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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

*lighthearted* AIBU to limit DP from hoarding watermelons?

49 replies

Minimili · 10/03/2024 21:09

After all the Mother’s Day posts I thought I’d break them up a bit with my ridiculous problem.

I have an average size fridge freezer and every week I toddle off to do a weeks shop just before closing time so I can snap up some yellow label bargains.

I fill the fridge and spend ages organising it with the food with the nearest use by date at the front, meat on bottom shelf etc… and then stand back and look at it with pride. I even have a little meal plan on the front so ingredients won’t get eaten that are needed for the evening meal.
I apologise if this sounds smug and that I’m bragging about my superb organisational skills but it’s actually because we are skint and it means that I can budget for the week and not waste any food.

Tesco seem to have bought more watermelons that they can sell recently and have started to have an excess of them.
DP works near to a Tesco express and calls in before closing when he finishes work every evening to see what yellow label offerings they have and every evening they have an abundance of watermelons for less than £1 each. He’s rather partial to watermelon and usually we can’t afford full price so he comes home with at least a couple, this is all well & good but he then tries to jam them in the fridge!

He does actually start to eat them but he then wraps up the remaining melon in cling film and shoves it back in the fridge - often with an intact one. They don’t fit in the fruit bowl and I don’t want them lined up on the worktop like I’m in a melon themed bowling alley. My heart sinks when he comes home triumphant every evening and proudly shows me his melons (this is a sentence I could never see myself writing 😂)

I’ve got to the point where just the sight of them is making me feel absolutely livid and I’ve had them roll out of the fridge and land on my toe more than once. I’ve tried to ask him to only buy one at a time but he looks so disappointed and he’s in fear of the supply drying up.

I never thought I’d ever have to seek advice on such matters but does anyone have any storage solutions?! We live in a small house and he’s the only one who eats them. I can’t even stand the smell of them and with having misophonia I banish him to another room to eat them because the slurping of the juice and wet squelching sound when he cuts them makes me want to clobber him to death with them.

These melons are ruining my life and I curse Tesco for over ordering - who can afford £3 in a cost of living crisis for a piece of fruit?!

WIBU if I called it a state of crisis and begged him to limit his intake? Or should I just ride out the storm and let him enjoy his melons knowing that there is likely an end in sight when Tesco get their act together?
I am very much aware this is a first world problem and to start with I got a warm glow seeing him so happy (he’s easy to please) but enough is enough now.
This has been going on for at least a couple of weeks and I’m worried about weaning him off them as well if it carries on. He’s spoiling himself for other fruit and an apple or pear isn’t going to hold the same appeal as it once did when this is all over 😂.

OP posts:
Keroppi · 10/03/2024 21:14

cut them all up into cubes and freeze them, use for smoothies or in ice lollies in the summer

Stonehill · 10/03/2024 21:15

slice and freeze

CatOnTheLap · 10/03/2024 21:16

@Minimili you have fantastic fridge filling skills. Do you have similarly commendable cupboard coordination capacities? If so, do you have plans for tomorrow? I’d like to invite you round to my house!

pambeesleyhalpert · 10/03/2024 21:18

Tbf I had a Tesco watermelon today and it was perfect so I completely get his obsession. I'd give him his own fruit bowl to take somewhere 😂

Rocknrolla21 · 10/03/2024 21:20

Depends on whether he eats all the melons or whether they end up in the bin. If they’re a cheap, healthy treat for him then Yabu

Rufilla · 10/03/2024 21:21

No advice, but I just wanted to congratulate you on a novel thread title and problem, op. Sometimes I think I’ve seen everything on here at least fifty times before, but hoarding watermelons is a new one and I had to click.

Mudflaps · 10/03/2024 21:24

Get him a plastic box with a lid and store them outside. A metal bin would be a good also, it's still cool enough outside.

PianPianPiano · 10/03/2024 21:26

I would start storing them in his side if the bed. And in his wardrobe. In any cupboards or drawers of his stuff. Make it his problem to solve. Be clear there is only room in the fridge for one partially eaten melon.

