My husband has done the weekly food shop...

[callingyououtmrkitten]

But he's gone to Iceland and spent well over £100 which would be fine except he's just bought lots of frozen beige shit. There no fresh fruit, salad or nice cut of meat. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to be mean but he's spent our entire budget and I feel there's nothing for me to eat. I'm trying to lose weight so I've been going to Tesco and getting lots of fresh fruit, fresh meat healthy Greek yoghurt and nice bits for the kids lunches. I feel a bit irritated because it feels such a waste of money.

Don't get me wrong I love a good Iceland haul but I'm a bit miffed that's he's put no thought into it.

Anyway... I'm digging my way out off my chicken nugget quary if you're looking for me lol

And this is why we shop mainly online and he rarely shops on his own for top ups. The biscuit isle distracts him so much and he forgets what he went there for 🙄

At least he managed to work out he'd need the loo roll after the first two items.

@Uptightmumma

is your husband 12 years old?

I don't really find it hilarious that so many men seem to be so bloody useless at a really basic task like shopping.

Look, I know he is meant to be a grownup but he clearly never got the healthy meals preparation memo. So, even though he should know better, you'll have to take control. This is what I did....... over 40 years ago.

• I prepared a strict shopping list based on my meal plan and toiletries etc that needed replacing.
• I wrote the list in sections, in the order they are stocked at the supermarket, e.g. produce, meat, dairy, cereals, bread, etc.
• I had a pre-printed list, so very little additional input required.

It worked. After a year or 2 he got the hang of it and it has been working perfectly ever since. Now I just have to tell him "bring some chicken breasts and salmon, and we're out of loo rolls"........ and he'll know how to connect the dots and buy what's needed.

I do the food shop, I know if my DH went he would be buying so much fruit (that would go off before we had time to eat it) steak, eggs, and something utterly useless like a kayak or a tent.

Ah yes, but did he do The Parade of the Groceries?

Hah, this reminds me of a story a friend told years back. She went shopping with a new housemate and he bought a bumper pack of oven chips, a massive pack of steak and six tinnies. That was his weekend food supply.

Ha. This is exactly what DH would do, which is why he's barely allowed in the kitchen.

He thinks as long as there is cheese, bread and milk in the house we are stocked up.

Can you use half of next week's budget on healthy stuff this week, and treat half the beige stuff as half of next weeks budget to even it out a bit? Or even £75 a week on healthy food for the month and then treat the beige stuff as 25 a weeks worth of food?

I do, however, find it amusing when people talk about "isles", as if Tesco is some sort of archipelago of comestibles.

And that's not what you wanted?! 🤣

DH and I have a system now. I do the main weekly shop for the weeks meals and he does the "top up bits" in between. It works well, mostly.

My DP isn't as useless as yours (and I'd find it pretty offputting if he was) but shopping is definitely not one of his strengths- I enjoy meal planning and doing the big shop, but he hates it. So I do the big shop, and my only request is that we have a shared shopping list on our notes app that we can both add to so we're jointly responsible for remembering to get things in/keeping a note of when stuff runs out. Then of course if I ever can't do the shop, he has the list of things he needs to get.

It balances out as I hate the hoovering and washing up so literally never do them unless he's unable to, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses- but I do think doing what your DH has done is particularly pathetic.

That's what I'll do. The beige stuff will do the nights I'm working- the older son loves a wee lazy tea on those nights.

Yes he's really outdone himself this time. Despite his epic fail, he's amazing in every other way so I'll let him off, but what a knob!!!

But don’t you communicate about the weekly food shop? Isn’t there a list somewhere that everyone writes on so that the standard weekly necessities get bought each week and updated as and when when you run out of bathroom cleaner / tinfoil / condiments?

DH and I are not meal planners in the slightest and both buy a lot of unessential things if we fancy them, but I can’t conceive that either of us would just show up at Iceland, buy a load of stuff like ice cream and chicken pakora that manifestly isn’t what we usually eat for breakfasts and dinners, and announce to the other that we’d done the “weekly shop.”

My ex offered to get the fruit & veg as he passed the market on his way home.
Every week it was :-

spuds
carrots
onions
cabbage

toms
lettuce
cu

apples
oranges

After 3 weeks :-

Me "don't they sell peppers, aubergines, plums....."
Stupid bastard "what are they?"

This reminds me of the time my friend sent her DH out to do the weekly shop. He spent a lot of money, but somehow didn't buy any dinner ingredients. Oh, except for chicken which he put straight into the freezer without telling her. Which meant they had nothing for dinner that evening, because the only dinner ingredient (chicken) was frozen by the time she realized.

If you can afford to pay extra for the fresh fruit/salad/nice meat, then I guess it's just an inconvenience. Maybe give him a list of what you want next time.

MrsWaltonGoggins

I have the opposite problem. I like beige crap but my husbands a chef so he buys healthy stuff and I just want to be a fat pig 🥲

Am very similar- I like some fruit and veg but dh comes back, proud that he got no ‘crap’ and I want to grab the car keys and redo the shop😅

In fairness, if I am going to have some biscuits, I'd much rather have decent biscuits than own brand, basic stuff - even if it means I have fewer 🤷‍♀️

Also depends if you can afford it really. Waitrose has some amazing snacks, including some that are pretty healthy - I'm on keto and Waitrose stocks way, way more of the healthy keto stuff than other supermarkets. But it's bloody expensive. I can't afford to stock up there, so I can well believe that your DH spends half a weekly food budget just buying some treats!

You say you're trying to limit UPFs - is he on board with this also? I'm keen to limit my UPFs but my DP couldn't give a stuff and would be very unimpressed if I tried to limit his intake of his favourite UPF shite.

My DH usually gets similar stuff to me but adds to it with 'just in case' foods by the ton. Things we don't really eat but that will see us through armaggeddon. Tinned fish balls in dill sauce, instant noodles, weird random tins that he thought looked intetesting.

I have to periodically bag it all up and bin it because the pantry gets gridlocked with it.

See mine goes snack crazy, but forgets to buy things that everyone likes

he doesn’t forget he just doesn’t give a shit. Does he care you have nothing to eat for the week? Or does he want a medal for doing ‘women’s work’?

Do you not use a shopping list?

If DP cooks, he has to follow specific recipes, so will go out and buy exactly the ingredients that he will need for that one meal. I do the vast majority of the cooking (which is my choice) but I don't really use recipes or plan meals in advance so I can rarely give him a list of things to get.

Consequently, although DP buys nice things that we both like, he does this without any real consideration of how they might combine into actual meals. Every night is like an episode of Ready Steady Cook for me, just inventing a meal out of a random selection of items DP has crammed into a carrier bag.

DH is very list driven.
He makes a list of meals and what we are having and breaks out all the ingredients necessary checking the freezer and cupboards so we don’t duplicate. He would buy household stuff if it’s on the list.
He didn’t used to deviate but I have spent 20 years explaining that a few extras that look nice is what makes life fun and he is a bit better now.
I’d be livid with your DH though OP. Surely he’d think “DW is on a diet” and come back with 8 Slimming world ready meals?! And think this would please you?