A Sort of Walmart Potpourri Post

First Walmart potpourri item:

My household recently switched from Instacart to Walmart+ for our "stuff delivered on demand."

Well, OK, we didn't initially switch, but rather bought a one-year Walmart+ membership because we were offered a deep discount and because it comes with Paramount+ streaming, which is nice but not something I was willing to pay for a la carte.

It works well for us. Tamara does a lot of our shopping at Walmart anyway, so the down side of not being able to pick different stores (but not Walmart, at least locally) for Instacart is greatly ameliorated. She's spending less time at the damn store, she's not having to do as much lifting, etc. (when I'm with her at the store, I do the lifting, but I'm usually not with her because she stops there on her way home from work).

So, I'm planning to end our "premium" Instacart subscription as soon as Tamara gives me the OK. We might use them occasionally, but I'll just pay the "non-premium" delivery fee instead of forking over monthly.

No affiliate link or anything, but I do recommend the service if grocery (and everything else Walmart carries) delivery is something you're looking for.

Second Walmart potpourri item:

I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

As I've mentioned many times, one of the ways I use cryptocurrency is buying gift cards for places we use (Amazon, Walmart, etc.). When it's up, I buy a little. For Walmart, I've occasionally bought them and added them to our Walmart account myself, while other times just giving the number/PIN to Tamara.

When we bought the Walmart+ membership, it didn't show up when I went into the Walmart account on my computer. On closer inspection, I realized that not nearly all the gift card credit I'd bought was in my "wallet," nor were there purchases to explain the discrepancy.

Here's the discrepancy: We don't have a Walmart account. I have one, and Tamara has one. And the Walmart+ account is hers. For some reason I've managed to go for years without ever noticing this.

So, there was a balance in my Walmart account that couldn't be used for Walmart+ grocery deliveries.

Over the last month or so, I've used it to buy things that are shipped, and come with "free" shipping, even for non-Walmart+ members. This morning I decided to use some of it as, well, "mad money."

I've been interested in a "cooling, weighted blanket" for some time, but the prices I found were never right. This morning, one price was right. So I grabbed it.

I've also been thinking for some time about buying an Android tablet, but it was fairly low on my desire list. I already have a touchscreen fold-over Chromebook that can be used as a "tablet" and runs Android apps. I've had that for a year or two. It's my travel computer, and works OK for that purpose. A little too heavy to use as a household tablet, though.

This morning, for about $100, I found a well-reviewed, 10", Android 13 tablet with bluetooth keyboard, wireless mouse, stylus, and case that doubles as a stand.  In other words, something that might work as a replacement "travel computer" and is light enough to do tablet stuff that I don't normally do, like sitting around playing Android games, or watching streaming media, or reading Kindle books. And at a not unreasonable price. Worth taking a chance on, especially since, if it doesn't meet my needs, it will almost certainly be welcomed by some other household member.

If nothing else, I'll have two items I can review here on the blog.