Instacart for Stay At Home Moms: What You Should Know About Being a Shopper

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Working as an Instacart shopper can be a great gig, but as a stay at home mom or other person who needs a flexible schedule, there are some things you should know before you start. Keep reading to hear about my experience & make an informed choice!

Last updated: April 25, 2020

Easy Money, But Some Things You Should Know

If you’re a SAHM, a working mom looking to make a little cash on the side – or really, anyone who needs a fast, flexible way to add income to your budget, you may have heard about Instacart. I started working for Instacart in October 2018, and there are a few things you should know to see if this is really for you.

My Backstory with Instacart

I knew once we moved from NY and got settled in Tennessee that I’d have to start thinking about how I could contribute to our budget. I’d been blogging, tutoring, freelance writing – but I was making inconsistent money. I needed something I could depend on to bring in a fairly reliable amount each month. 

I’m usually the kind of girl where the gears of my brain are constantly going about things like this, coming up all kinds of solutions on my own. However, I’ve learned from a mistake  – or many – trying to make things happen on my own. This time, I decided to be a little less active and a lot more prayerful and see how God wanted to provide for us.

So happens, I was at the park with my friend and her kids on Halloween, and she started telling about a side gig she was doing with Instacart, almost embarrassed-like.

“I food shop for other people and deliver it through Instacart. It’s not a lot but I’m already over $100 for this week.”

An extra $100 or more a week? Yes, I was interested!

Using her link, I signed up, and the rest is history.

What It’s Like Shopping for Instacart

Today I want to share how you can use Instacart as a side gig to make money as a SAHM or really, for anyone.

The way it works is that when you sign up to be a full-time shopper,  you open up your Instacart app whenever you want to shop. There will be batches available and you either grab them or leave them. If you accept it, you go to the store it tells you, shop the order, then deliver it to the customer. It’s really that easy.

(This is how it works with on-demand hours. When I first started, you would schedule your shifts and Instacart would send you batches. I’m not 100% certain for all areas, but I think most areas have moved exclusively to on-demand.)

That’s the short version, but let’s break it down.

This post contains affiliate and referral links, through which I may receive compensation at no cost to you.

The Instacart Sign Up

It’s very easy to sign up. You can go here to be directed to download the app and sign up. (This is my referral link. I’ll share more about that later.)

Once you start the sign-up, it basically walks you through the sign-up process. There’s a background check and a driver’s license check. Once you clear the checks, you’ll be sent an Instacart credit card, which you use to shop. You also need to purchase insulated bags before you can start shopping. Do not order through Instacart- very overpriced! You can get approval to buy them somewhere else, like Amazon, and then send them the picture as proof of purchase. These are the ones I ordered and they were approved.

Your Instacart Work Schedule

Once you’re approved, you get to select the zones. As for zones, some are busier than others, so you might need to play around and see what zones near you are busiest and make the most money.

I highly recommend joining local Instacart Facebook groups for your area. There’s a TON of helpful, insider info there, specific to your zone.

Since Instacart is mostly on-demand now, you just open up your app whenever you are free to shop.

This is ideal if you have chunks of your day when you’re free to shop and not others.

How Does Instacart Shopping Work?

When you want to work, you open up the Instacart app. You can see immediately if there are batches available for you to shop.

If there are, you can open up the batch and see how many items/units as well as what items are ordered – that can help you decide if you want to take it.

For example, there might be 2 cases of soda, 2 gallons of milk, 3 cases of Gatorade. That would be 3 items/7 units.  (There is compensation for heavy orders, by the way).

It also shows you the general area of the delivery and how far it is from the store (not the exact address. That is revealed after you accept the batch).

You’ll also be able to see how much Instacart is paying you for the batch. Instacart does pay for mileage from the store to the customer at $.60/mile; that’s included in the batch payment.

Estimated customer tips show up there as well.

Once you get to the store, you start shopping.

A picture and description of every item are there, and once you find the item, you scan it through your phone to make sure it’s the right one. If you got it right, it disappears and on to the next item.

If it’s wrong, it will flag you to find the right one.

Sometimes, items aren’t there so you need to replace.

Sometimes the customer has a specific replacement; sometimes it’s just your judgment.

However, customers can see what you replaced and can choose to ask for something else or approve your replacement.

Then, you go to checkout.

If the customer has a store card, it will be in the app. You check out, pay with the Instacart credit card, and then you’re ready to deliver.

Some orders are online pay, in which you need to go to an actually cashier and not self-checkout, and you pay by a having a bar code in the order scanned, not with the credit card

The shopper app is connected to Waze or other GPS apps on your phone, which will navigate every place you need to go. Once you deliver, you swipe “complete,” and then wait for the next batch.

Why Instacart Can Work for Moms or Those With Unusual Schedule Limitations

Having twin boys who are with me most of the day (they just started preschool, hallelujah), trying to find ways to make money was exhausting.

I’d been writing and blogging during naptime and after they went to bed, and that worked for a while.

But money was slow coming in.

Then, when we moved, the boys stopped napping and were going to bed later, so my time to write and blog went out the window.

By the time bedtime was over, I was exhausted. I’d also been sleeping in their room part of the night till the morning (that’s another story), but I couldn’t even get up early to work either.

So, how was I going to make any money if I was with my boys all day long?

This is where Instacart is a great gig. It has the flexibility to work around the boys’ schedule – where I can work just a few hours when they’re at school (difficult with a traditional job).

Weekends or evenings are great for me to load up on hours, when my husband is home to watch the boys (plus, weekends are usually busiest).

Can You Shop with Your Kids?

You might be wondering if you can bring your kids while you shop.

