Editorial: Drive to be frugal falters

My New Year resolution is to spend less money on groceries.

It should be easy enough as each week some food is being wasted. I've tried switching supermarkets before, with mixed results.

The total bill has been cheaper but I prefer the products and the experience at Countdown.

A few workmates are online shoppers and rave about it so I decided to give it a go.

It seems to make sense - I get to shop at my favourite supermarket, I'll save time and if I'm not in store being tempted by the specials, I'll save money.

Last week was my first order and I must say, it's kind of addictive. I lay awake in bed until midnight carefully selecting each item. The next day, I spent at least another hour (okay, it was two hours) refining my list.

Finally I was ready to "head to the checkout". My goal was to spend $250 but I'd convinced myself $380 was fine as I had to get bulk pet food and I was out of cleaning products.

As I checked my final spend, I spotted a couple of first-time user errors. My 200g of luncheon was in fact 2kg (costing $14) and I'd somehow managed to stuff up the weight of the lamb loin chops and ordered $134 worth.

A few other things weren't available and before I knew it, I was down to my goal spend.

As soon as I hit "send" I realised I'd forgotten cheese and toothpaste so decided to duck into the supermarket on the way home from work. I spent $30, somehow.

My groceries arrived and although the avocados were a little riper than I'd like (my fault for not being specific in the shoppers' notes I guess), the rest was perfect.

The following day was a scorcher and I desperately wanted some barbecue food for tea so I decided to nip into Countdown and grab some chicken nibbles. I spent $63, somehow.

The following day, we noticed we were out of coffee, so another quick visit was needed. I spent $28.

I've just placed my second online shopping order and have again hit my $250 target. Now, if I could arrange Countdown to get a restraining order on me I think my New Year's resolution will be a success.