My 9th Instacart paycheck 💸 🛒

This past week went pretty great in terms of earnings. Week 9 ended up being my second best week since beginning this job the first week of January 2023.

I plan on doing a weekly Instacart Financial Report like this one, so if you enjoy this kind of content be sure to follow me if you aren't already doing so.

I'm going to be breaking down each day of work individually. Luckily, the Instacart Shopper app makes that extremely easy to do. Let's go ahead and get things started.

Monday, March 6th

Another good start to a week, thank goodness. This was a day of many breaks and some great orders sprinkled in. I was able to get over $100 in earnings, so that makes me feel like I accomplished what I set out to do.

I made about $29.65/hr on this day.

My first customer of the day was so nice. I arrived at the delivery point and one of the two old ladies that lived in the apartment was standing there at their door waiting for me. This made it so much easier to find where they were because the apartment complex was, well, complex. After I parked the woman instantly handed me a $5 bill on top of the $15 tip she had already left on the app. Then as I was leaving they insisted that I took one of their ice-cold Coke Zeros. I haven’t had a damn Coke in like 5 years, but I couldn’t tell them no and I was indeed thirsty. They were just so happy because they don’t drive and Instacart is their only option to get groceries. As I was leaving I heard them talking between themselves and they said: “he was such a nice man”. I didn’t feel like I did anything special, but they sure thought I did. By the way, yes I enjoyed the hell out of my first coke in ages.

The night ended on my best order of the day and I went home tired, hungry, and satisfied with the day overall.

Tuesday, March 7th

Tuesday was such a slow day. I spent countless hours at home hoping and wishing for a good order to pop up. It never did happen, but I did manage to get three okay orders in the afternoon and early evening.

I made about $32.04/hr on this day.

I refuse to accept orders that just don't make sense to me. High mileage on the drive, lots of items, low tips, or a store that isn't close to my am. There are plenty of reasons to say no. This is how I keep my hourly wage so high. It's also why sometimes I work so few hours.

Thankfully the three orders that I did get on Tuesday were all relatively small and a short distance away from my two preferred grocery stores. They all left pretty good tips too. I knew the rest of the week had to be better than this.

Wednesday, March 8th

No work Wednesday for a few reasons. I got stuck waiting around my apartment for my landlord to arrive to do an inspection. He gave me a window of 1pm-3pm and showed up at 2:45. That took up most of my morning and afternoon. Then by the time I did get a chance to work, there were no excellent orders. I nearly claimed a nice $45 batch with a very low item count, which means it had like a $30+ tip. However, as I hit accept I got a notification that someone else got it before me. This job is very luck-based and I didn't have any on Wednesday.

Thursday, March 9th

Thursday was a pretty great day overall. I did a total of six batches and they were all smaller singular orders. This means that the shops were all super laid back and quick. None of my delivery destinations were too far either. I did spend quite a bit of time waiting for orders in between each one but I earned quite a bit in very few actual working hours.

I made about $43.07/hr on this day.

This is the first time I made over $40/hr on a weekday. It happens on the weekend a lot, but I've never had a Thursday quite this productive. Too bad I couldn't have worked 5 or 6 hours at this pace. If I had, I would have earned over $200.

I delivered to one customer who I see at the gym every morning, but have never talked to. I of course finally said hello and we both remembered each other from the gym. He already had left me a pretty good tip, but shortly after I left he increased it from $9 to $15. Keep in mind his order took me a total of 13.5 minutes, that's shopping and delivery. $21 total for such a simple order is some amazing pay. I am glad he recognized me because I'm sure that is what encouraged him to increase the tip. It was that or my speed of getting him his items.

Friday, March 10th

Even though I got a late start on Friday, I still managed to have a great day overall in terms of earnings. I didn't begin my first order until the afternoon and was finished right as it became dinner time. It all worked out perfectly really. I even had a few mega tippers on my last order, both of which were people I had delivered to before.

I made about $38.85/hr on this day.

There was another promo on Friday, but this one was by far the worst one ever. By the time I completed the task of 4 batches, I earned an additional $0.47. That's totally pointless to me and this promo was the most bogus thing ever. I would have completed 4 orders even without the promo, so no sweat off my back. I just wish all of the promos provided me with an extra $25 as my first one did. They feel kind of pointless if I don't even gain additional benefits from it.

I'm glad I actually had work to do on Friday and I feel it was a good sign for things to come for Saturday and Sunday. Ending the day on an order that was nearly $50 and took me only one hour total was a total joy. It kept my spirits high and made me excited to work again the next day.

Saturday, March 11th

Saturday turned out to be another really good day of weekend work. I wasn't able to get started as early as I had hoped due to a lack of good orders early in the morning. Eventually, they did start appearing though and I worked quite a bit. I even got an order that paid over $75 when to take into account the $5 cash tip that the woman left me on top of an already generous digital tip.

I made about $46.50/hr on this day.

Patience continues to be key for me in maximizing my hourly earnings. I often spend 20-30 minutes ignoring a bunch of mediocre orders. Only to be rewarded with a massive order that I'm lucky enough to swipe up as soon as it appears.

I delivered to one house that had a terrible road and it was nearly impossible for my low car to get there and back out. I did manage to do it with some very careful driving and a few tips from the customer who knew which angles I needed to drive in order to make it out safely and not scrape. He must have known his setup was just not good because he left me a $40 tip. In this instance, the risk was indeed worth the reward.

Sunday, March 12th

This was one of my least busiest Sundays so far. I only had a total of three batches and all of them were singular orders. Luckily, two of them left some monster-sized tips.

I made about $39.76/hr on this day.

A big tip doesn't make me automatically accept a batch every time. For instance, there was an order on Sunday that paid over $100 but would have taken me multiple hours and a lot of stress and sweat to complete. I just didn't feel it was worth it, despite being a guaranteed $115. My motto is, to work smarter, not harder.

As you can see on the above order, there were over 130 items. It takes me approximately 50 seconds to find each item. That means I would have probably spent 1.8 hours at the store, plus time waiting in line and loading up my car to the max. I don't like spending more than one hour on an order, otherwise, I start to not enjoy the job. I may have missed out on a lot of money, but I'm happy that I didn't have to do this multiple-cart dreadful shop.

End of week hours and pay 🤑

My weekly pay was about $70 and I barely worked just over 18 hours.

I made about $38.10/hr on average this past week.

I'll go ahead and count this as my second $700 week. I was really close to passing my high score, but I waited for an hour at the end of the day and didn't get another good order. That was my alert to call it an end to the week.

Next week I once again will be striving for my first $800 week. There is no telling how busy it will be and how much people will be tipping next week. That is part of the job and it's that type of gamble that keeps me excited to work each and every week.

Doing it again next week 👀

I've received numerous reviews on my profile. One person even said they thought I was the fastest shopper they've ever dealt with. I actually do believe that though, because I do not mess around when I'm in the grocery store. There is no wasted time and I know where pretty much everything is now. Plus, I'm really smart about replacing items with similar equivalents. I know I'd be happy as hell to have me as my personal shopper.

I hope you have enjoyed this insider look at what kind of pay is possible while working for Instacart.