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Elderly parents
Original poster

How to get £20 weekly shopping delivery for elderly MIL?

37 replies

KavvLar · 25/10/2020 00:51

MIL is elderly and taken a real dip since lockdown started, both physically and mentally. She lives alone.

DH is her only local family and although they don't get along (he has had yrs of therapy for his damaged childhood) we have been doing our best to look out for her and I'm trying to make it as easy on him as we can.

He has been doing her shopping but he doesn't drive, so it gets tricky. He wants to get her a weekly shopping delivery to her home, which he can then come and put away.

I thought this would be easier but she never wants more than £20-30 worth of goods in a week even including freezables, toiletries and cleaning etc. The weekly requirement is so that she could have fresh fruit and veg etc.

We'd be happy to pay a premium for this but I cannot find a supermarket that will accept a delivery order under £40. All I can think of is to have it fortnightly and then supplement in the middle week, but with the idea being to automate it a bit and take the pain out of it for him, I'm surprised I can't find a way to pay extra and have a smaller weekly delivery.

Am I missing a trick here, is there not a way to throw money at this? Any help gratefully received as for some reason this causes him the most stress and this way she can get exactly what she wants. Thanks in advance

OP posts:
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user1493494961 · 28/10/2020 22:22

We have an Iceland delivery, it costs £2 for delivery if you spend under £35. Where I live they have lots of delivery slots available, including next day.

M0rninMayhem392 · 27/10/2020 12:15

How about " Milk and More"
It is the milk round, but they deliver bread & other food basics too

notapizzaeater · 26/10/2020 23:03

Our local coop have a max shop which I think is about £25 so this might be better ?

ssd · 26/10/2020 22:58

Iceland will deliver that for £2

HeyBlaby · 26/10/2020 22:56

Amazon Prime Now? That's in conjunction with Morrisons, I had a couple of £25 deliveries (or there abouts) in lockdown

EverydayDrudge · 26/10/2020 22:53

My local veg box let's you build your own box, if you can get that for the fresh stuff you could get her supermarket stuff every other week, especially as the veg box does milk and bread too. In fact you could probably do her entire shop with this one.

Likewise milk&more would probably have everything or nearly everything she wants. Worth finding out what the local milk delivery service will do.

Sainsburys charges £7 if it's less than £40, although I think it has to be over £25.

Wiltshire farm foods have no minimum order.

Rookie93 · 26/10/2020 10:56

As pp suggests the milman usually has a varied selection of fresh produce if they operate in her area and well worth a try. Helped a lot when I was housebound for a while.

WouldBeGood · 26/10/2020 10:45

There’s also the Snappy Shopper app for convenience stores if there’s one nearby. I found that really handy for emergency deliveries earlier in the year.

WouldBeGood · 26/10/2020 10:44

Tesco do. Buy a delivery pass and delivery is free, though there is a £4 charge for baskets under £40.

TrembleLikeAFlower · 25/10/2020 09:50

An afterthought. Does she get milk delivered by a milkman? Ours will deliver quite a wide range of groceries for no charge.

PoulePouletteEternellement · 25/10/2020 08:54

I wouldn't be keen on getting my cleaning products from Abel and Cole - there's a limit to the amount of luxury I need in my life.Grin

But in the OP's MIL's situation a regular minimum £15 a week for fresh stuff from Riverford's (or equivalent) + an alternate week supermarket delivery of everything else would definitely seem the simplest option.

northbacchus · 25/10/2020 08:19

If not too expensive, Abel and Cole might be a good way to get her essentials in! They do cleaning products etc too

Crockof · 25/10/2020 07:23

From experience don't add your stuff to the list, you will get sucked into a circle of hell repeating that, no she hasn't paid for it, yes it's on her receipt, no her shopping hasn't doubled in price, no she isn't paying for your shopping....

Agree Tesco does delivery under £40 they just charge a premium.

SailorGirl3 · 25/10/2020 07:19

I have an Asda delivery saver pass. For 'free' slots you must spend £40. However the minimum spend is £25 but you then have to pay the cost of the s delivery slot on top. It would work out at the cost of the slot plus about £1 on top per week

Saucery · 25/10/2020 07:18

We found a greengrocers about 15 miles away with a surprisingly wide delivery area. Using their own Van was about £3 delivery charge, elsewhere by courier was £6.

AdventureIsWaiting · 25/10/2020 07:16

Sainsbury's has £25 minimum for a £7 (!) delivery charge, but I agree with those suggesting local grocers - she may also get a chat that way?

Vello · 25/10/2020 07:14

Our local market now does delivery, since Covid. The market manager brings it round and there's no minimum payment. If she's got something like that nearby it's worth asking. Ours has an online ordering thing on shopappy.com/ but I'm sure there are others. I get cheese, apples, pasties/stand pies, eggs, milk and so on.

The milkman also does bread, eggs, bacon and orange juice.

Karwomannghia · 25/10/2020 07:12

I was going to say coop too and they can deliver within a couple of hours.
Deliveroo have a smaller more expensive selection from the coop (I checked them both out), much better to get straight from coops own website.
Also with our Tesco next day delivery slots crop up occasionally through the day.

CottonSock · 25/10/2020 07:09

Coop or deliveroo i was going to say. It does depend where she lives though.

Mosaic123 · 25/10/2020 07:07

Look at Deliveroo in her area. Mine has the Co Op and a couple of other suitable places available to order from. What's more the stuff arrives in about 30 mins (just like a takeaway) so DH could even do it while he he was there having checked in MIL 's fridge.

Original poster
KavvLar · 25/10/2020 01:13

*oat cakes not pat cakes.

And I do also like the idea of adding our non perishables to top up.

The reason we haven't so far is because she is easily confused and won't understand why it is coming to her or who is paying for it. Also DH will be walking back to our house with a heavy bag which is part of the reason for wanting delivery in the first place.

Very grateful for the perspective though this is all gold dust - keep it coming! I bet there is a perfect solution in here somewhere once I go over it with DH.

OP posts:
Original poster
KavvLar · 25/10/2020 01:09

Some excellent suggestions here thank you - I knew that you clever lot would have sound advice. I will take a look at all of these.

I share your concerns about food but to be fair she has never been a big eater. Banana and apple each day, and over a week she will use a loaf of bread, four pints of milk, a chicken breast or salmon fillet each day, pat cakes or biscuits, coleslaw, cheese and ham, potatoes and veg. Doesn't cost much.

OP posts:
AgeLikeWine · 25/10/2020 01:09

Top up her order to the minimum delivery amount with non-perishable stuff that you want but she doesn’t, eg wine, cat food, dishwasher tabs etc. Collect the surplus once a month or whenever is convenient.

TrembleLikeAFlower · 25/10/2020 01:07

Do you have a Co-op nearby? As far as I can see, mInimum spend there is £15 for online ordering.

SleepingStandingUp · 25/10/2020 01:02

Tesco will charge £4 extra of you spend under £40.

I know cos I popped something in my basket then forgot to do it properly.

They delivered me a single bottle of rum, which I paid delivery and £4 for.

I looked like an alcoholic.

But yes, you can use Tesco, get delivery saver for about £6 a month and then just pay the surplus.

Slots are starting to get harder to get again though so you might need to book one a few weeks ahead and then pre-book them early.