Online shopping

I have had my first delivery from a company called Rosspa which is an online grocery shopping store. It is different from the Tesco/Sainsbury/Asda etc deliveries, because this comes overnight by City Link tracked delivery.

Knowing then that it comes by courier in an ambient temperature van, you wonder what they can bring, but they bring fresh meat, fish, yogurts, cheese, etc, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables, cakes, bread, eggs, etc.

I placed the order in half an hour on Monday morning, and it was here by 10.30am yesterday morning! I was very impressed with the quality of the fresh fruit and veg - the broccoli, courgettes, apples, bananas, plums, carrots and sprouts which I ordered are all beautiful, fresh and in the case of the bananas, not over ripe as they are just tinged with green.

Everything was extremely well wrapped and packaged - the bananas were wrapped in cushionwrap and then in a bag whilst the eggs were all individually wrapped in kitchen roll, on a tray, with more kitchen roll over them before another egg tray was placed over them, elastic bands all round and placed carefully in the box with more packaging around them. They made it here without even a crack.

The meat, yogurts, and veg were all packed in polystyrene boxes with ice packs, which are all re-usable here! Everything was still cold, and I was impressed with the system.

Prices are very good - heads of broccoli weighing between 600g and 800g were 39p each, and I was very pleased that I ordered 6 so they are all chopped up and in the freezer now. Bloomer loaves of bread were 59p, and tins of Highlanders Broth, from Baxters, were only 79p. That stuff is difficult to find in normal supermarkets, and over a £1 a tin when it is found, so I was happy to stock up and stash 6 tins away with this delivery. The girls love this, and it makes a good meal with a hot pudding occasionally, although they would eat it daily if they could! They discovered it on our trip to Baxter's Highland Village in Fochabers, and have been enjoying it ever since, whenever I can source it.

Drawbacks? Delivery costs £5.50 for each 25kg package. That is the only one I can find. And there is plenty of justification for paying that: the convenience of the system, the speed of the delivery, the quality of the goods (they are good!), and the prices of the goods, as well. It has been recommended that a good idea would be to place a monthly order, to minimise the costs - I accept that I wouldn't have weekly order, the way that some people have a weekly supermarket delivery. It would also be possible to share a delivery with a neighbour if you each wanted a smaller amount of produce.

It is also a moneysaver in that one is not tempted by all the other distractions of the supermarket!