vitamins, baby registry gifts, diapers, toiletries delivered to your doorstep in 2 days. Has anyone tried the new Prime Music included in the membership? Lots of good popular tunes. I added a bunch of lullabies for the baby.
Cost: $99/year
Same-day or next-day delivery of groceries (with minimum $35 purchase), currently serving Seattle and California. If Amazon Fresh comes to your city, take advantage of the free 30 day promo. I’m in love with it. Well worth the cost. Mainly, you don’t have to waste your time going to the grocery store, finding parking, and standing in line to pay. Because time is money! I don’t even think the groceries are marked up that much. My litmus is a box of Lean Cuisines which are $2 on Amazon Fresh. I used to buy Lean Cuisines by the cart full when they were on sale at Safeway for $2 or $2.50.
Cost: $299/year (includes Amazon Prime)
This service serves all the major metropolitan cities. It delivers from a whole bevy of restaurants such as Barbacco, Cha Cha Cha, La Mediterranee, and Ramen Underground in SF.
Cost: Delivery charge
I think Instacart is more wide-spread geographically, serving SF, NYC, Chicago, Boston, Austin, etc. You select items from various grocers (i.e., Costco, Whole Foods, Safeway) and you’re charged a delivery fee. I used to be a huge fan of Instacart when they partnered with Trader Joe’s, but now they don’t. Insert big sad face here.
I know there are a bunch of food-delivery sites, but this one is probably the most popular here in SF. You choose items from a daily menu of dishes made fresh that day (sides, salads, entrees, desserts, kids stuff, desserts, fresh-pressed juices, coffee, wine), then schedule the delivery for that evening. There are instructions labeled on each item on how to warm it up (usually a couple minutes in the microwave or oven).
Cost: There’s a delivery cost, but I opted for $39/year for free delivery and no minimum order, which means I can buy one of their chocolate chip cookies and they’ll deliver it to me that evening.
Post any task (i.e., cleaning, moving, handyman, personal assistance) online and errand-runners (i.e., TaskRabbits) will bid for the job. Choose based on price, qualifications, or reviews.
Task: I’ve gotten so many hand-me-down clothes for the baby. I was stressed just looking at all these boxes in the nursery. I posted for someone to sort through and organize the clothes. I chose someone who is a professional organizer. She came and sorted all the newborn and 0-3 month clothes into a dresser, then organized the rest of the clothes into batches based on age. It was such a relief to have that one task done.
I LOVE TASK RABBIT!
Cost: TaskRabbits will bid for the task and indicate their hourly rate.
There are lots of child care sites in the Bay Area, including Bananaberry, Care, Sittercity, Urbansitter. I’ve only used Wondersitter, though. I like how their sitters are heavily vetted, and they are the only agency that uses Trustline, the background check service mandated by California. Book a babysitter and they’ll come to you. I’ve only used this service once and the sitter was excellent. Franco was so at ease with her.
Cost: $15 booking fee to the vendor, then an hourly rate paid to the sitter.
Alright, what sites/services am I missing?
Have you tried any of these?
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