SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. – Saving money at the grocery store can be a real challenge for families struggling to make it to the next payday. Thankfully, as the cost of grocery items continues to rise, do does the amount of shopping options. NonStop Local looked into two resources helping two Spokane Valley families: grocery delivery and the AFFIRM app.
“It used to be a lot easier to just go in to the grocery store, but after we had kids, that became more of a time consuming thing,” Jerusha said.
After welcoming her second child, Jerusha was ready to try a new method for getting groceries from the store aisles to her home.
“It was just becoming a whole process…trying to get two in the car and then get groceries,” Jerusha said.
So she tried a free trial of one grocery store’s delivery service, and says it’s saving her family money because she’s less likely to deviate from her shopping list when ordering groceries on her phone via a grocery delivery app.
“Definitely, because I just have my (grocery) list and I go through and search my phone and add this item, add this item… and then the only time I add extras is if I need to get up to that 35 dollar (delivery) amount, which is not very often,” Jerusha said.
Jerusha said ordering groceries and having them dropped off right on her front door is both cheaper and more convenient for her family of four.
“It simplified things and made sure we actually ate dinner that night,” Jerusha added. “(Grocery) prices have definitely gone up.”
Fellow mother and grandmother, Caroline Leander, said she found financial assistance to purchase items for her family through AFFIRM, a BNPL, or ‘buy now, pay later’ financing.
“If I’m in between paydays or something like that, if I see something I wanna get, I’ll just buy it with AFFIRM,” Caroline told NonStop Local while showing us how she tracks the payments she’s working on through the AFFIRM app.
“You get to choose how often you wanna pay back,” Caroline said. “If it’s a big purchase it’s over a whole year if you want, or you can go for like 6 months. It’s very easy, you can set it up when you first log in and you can pyut in your phone number and there’s a few pieces of information they need but they don’t do credit checks.”
Caroline said she recently used AFFIRM to buy a flight for her daughter, and reccomends AFFIRM to her friends and family. Some websites, like AMAZON, offer an option to buy your item using AFFIRM when you check out.
Unlike credit cards, AFFIRM users know how much they’ll be paying upfront and AFFIRM doesn’t usually charge late fees, prepayment fees or annual fees.
“It makes things a lot easier,” Caroline said. “I keep checking how much I owe. The interest the longer you go…the interest is just 3 to 4 dollars, it’s not that expensive.”
Caroline says without AFFIRM financing, recent purchases for her loved ones would have broken the bank.
“It would have made us broke,” Caroline laughed.
NonStop Local would love to hear what resources are helping you cut costs on groceries for your family.
You can reach out to Melinda Lee at melinda.lee@nonstoplocal.com
