This is not a sponsored post, but any Amazon links below are referral links as I’m an Amazon affiliate. If you make a purchase through any of my Amazon links, I’ll receive a nominal credit toward my own Amazon purchases.
The Planet Wise reusable zipper sandwich bag is made with food-safe EVA; it is free of PVC, BPA, phthalate, latex and lead. EVA stands for Ethylene Vinyl Acetate. I was hesitant to buy this reusable bag at first, but I decided as long as I handwash this bag and since I’m not using it for liquids, it meets my requirements.
I like this Planet Wise bag because the zipper keeps all the food in the bag (hello, grapes), and sandwich bread doesn’t dry out. My son LOVES the camouflage pattern. I still want to think of him as a little preschooler who likes cute owls and smiley faces, but the reality is he’s in elementary school, and he likes trucks and Soldiers.
Besides grapes, we’ve used this reusable bag for sandwiches and tortilla chips. I’ve been washing it by hand, but it is dishwasher safe. I am careful to make sure the bag is open wide when I put it on the dish rack to dry. I don’t want any mold.It’s come in so handy that I’m going to buy another one or two!
You can find the Planet Wise reusable sandwich bag and the snack bag version on Amazon:
If you’re interested in other reusable lunch products, please visit my post on the Stasher, a reusable silicone bag.
Do you use reusable sandwich bags? If so, what’s your favorite brand?
Balancing my life is always a work in progress. I try to cook somewhat-healthy meals for my family, but I’m constantly tempted to grab take out. Life is busy, right? I like to order groceries from Amazon Fresh and have them delivered to our door. It’s been a huge help and made my life less stressful.
J and I have been Amazon Prime members for probably around a decade now. We use Amazon often: cat food, bird food, toilet paper, clothes, etc. And now I’ve been using Amazon’s grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh, for a few months.
Ordering is simple!
I pay to use Amazon Fresh because the convenience is worth it to me. For example, I went to visit my parents in Florida this summer, and I was able to order groceries while I was there and have them delivered right after I got home.
Keep in mind that our flight wasn’t going to land until close to midnight Saturday night, and on Sunday, I would have to take my MIL back to her house in Virginia. There’s more to it than that, but anyway, the point is I started to stress out at how much had to get done as soon as I got home and how little time I had to do it.
Then I remembered I could just have groceries delivered, which would save me 1-2 hours on a Sunday afternoon. Huge stress relief! And that’s what I did.
I’ve ordered through the Amazon website, and I’ve also ordered using the Amazon app on my iPhone, so it’s something I truly can do on the go.
I’m signed up to receive status updates and notifications about my orders. This one was for a late-night delivery.
When I go to order, the first thing I do is reserve a delivery time. You can choose either attended or doorstop delivery. Basically, do you want the delivery driver to ring your door bell and wait for you, or just leave your stuff there? I go with the latter, and I’m signed up for text alerts, so I know when my groceries have been dropped off outside my door.
Once you choose a delivery window, that time slot is held for you for 1 hour, so you have 1 hour to fill your “cart” and check out. You can go into the account after the fact and add more things to your order if they haven’t started filling it yet. Amazon will list a time on their site that you have to finish managing/changing your order by. Since I’m signed up for notifications, Amazon will also send me a message letting me know by what time I need to finish making updates to my order.
We signed up for the Amazon Fresh subscription service, so we pay a monthly fee of $14.99. Additionally, we have to buy at least $50 of groceries, or we’ll be charged a delivery fee of $9.99. That’s never been an issue because I always order more than $50 of groceries! There’s an automatic tip of $5 applied to the order, but you can change it up to 24 hours after the delivery. It used to take me 2 hours at the grocery store to shop and checkout every weekend, and that didn’t include driving. For example, if I want to go to Whole Foods, it takes 20-45 mins just to get there depending on traffic. Twenty mins would be first thing Saturday morning.
