@Cara- exactly. It seems easiest to do my shopping during my childcare hours, and yes it is fine on occasion, but when I have kept time logs I have sometimes noticed that my time is very disjointed because I am doing errands or online shopping.
Then again, my husband comes home and tells me about various lurid headlines he’s read and I’m like when did you have time to read that? The answer is during calls, or when waiting for a meeting – so yes, people in offices take plenty of downtime too.

and as a working mom I just went into a Barnes & Noble where I took a work phone call and exchanged an all birthday gift my kid did not need and got a gift for a work event (so this is kind of work and even got myself a nice starbucks courtesy of that birthday gift I did not need)

though I have an assistant I do not like to send her out with the work credit card — maybe there is a better way to deal with this issue —

It is cheaper to go into a target or wal mart but sometimes the gas and the time and the stress make shopping online better.. what I do for most of my gifts is just give gift cards which I order online.. I know most folks find this impersonal but I really do give good gift cards.. I gave my neighbors teenage son four movie passes — i mean who does not like free movie passes — and I gave the daycare workers movie passes or restaurant gift cards.. seems better than candles or other teachery gifts to me…
also I agree ordering clothes online is a no no.. for child or adult.. big no no.. it is a shame but there are some areas you cannot cut. I also do not attempt to take my toddler with me when picking out most clothes for her unless some othe radult goes with me.. too stressful to chase her around the store and you end up making mistakes… wrong size . etc. …
I was thinking today that … when I had a salaried job that was 10 to 6 I often strolled in at 10:15 and took coffee breaks with colleagues and left at 6 and we always took lunch too I probably didn’t work more than 7 hours a day and I got a lot done.. so if you take an hour or so to go shopping or whatever during your work day and you are available on your cell phon e.. also if you try to think projects rather than time.. I am really really struggling with this and trying to work on it.. as my own boss I want to say hey this is hte project that was supposed to get done today and it did so really who cares if you were picking out diapers online.. but it is tricky b/c if you are not careful you have not worked a full day and the childcare alarm goes off… the rest of life needs to happen…

@Denise: so true on the work wardrobe. It almost never works for me to order clothes online (unless it is from a store I know well). I have wasted a lot of money this way, buying clothes I think look nice in the catalog, but don’t when I get them.

It also eliminated the dilemma of how to shop for my kids, when they are always with me and I hate to go out after they are in bed, unless it’s for something fun for me. Oddly, having a bunch of cardboard boxes delivered to my door also helps hide the gifts, as my attic is full of boxes and these don’t look as suspicious as gigantic Target and ToysRUs bags do. (my attic is a walk-up with a real staircase and the skeleton key for it is long-lost)

When shopping for other items I have also found the choices to be daunting. I spent too much time reading reviews and overthinking everything. Since reading 168 Hours, I now allot myself a certain amount of time, or # of reviews, then force myself to make a fairly informed decision. It is less time than it would take me to drive to a store, park etc. and since I often have my preschooler it’s still easier. When he is in school I like to take the time to read, self-develop for returning to work and the like. I try not to do errands.

Since I will be returning to work in the fall I will be ordering more online than ever. I just wish it were easy to order a new work wardrobe that way!