Realistically, how often do you go to the shops per week?

[ssd]

How often do you go to the shops, including if you pop in for milk one day etc

I mean if everyone in the family is healthy.

[Fortyfifty]

Fewer opportunities for impulsive buying too, which I'm very guilty of, so saves money.

[Fortyfifty]

28GrumpiestOldWoman

It can be a nice habit to break. Last year I wanted to know exactly what we spent on food in a month so we kept our receipt for every item of food we bought. Aside from discovering what we spent, it was astonishing to find we made 27 separate transactions in a 30 day month. What a waste of our time, particularly as have enough fridge and cupboard space to store a decent amount of food.
I changed toa fortnightly online shop and only needed to nip in for extras once or twice in that period for fresh fruit/veg or forgotten items. I'm finding it more stressful to do a fortnightly shop - alone - in the actual supermarket (Im fussy about packing) but persevering and managing on one or two top ups. I think we just get so used to nipping in as and when, it can feel strange not to. But, in non-restrictive times, it can free up time to break that habit if you don't need to.

[EwwSprouts]

I've been going to the supermarket every 6 days, never seem to get quite enough bread, milk for a week. Only 'popped' to local shop for fruit/veg top up twice since lockdown. Had one takeaway.

[HerRoyalNotness]

DH goes once a week for our food shop. I haven’t been in a month.

[GrumpiestOldWoman]

And if you go fairly regularly, it becomes the new normal and it doesn't even occur to you that you could probably go less often

Agreed.

Between DH and in we would be in a shop virtually daily picking up a few bits. We've been 7-14 day intervals since lockdown and at first it felt difficult but I think we've got out of the habit now and I'll be happy not seeing the inside of a supermarket now. I think it took us a good 2-3 weeks to break the shopping habit.

I'm actually enjoying it, I bake most mornings (just easy quick things to have with coffee) and it's actually appreciated by the family now that they can't just nip to Gregg's for a doughnut!

[Smithy01]

Everyone has a different situation which needs a different amount of visits for essential food. My issue is people making statements like if you planned better you could reduce your trips or do without things etc. It isn’t always the case.
I could sit waiting online for a delivery slot but couldn’t do it thinking I had taken someone in the vulnerable or even worse high risk groups chance to stay at home. Mumsnet has quickly forget the #bekind campaign running not so long ago. Stop judging, concentrate on you doing the right thing and leave others to hopefully do the same. Complaining about it on here will not change how some choose to live.

[StraightAndNarrow]

DH does a weekly shop. I’ve popped out for top-ups twice since lockdown.

[WombatChocolate]

And if you go fairly regularly, it becomes the new normal and it doesn't even occur to you that you could probably go less often. That's the issue too I think.

[WombatChocolate]

Of course people's situations vary. Some households have more people or some families don't have a car.

However, the point is, are people doing as few shops per week as their household could manage on if they planned carefully?

If you have to walk to the shop and carry it back, you might well NEED to go 3 times. If you have 8 people in your house, your fridge might not hold enough food for a week and you might NEED to go more than once.

However, people with decent sized fridges and freezers and transport often seem to go several times. I'd suggest that some of them don't NEED to go so often but could manage with fewer visits if they planned ahead more and also if they accepted not instantly having every item they want right now, but just added it to the list and waited until the next shop. They could make fewer visits if they discussed as a family and individuals within it didn't pop out for an ice cream or a newspaper and co-ordinated themselves.

I think that lots of people have tried really hard to reduce their visits to shops and made some reasonable and manageable sacrifices in terms of not always or instantly having everything they want, but still having plenty to eat. However, some haven't really made adjustments to the way they shop usually - just thinking about a day or two ahead, and being willing to go to shops pretty frequently.

There is a difference to needing to go more often than once a week and just choosing to. Fancying an ice cream, or not planning ahead and so frequently forgetting items and then deciding to go and get them, or not being prepared to make any adjustment to what is eaten or to wait a while for specific things until the next shop, just seems a bit lazy and actually careless to me. It is the shop visits where human co tact happens even with social distancing.