So not counting the tip, I pay $14.99 a month to not spend 8+ hours driving to and from and in the grocery store. That’s like 3 of my macchiatos from Starbucks. I love coffee, but I’d rather have the grocery delivery! Oh, and Amazon Fresh delivers Whole Foods brand stuff too, so it’s a win-win for me.
The delivery service isn’t perfect. Sometimes something gets broken. I had a yogurt container break once, not enough to make a mess in the delivery bag, but obviously I wasn’t going to eat it after that. I immediately went online to my Amazon account and filed for a refund since the product was damaged. It was an easy process.
Cracked yogurt container
The worst thing that has happened so far is that one time the delivery driver forgot to deliver one of my bags. I received my freezer items packed in dry ice and my bag of dry goods, but the bag of fridge items wasn’t on my doorstep.
I immediately contacted Amazon. The rep refunded that bag, and she said she would contact the driver to see the driver could still bring the groceries.
Well, the bag did show up on my doorstep, but it was about 5 hours later. Amazon packs the fridge bags with frozen water bottles instead of ice packs, and the water in the bottles in my fridge bag were starting to melt by that point. I tossed most of the food because I wasn’t sure it was safe. I kept the eggs and some of the salad stuff.
The food arrives in paper bags that have been taped closed.Freezer items arrive inside an insulated sleeve with dry ice on top.Fridge items arrive in a big plastic bag with frozen water bottles instead of ice packs. We dig free bottled water. 🙂
That was a very disappointing experience. Even though my money was refunded, I still had to go out to the grocery store. That’s what I was trying to avoid in the first place.
A forgotten bag has only happened once. As long as that unfortunate experience stays a rarity, I’m going to continue to use Amazon Fresh. The convenience is perfect for our current lifestyle, and the monthly fee is worth it for us.
Right now, if Amazon Fresh is offered in your area, and you are an Amazon Prime member, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial.
(Affiliate link below: If you purchase anything through my link, I will earn a small fee that I will most likely spend on toys for my budgie, Deathrooper.)
Have you ever used Amazon Fresh? If so, what did you think?
The Luray Caverns (near Luray, Virginia) were discovered in 1878, and they are a Registered Natural Landmark. The Friday before Labor Day, we visited the Luray Caverns in Virginia. We attempted to go in 2015 (the same weekend), but the caverns were packed. That time, we drove by and saw the overflow parking lots were filled. So this year we went early and arrived right when the caverns were open. There was already a tour bus there, so we didn’t make it on the first tour, but we did make it on the second! The tours leave every 20 minutes, and each tour does have a guide.
The caverns aren’t super cheap to visit. Right now, the general admission cost is $27 for adults and $14 for children (6-12). If you’re a military family, you can visit your base’s Leisure Travel Services for discounted tickets. If you don’t have tickets when you get there, you have to go through one line to buy the tickets and then a second line to actually get into the caverns, so I’d recommend buying your tickets ahead of time, so you only have to worry about one line. Tickets can be purchased online.
The walkways within the caverns are paved, which was a good thing! The tour is over a mile long (in a loop), so we brought the stroller. I figured Little J would be tired, bored and crabby after 30 minutes or so, and the tour takes about an hour. Parts of the walkway were still bumpy, and there are a lot of hills, but it really wasn’t too bad for the stroller. There are about 70 steps to get down into and then out of the caverns. We had to close up the stroller for that part and carry it.
Tips: Don’t touch anything!!!!! If you touch any of the stalactites or stalagmites, you will get yelled at. You can take as many as photos as you’d like, so that’s a plus! Also, it’s cold in the caverns, so bring a light jacket! And don’t leave your tour guide. They don’t like that.
Your ticket purchase also includes a self-guided tour of the Car and Carriage Caravan museum, and the Luray Valley Museum. I actually really enjoyed the car museum. It had old Cadillacs, Benzs, Fords, and more. I love history, so it was neat to read the plaques and see the vehicles that other generations grew up with.
Overall, we really enjoyed our trip to Luray, and we would do it again. If you’re ever in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I recommend checking out Luray Caverns.
Have you been to Luray Caverns? If not these caverns, have you been to other caverns? Which ones?