Minimili · 10/03/2024 21:34

Keroppi · 10/03/2024 21:14

cut them all up into cubes and freeze them, use for smoothies or in ice lollies in the summer

This is an excellent suggestion thank you. Unfortunately we used to have a decent size freezer last year that decided to break down. When we replaced the fridge freezer and thought we were getting the same model it turns out they had shrunk the freezer part and now it’s tiny and like it was made for the borrowers.
its a nightmare because we need the space for all the yellow label bargains!

I might try to limit him to one every other night and freeze the one in between though….

OP posts:
Minimili · 10/03/2024 21:40

CatOnTheLap · 10/03/2024 21:16

@Minimili you have fantastic fridge filling skills. Do you have similarly commendable cupboard coordination capacities? If so, do you have plans for tomorrow? I’d like to invite you round to my house!

Edited

I really do! My cupboards are a thing of beauty with all the tins in categories and facing forward and everything else in perfect order.

This is one of the other perks of being skint, instead of a night out or a trip somewhere, the highlight of my free time now is to listen to an audiobook and organise my groceries.

I find it so satisfying now that I’d happily go round to other people’s houses and show off my skills. It’d be a pleasure to not have to contend with the risk of stray watermelons dropping on me 😂.

OP posts:
Minimili · 10/03/2024 21:42

pambeesleyhalpert · 10/03/2024 21:18

Tbf I had a Tesco watermelon today and it was perfect so I completely get his obsession. I'd give him his own fruit bowl to take somewhere 😂

Apparently if they have a yellow faded spot it’s where the sun has bleached it and it makes it extra sweet.

DP gets extra excited if it’s not just reduced but also has lots of faded spots!

OP posts:
ErikaReadsTheDailyMail · 10/03/2024 21:49

Minimili · 10/03/2024 21:42

Apparently if they have a yellow faded spot it’s where the sun has bleached it and it makes it extra sweet.

DP gets extra excited if it’s not just reduced but also has lots of faded spots!

Aww I'm not trying to minimise your plight, but your DH does sound adorable!
I'd second the sealed box outside idea a PP suggested.

Mumoftwo1312 · 10/03/2024 21:55

I have no advice either but your op sparked joy.

I'm torn because I too have misophonia (dh+apples=banishment), but I love watermelon and I too have been known to purchase in excess (it's a joke among my in laws and they have a photo of me surrounded by watermelon when I was pg - no one else wanted any so I resorted to feeding some to their springer spaniels, who loved it).

Someone suggested freezing which is great - I'd add you can use watermelon chunks in a feta cheese and cucumber salad.

The thought of your dp's earnest face coming home with his cut price watermelon is very heartwarming. For his sake I'd tolerate the bowling alley line up of melons on the side.

Edit to add - you could get your dp a melon baller for his next birthday. Watermelon tastes better in tiny spheres.

Summerhillsquare · 10/03/2024 21:57

CatOnTheLap · 10/03/2024 21:16

@Minimili you have fantastic fridge filling skills. Do you have similarly commendable cupboard coordination capacities? If so, do you have plans for tomorrow? I’d like to invite you round to my house!

Edited

Yeah me too, please come and sort my cupboards (and life in general) out. I assume you work in logistics?!

KattyBoomBoom95 · 10/03/2024 22:15

I'm not sure why but this has tickled me. 😂

exexpat · 10/03/2024 22:24

I may have misinterpreted your OP, but is he storing whole ones in the fridge or just the ones he has already sliced open?

Whole melons really don't need to go in the fridge - they keep perfectly well at room temperature for days, possibly weeks. It is only once you have started chopping them up that they start to go off.

So why not suggest to him that he just has one fridge melon on the go at any one time - as soon as he starts one, he should chop it into chunks and put it in a Tupperware box, to make it easier to store.

https://www.whataboutwatermelon.com/index.php/2018/06/how-long-does-watermelon-last-the-shelf-life-of-a-melon/

How Long Does Watermelon Last? - The Shelf Life of a Watermelon - What About Watermelon?