On the books, you’re supposed to shop by yourself, but here’s what I will say: I know there are women who bring their husbands when they shop at night.

I know there are moms who bring their kids when they shop.

In full disclosure, if you bring your kids, you’re breaking the rules.

Will Instacart find out? Maybe, maybe not.

Sometimes there are uptight shoppers who might turn you in. And I’ve heard of people getting deactivated for having others with them (and some didn’t even have someone).

It’s very hard to fight unless you have proof.

Honestly, your regular food shopping is probably a chore with your own kids – I can’t see how it would be fun to bring them along.

It can add to the stress, sometimes you have to deliver to apartment buildings where you’d need to bring them in with you… definitely not ideal.

However, there are shoppers who really have no choice and their financial situation is that desperate where they just need to. I totally get it.

I won’t tell you what to do – we’re all adults here. You know what will work for you. But officially, it’s not allowed. Proceed at your own risk.

How Does Instacart Pay You?

You can see your earnings in real time about 15-30 minutes after you complete a batch.

It will break down how much Instacart is paying, if there’s a peak boost, if there’s a heavy order boost. 

You’ll also see how much the customer tipped.

Once you are signed up, Instacart pays you every week, on Wednesdays, via direct deposit.

You get a 1099 at the end of the year. You can also cash out your payment early (not tips, just Instacart pay. You need to wait for the weekly pay to get the tips).

There are shoppers who shop for Instacart as a full-time job -it really can be that lucrative if you have the time and you’re in the right zone.

As for the payment for the batches, as I said, it varies by zone.

Once you get into it, you can determine how much you’d like to make an hour and determine if a batch is worth taking.

Referrals are another way you can make money with Instacart.

My friend who I signed up with? Because I completed my batches in the time frame needed, she got a very generous bonus! Very generous!

And it’s not a pyramid. If you sign up under my link, I don’t get a percentage of what you make or make anything from someone who signs up from you. It’s just simply referral compensation.

So, if you get friends interested and they complete a certain number of batches, you can make some extra money, too!

But beware, if you refer people in your own area, you’re adding to your competition for batches. And often, many zones are saturated with a lot of shoppers.

What I Like about Instacart

To sum up, here are a few things that can make Instacart work for you

• A flexible schedule where you make your own hours

 

• Money coming in every week, easy through direct deposit

 

• Easy work – doesn’t take a ton of mental (or physical, really) energy

 

• Most moms are already pretty good at food shopping!

 

• Independent work environment – no boss to check in with, no interview process 

 

• Can start making money immediately, within a week of signing up

 

• Can work on other things while waiting for batches

 

• Can stay at home while waiting to shop

 

• Can work more hours to make more money if needed

If you’re a SAHM or anyone looking to make some extra cash, Instacart is very doable. Here’s my link if you want to get started.

What I Don’t Like About Instacart

I added this section about a year after I originally posted the article, because since then a lot had changed with Instacart.

I updated all the information in the above sections, so that’s accurate.

However, because of the things Instacart had changed, in good conscience, I felt like I needed to add this to it as well.

When you talk to people who have shopped for Instacart, even longer than I have, they’ll tell you right away that the pay has gone down. WAY down. 

Since I started in October 2018, there have been a few changes that really have not benefitted the shoppers at all. And I feel I need to share those.

When I first started, we would get a base pay per batch (varied by zone).

Mine was around $5.25 base pay. Then, it paid $.40 per item (not unit). So, you had a pretty accurate idea of how the batch payment was assessed. They changed this in early 2019.

In the change, they did include mileage ($.60 from the store to the delivery site), but how they come up with the batch payment is vague.

For a while, I was trying to use the old system as a way to determine if a batch was worth paying. If the batch payment equaled what I would have made under the old system, I would take it.

However, it was rare.

I will say, if you factored in the tip, it MIGHT equal what it would have in the past.

But, it’s never smart to factor in the tip to your payment because it can change. If the customer uses a percentage, if there are cancellations or substitutions of items to the order, the tip can go down.

Also, a customer has 3 days to adjust the tip up or down.

It never happened to me personally but I’ve heard stories of where customers will put a high tip in to entice a shopper to take the order, but then will lower or remove it after.

I’ve always had pretty good customers, but it’s just not wise to factor in tip to the batch payment.

So, payment really isn’t as good as before. However, you still can make good money if everything else aligns for you.

Another thing Instacart does is saturate its zones with shoppers.

My gut is that they know veteran shoppers aren’t going to take these low paying batches. But the more shoppers they have on board, someone will take it, especially newer shoppers who don’t know any different.

A lot of times, if a batch is low paying, no one will take it and Instacart will be forced to add a peak boost. The longer it sits, the more they add.

However, most people in a zone need to be on board with letting it sit in order to raise the pay. Otherwise, a new shopper in the area will likely just snatch it up.

Instacart – Your Choice but Know the Facts

I’m not going to say you should or shouldn’t shop for Instacart.

It provides a very valuable service for many people, especially elderly or sickly who can’t get out. It’s a little sad that Instacart doesn’t treat its shoppers better, but this kind of job really works well for some people.

I don’t really shop Instacart anymore as it wasn’t really worth the time I was putting in. I still check the app and see if there are decent batches.

If something comes up that appeals to me, I’ll take it, but I’ve since put my time in other ventures to make money.

I highly recommend joining your local Instacart Facebook group. They can really tell you what it’s like in your area and you can decide for yourself.

Good luck. We are all just trying to get by!

Looking for another job for a SAHM? This one is a great if you want to work from home! Check out this post on designing and selling E-printables, which is what I do now, along with my blog!