"The one who cooks is the one who shops"

[gwhappylife]

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[canweseethebunnies]

In this house we both shop and we both cook. I probably do about 70% of both, because I have more time. We rarely write lists. He'll ask me if there's anything we need sometimes, but I generally am happy for him to buy what he fancies. If I can't think of anything to cook out of the random selection in the fridge, then he cooks (he is far more inventive than me!).

Occasionally we end up doubling up with things we've both bought, but it's not really a problem. DP does a physical job, and he's like a human dustbin, so not a lot goes to waste!

[Happy36]

We decided before either child was born that we would never make them go to the supermarket (until they are old enough to run that kind of errand...I´m counting down the days, only 5 more years or so to go). Therefore I go to the supermarket by myself. Occasionally my husband goes instead but the timetable means it´s me most of the time.

Then our housekeeper/nanny cooks the food. At weekends we cook our own although it doesn´t really go beyond scrambled eggs.

[ChickenMe]

Yep. In my experience if you send the man he comes back with none of the stuff you need, three packs of something you already have two of and a packet of pink wafers.

[Gillian1980]

I do the cooking 99% of the time and I do the vast amount of shopping.

I enjoy shopping and prefer to do it by myself so that I can browse without my DH rushing me. If I ask him then he's happy to do some shopping but he will usually end up buying random stuff we don't need too!

[whois]

I mainly cook and probably mainly shop because DP wouldn't know we were out of saffron or sesame oil or other random ingredient as I don't write it down anywhere. However DP is very capable of picking up the 'top up' shops and generic ingredients that we use all the time.

[Hassled]

I both shop (online - haven't been to a supermarket for a while now) and cook. DH will do the emergency weekend shop but will follow specific instructions after Poncegate where he decided to randomly substitute onions for shallots and cheddar for some random artisan cheese bollocks.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Not in our house. I generally plan the evening meal, I usually shop for it. Any of us will end up cooking it.

Last night
DH: any ideas for dinner?
SCSF: I bought some pork ribs, how about them in the oven with the spicy raspberry sauce?
DH: what about brussels?
SCSP: If you have to (ick), I bought baby squash to go with them
DH: ok, will do.

DH is usually much more willing to cook dinner if he doesn't have to plan it or go buy it.

[daisychain01]

DP cooks and knows what ingredients we all like.

If I'm coming back from work via the supermarket I will ring DP and ask if we are short of anything. Or he will text me "can you pick up some spuds" if we are short.

If we have any special requests, like I fancied bubble and squeak the other night, so we ask beforehand and make sure we have the ingredients.

We all eat so we tend to share the duties except DSS he just eats us out of house and home

[Bonsoir]

I think catering is a single task, of which shopping and cooking are components. It's very difficult to split single tasks in two.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

I do the meal planning and the shopping (online) and most of the cooking during the week, DH cooks at the weekends.

[MrsKoala]

That's how it works here. I shop (and i cook) for a few reasons.

1. DH can't follow a list at all - he would miss every second thing out (same reason he can't follow a recipe).
   
2. It would need to be extremely detailed as there is far too much choice for DH to know which ones i want.
   
3. DH would buy the finest of everything whereas i buy the basics and our budget would be out of the window (he went to the shop to buy a bottle of wine the other day and bought a bottle that was £27 which was foul).
   
4. DH doesn't actually know what most things are, if i ask for pasta he will often buy rice, or asked for an aubergine he would come back with a courgette, because he doesn't know which is which and can't learn (this is also why he asks for help to order food in restaurants 'what's y again MrsK?' ).
   
5. Never ever say to DH 'whatever you do DON'T get x' as all he will hear is 'X' and you will have that. (we had friends over once and he asked them what they drank, they said 'anything but x' and he came back with a crate of 'x' - i'm sure they thought he must have done it to be funny with them.

[Groovee]

I need dh to help me shop as I am disabled.

We meal plan then we shop. We share cooking depending on if I am having a bad day or not.

[sonlypuppyfat]

DH brings the cash in, I do everything.

[diddl]

Perhaps if the other person can't read a list??

[HappyCria]

I do the shop online based on what is on offer and meal plan around that.

The meals get cooked in the order of things going out of date and they are cooked by which ever one of us is home from work first which is mainly dh on the days I work.

[CalamitouslyWrong]

I cook, shop and put away food (I hate the putting the stuff away when you get in from the supermarket but). DH gets to clear the table and load the dishwasher after meals. And laundry and hoovering (but you don't have to do that every night like cooking).

[Iconfuseus]

I do all the meal planning and cooking in our house. I rather enjoy it and DH is not really interested in food.

Mind you, once long ago I sent him out with the vague instructions of getting something for dinner and he came back with a bag of stuff worthy of a Masterchef invention test. I learnt my lesson and never did it again.

[pourmeanotherglass]

DH shops (because he has a day off in the week), we share the cooking. If I want to cook something out of the ordinary I let him know what ingredients I need. Would seem a bit mean to make him do all the cooking just because he has time to do the shop.

[lljkk]

I ask him what he wants & I shop (he cooks).
We've found that the @ home parent buys way less than the WOHP, though.

[weeblueberry]

Depends how rich we're feeling. DP cooks but when he goes shopping he always spends about £30 extra because he sees things he fancies and buy a whole loads of other stuff off the list.

I treat it like a military procedure though and literally only buy what's on the meal plan list.

But we make the plan together because we both want input into what we might fancy etc..

[morethanpotatoprints]

My dh does the shopping mostly and I do the cooking mostly.
We don't need to meal plan.
It doesn't really matter to us who does what.

[Verystickypaws]

Not in this house, we plan meals together and have a regular delivery.

Every week one of us starts a google doc and puts in a line for every day. It then gets shared between our google accounts. We're both responsible for putting meals in and as you put a meal in, put the things needed on the online order.

Weekdays tend to be quick and easy meals, for weekends we try to do something new, interesting or more complicated.

It works for us:
I enjoy cooking but often get bored by having to think of things to cook, it's one of those relentless tasks.
No one has the excuse to get out of food prep and cooking because "I didn't know what we were having". My teenager also has access to the google doc.
We end up eating more variety and more interesting food than when all the planning, cooking and shopping is dumped on one person.
We also don't waste much food.

[Normanpriceisnotarolemodel]

I shop online. So I sit on the sofa and say 'what do you fancy this week/weekend?' He replies. I order. Whoever cooks, cooks.

[Artandco]

Nope

Here we both add stuff we fancy to ocado shop as and when we remember, then one of us will add last bits based on what's already added and send to deliver. That's whoevers free.

Who cooks is either whoever gets home from work first starts, or if both home we cook together

I would be pissed off if both at home and dh just sat watching TV not helping, and he would be if I did the same. If ones busy ie bathing kids the other cooks but if both doing nothing really it's a joint effort

[Andrewofgg]

I do nearly all the shopping; DW does rather more of the cooking. Your theory is not of universal application.