Person who cooks the meal has first dibs on the leftovers

[Rach247]

I purchased the ingredients and made a pasta bake last night for the family. Nothing exciting but quite tasty nonetheless (I put tinned salmon in and lots of cheese). Husband ate three portions. There was a bit left over and I fancied it for my lunch today, to make a change from sandwiches when WFH. I went into the kitchen at 1pm to find my husband finishing it off.

AIBU to say that whoever cooks the meal has first dibs on the leftovers?

Tbh, I was out of the house 13-14 hours a day and so tired I didn't care what it was. I just wanted to shower, eat something and go to bed.

Ex didn't work so he was welcome to take over the cooking and have something different ready when I came home but he didn't bother, so that was my solution.

Get yourself a personalised lunchbox with your name on it. Then be really clear if it is in your box it is yours. He could have one too. After the meal either you both want left overs the next day and you split it then or one of you collects all. Once in the box no swiping the other person's food.

How weird. I would just share it with DH or if I REALLY wanted to eat it all, I'd tell him beforehand.

Don't have this problem, my DH eats like a bear, no matter how much I cook, there aren't any leftovers 😂But seriously, I think this is a strange thing to get upset about. For us, all food in the fridge is fair game, unless someone specifically asked for anything not to be touched. And we definitely don't keep a tab on how many portions someone already had.

I wouldn't really keep score of who cooked or how much anyone has eaten or if anyone has had more than you as long as everyone has had enough. I think you should have told him that you are planning to have it for lunch otherwise it's fair game.

Couples so often rely on some sort of unwritten code and expect the other one to understand it. Much better to just communicate clearly. There is no rule about left overs but if you wanted it for your lunch just tell him 'Please don't eat that, I would like it for my lunch tomorrow'.

Leftovers are for anyone in our house. I'd think he was greedy if he had 4 portions and you had one though. Is he overweight or hugely active?

blimey it's hard to believe you and your dh are actually married. you certainly aren't playing on the same team. you are thinking about your rights to leftovers, he's thinking also of himself. where's the team planning and communication?

dh and i are far from perfect but we plan the week's food together. i organise the shop and put the food away. he is doing more of the cooking at the moment to help me out as i'm busy with a project. last night he wanted to change the meal plan so we came up with something different for supper together.

he offered to give me the leftovers today as he knows i love the dish. i noticed when i went to have the leftovers for lunch there was loads left so i checked in with him to see if he wanted us to have the same leftovers tonight for supper shared as he is cooking or should i have half for lunch and leave the rest for him. the comms took seconds, but we look out for each other as much as ourselves.