Have you ever wondered what the shelf life of a watermelon is? Or wondered why cut quarters of melon are placed in the refrigerator at your local grocer, rather than with their whole sisters on the shelf? This article will answer these questions and he...

https://www.whataboutwatermelon.com/index.php/2018/06/how-long-does-watermelon-last-the-shelf-life-of-a-melon/

potaytopotahto33 · 10/03/2024 22:27

I want to check my local Tesco for watermelons now!
Sorry OP no useful contribution to the thread, perfectly understand your
frustration, you're my new cupboard organising hero!
My husband gets his own lunches and puts them in the front, shoving the dinner things to the back... grr..!
Will you come around to mine, I promise to reward you with a nice homemade curry <3

Dogdilemma2000 · 10/03/2024 22:28

“£3 for a bit of fruit”

But it’s more like 8 portions of fruit so long as you aren’t buying tiny ones.

Talipesmum · 10/03/2024 22:28

Yes, agree with PPs, keep them outside. I reckon they’d be pretty robust to bugs etc, the rind is really hard. Or in the boot of a car, packed in with cushions? Maybe he could stack them into a pyramid outside the back door.

Minimili · 10/03/2024 22:29

exexpat · 10/03/2024 22:24

I may have misinterpreted your OP, but is he storing whole ones in the fridge or just the ones he has already sliced open?

Whole melons really don't need to go in the fridge - they keep perfectly well at room temperature for days, possibly weeks. It is only once you have started chopping them up that they start to go off.

So why not suggest to him that he just has one fridge melon on the go at any one time - as soon as he starts one, he should chop it into chunks and put it in a Tupperware box, to make it easier to store.

https://www.whataboutwatermelon.com/index.php/2018/06/how-long-does-watermelon-last-the-shelf-life-of-a-melon/

Thank you I’ll show him this,

he’s storing both the whole and the cut up ones in the fridge but he just cuts slices out. I’ll suggest cutting it up and putting it in Tupperware, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this because it’ll save space.

I can freeze chunks as well as PP’s suggested.

These suggestions are making my life a lot easier!

OP posts:
Minimili · 10/03/2024 22:31

Talipesmum · 10/03/2024 22:28

Yes, agree with PPs, keep them outside. I reckon they’d be pretty robust to bugs etc, the rind is really hard. Or in the boot of a car, packed in with cushions? Maybe he could stack them into a pyramid outside the back door.

I’m going to sneak one in his car boot tonight if he returns with some. If nothing else it’ll give me a giggle when he opens his boot and finds it 😂.

Unless he gets excited thinking it’s a bonus one…

OP posts:
Talipesmum · 10/03/2024 22:33

Minimili · 10/03/2024 22:31

I’m going to sneak one in his car boot tonight if he returns with some. If nothing else it’ll give me a giggle when he opens his boot and finds it 😂.

Unless he gets excited thinking it’s a bonus one…

Maybe you could sneak them back to tescos… an infinite watermelon loop…

Minimili · 10/03/2024 22:34

Dogdilemma2000 · 10/03/2024 22:28

“£3 for a bit of fruit”

But it’s more like 8 portions of fruit so long as you aren’t buying tiny ones.

This is true I suppose, same with grapes, cherries etc…
I just don’t hold the same resentment for those as they don’t cause me the upheaval storing them.
Also grapes = wine and I having nothing but love for wine.

OP posts:
cariadlet · 10/03/2024 22:37

I agree with the pp about not putting whole, uncut watermelons in the fridge. That's crazy!

If they can cope with being outside in the heat of a tropical market, they can cope with early March in the UK.

If your house is really hot because you have your central heating blasting away and you want to store them somewhere cool, stick them in the garage or shed. They'll be fine.

PS Add me to the list of Mumsnetters who are very impressed by your fridge organising skills.

Dogdilemma2000 · 10/03/2024 22:39

Just tell me where you live OP, I’ll take the problem out of your hands. My Tesco is chronically under stocked on watermelons.

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