My shopping is £500 this week 😩

[tulipsrus]

My mother gave me her shopping list, Jesus they’ve got expensive taste
Crab
Prawns
Sea bass
Salmon
All sorts of vegetables, herbs
Soya beans lentils

Haha weirdly we have been the same but a lot of it has been on wines like Gavi Di Gavi and some ridiculously priced reds my husband has chosen. There's only 3 of us and our weekly shop is now about £250-300 normally it's £150 per week!

There are four adults here eating three meals a day and drinking a lot of beer and gin. Even with smoked salmon, prawns, fresh salmon and a nice bottle of whiskey, oh and all sorts of salad and veg the bill on Friday was £231.

We are eating well because there's little else to do although three of us are wfh.

No offence meant and I am sorry many people are having a very tpugh time but I wanted to put the OP's claims into perspective from a non stinting pov.

Let's hope we are out of lockdown soon.

Is that a joke @tulipsrus ?

I buy all of those things except crab on my weekly shop and my bill is nothing like £500.

Bit confused.

Sorry
Just finished dinner

It’s not all for her
I usually spend about £100 on an Ocado shop.
It’s the only slot any of us can get.
It’s for m&d, caring for my uncle with Alzheimer’s too. So 3 lots of apples, bananas, etc. regular stuff.
But it’s just amazed me what she put on her list. Nothing basic. It’s like a list of fancy recipes!
Tbf, they love to cook and do make some lovely dishes.
We eat much more basic
She will offer to pay, but I think it will be more expensive than Sainsburys/Aldi.
I’ve been feeding my uncle too, which she usually does, so should ask for that too.

I spend about €50 a fortnight on fish and shellfish - and I get a lot of fish for that money, including salmon and crab and scallops and prawns. Lentils are seriously cheap food, and I would have thought that 'all sorts of vegetables and herbs' were pretty basic, too. I'm not seeing how there's £500 in that list?

For me, sea bass, salmon, prawns, Puy lentils and loads of veg are in my normal weekly shop which is around £90 for 2 of us including loo roll, laundry and cleaning stuff.

Have you actually costed these items or are you simply guessing?

Fish with veg or salad IS basic unless you call 'basic' chicken nuggets, burgers or chips and egg.

It's those lentils, but if you insist on buying such a luxury item what can you expect. Try and make savings by swopping lentils for something more basic like caviar. We all have to make sacrifices in these difficult times.

We eat lots of those things regularly - not a stealth boast
We have been able to pre order these things with our local (bloody brilliant) fish monger and are pleased to be able to support both a local business and the fishing community.
We’ve been doing some shopping for my in-laws and it’s obviously bumped up the initial cost of our shop.
I don’t see what they order as being essentials but if we are ordering then we can bloody well order what we like. This pandemic doesn’t mean we have to eat like borrowers or like we are on basic rations of dried pasta and a scraping of pesto.
If MIL wants her juicing oranges and fennel, she will have them if they’re in stock.

Our Ocado shop has been much more expensive too, I think a lot of the prices have gone up and all the special offers seem to have mysteriously disappeared!

We get stuff for my parents too, as they're in the extremely vulnerable category but have never done on-line shopping so aren't registered anywhere. This means Sainsbury's etc won't supply them as they're not taking any new customers on.

So we're making sure they get regular deliveries via my account, and other members of my family are dropping off bits and pieces they need too (without any contact). I've said I'm happy to pay for 'normal' stuff but if they want anything special (they wanted fillet steak!) they can pay for it, as we're already paying to feed hungry teenagers as well.

Things like lentils, beans, herbs we'd count as normal though.

There is a local fishmonger van, I’ve told her to give them a ring, but no.
£469
The fish seems to be £6 for 2 pieces X 3
Crab. £5
It’s not so much that she’s asked for the pricier things. It’s the precision of it all: raw peeled king prawns, dressed crab, wild rocket !!

I've picked up bits for a couple of elderly neighbours in my naice middle class village. Their lists have made me chuckle as they've also requested things like sea bass and avocados.
Fair play to them I say, if you can get it and afford it then there's no need to lock yourself away on a diet of baked beans and tinned ham.

Well, to be fair, dressed crab (does she mean the John West stuff in a tin, perhaps?) is an entirely different thing from white crab meat, for example - and raw peeled king prawns are part of my Tesco list most weeks. I think nearly all supermarket rocket is wild, or at least easy to find pre-packed. I'm guessing it's just stuff you don't usually buy? I'd be equally lost with a lot of foods we don't usually eat!

Ask them for cash, if they've got expensive taste they need to pay for it. It's not just a few bits from lidl

I'm eating nicer things than usual. Yes, I'm very lucky that my income's not affected, but I'm also saving money on everything apart from food (no petrol, no kids' clubs, no social activities etc). And I've got far more time than usual to cook (I'm working from home, but that still allows me to structure my day so that I can put things in the oven in the afternoon etc). So why wouldn't I buy nice food? I still go shopping with a very specific list, like normal, but I'm just ready to adapt it more if things aren't in stock. Right at the beginning of lockdown I read something by an Italian woman about what had helped her get through isolation, and she said that one of the things was having the time to cook and enjoy lovely food, so that's what I'm trying to do. (I'd never spend £500 though!)

Just send her a copy of the order, request a bank transfer before you confirm the order. What do you mean she will 'offer' to pay? I'd be making sure she does.

The crab!

Still can't figure out why your bill is so high.

If money isn't the issue and they enjoy cooking what's the problem? Who cares what they are buying or how much they are spending?

My Mother and MIL/FIL are all paying for the shopping I'm fetching for them, they normally buy their own food why would it be any different now?

Your parents clearly enjoy cooking/eating, while you say you like 'more basic stuff'.

Maybe you could broaden your culinary horizons a little OP? Wild rocket is hardly a luxury, and the fact that your mother is specific in her requests is a helpful thing, surely?

How much of that £469 is for your mum, dad and uncle, and how much is for you?

I know Ocado can be pricey, but I can't quite fathom a weekly shop of £469.

If you're expecting to be reimbursed, I would run it past them first - if someone bought me £20 worth of groceries, I'd refund no questions asked. If someone bought me £500 worth of groceries, I'd suspect either they were trying to pull a fast one, or had been scammed. Let them see the total and have the chance to back out before you commit!

To be fair, ocado is very expensive anyway, if we do a shkp in aldi jts around £60/70 oer week (2 adults, DD is EBF and not weaned yet) but on ocado it can be closer to £100

I don't really understand this mentality that we all have to just start exisiting on the bare essentials like beans and rice. Surely we don't need to eat differently than we did before. Shoppers have cleared the stores of basics like pasta, rice, flour etc. Cooking is one hobby we can can all continue. We've had deliveries pretty much as normal from Ocado, and to be honest, food has been one of the few pleasures we have bee able to indulge in. Just had a fabulous roast joint of pork bought at the local butcher with fresh veg and roast potato, and strawberries for dessert. We've made hot-cross buns, chocolate nests, and for the rest of the week we have chilli, veggie curry, fish for kedgeree, sausages, exotic mushrooms to make a pasta sauce etc. all our normal foods.

It's the amount of trips you make to the shops which are supposed to be limited, not what you buy to eat when you are there!

Am I missing something? How is that £500? Should it read £50? Still a lot of money for a basic weekly shop if there are basics at home.The physical act of getting the food is the favour, not paying for it.
Post makes no sense unless a decimal has been moved.