If your household makes 6 visits to the shops between them, and another makes only 1, the latter has less chance of catching it but also less chance of spreading it to shop workers or other public. But I think in reality lots of people are starting to put their own convenience ahead of the impact of the spread of the disease.

I'm not saying no-one should go more often. Some people need to. But are people really only going when they NEED to and as infrequently as possible - that's the Q.

[Erictheavocado]

Pre lockdown, delivery every week to ten days with a small top up for bread, veg etc from the supermarket in between.
Since lo known, we are just making do with whatever we can get on home delivery. Both Dh and I vulnerable, so not willing to risk going shopping. A friend's father used to pop into his local supermarket as part of his exercise. No contact with anyone else. He caught covid and died. I'd rather stay in, even cutting back on food a bit of necessary, than take that chance.

[livingthegoodlife]

Once a fortnight. Everyone healthy.

[Springcatkin]

I don't drive so can only buy what I can carry. Went to Tesco & Aldi on Sat, will probably have to pop in again this week to top up bread etc. Three times in a week is about our normal.

[Sexnotgender]

Never. Get one delivery per week. We’re shielding DD.

[DBML]

Every other day. Sometimes every day.

[GreyishDays]

You said ‘very few’ are managing with just a weekly or fortnightly shop.

[TheGreatWave]

I didn't say everyone, some people can manage just fine with one shop a week, others can't. Some of those have to go to a shop, others get extra deliveries.

One poster above said that 3 2l bottles of milk can last the week - freshness wise yes, but that would last not much more than 2 days in my house.

People are generally doing the best they can with the resources they have. I could go less but then I would need to have two small supermarket deliveries a week rather than one large one. One difficulty is that Sainsbury's aren't selling 6pt bottles of milk, so 4 x4 pt is much less than 4 X 6 pt.

[GreyishDays]

@TheGreatWave
We have no additional deliveries and are just getting once a week. We do freeze milk and bread but generally aren’t needing to break into it.

[LockdownCwtches]

I have been going about twice a week, probably every 3/4 days. I am currently shopping for my own family of 2 adults and two children, my parents, my parents in law, and my next-door neighbours! It works well like this, I can get most of it at Lidl but sometimes I have to pop to Tesco for some items.

[GreyishDays]

Once a week delivery or collection.
Not been to the supermarket for five weeks. Been to boots twice to pick up a prescription.

[MRex]

Oh - I had one fruit delivery too.

[MRex]

Since mid-March neither of us went to any shops, then last week DH went to 2 shops plus 2 pharmacies to get missing essentials and medications. Only one of the shops could have been avoidable, but we really really wanted our M&S bits!

We got 2 grocery deliveries in between, a meat delivery, a cheese delivery, several beer deliveries and we have another grocery delivery plus another cheese delivery this week. Each of our deliveries has had things for at least 4 households as we get bits in for neighbours and PIL. I also had other deliveries sent direct to DP and PIL houses. Different neighbours have bought us a couple of things that ran short too (these days everyone offers when they do a shop) - milk, anbesol and yeast. We've had a few days between deliveries where we're down to just tinned or frozen veg and no fresh; I roasted veg one meal, others had baked beans, sweetcorn, veg soup and we had fruit so we were fine really. We like certain things so a veg box would be bad value for us as 3/4 items are things we have only occasionally but little of what we want regularly. Food is much more expensive with less offers.

[Frangipanini]

This situation has taught me to meal plan for the week. I used to decide on the day what we were having and go to the shop after the school run or before pick up. I wasted a lot of time and money on this buying a lot of extras and offers. During lockdown I've planned for the week and made a massive list and planned meals based on what dried goods I have. I have had to go to a few shops to get everything because I live in a town where there is a butcher, greengrocer, fishmonger, bakery and the supermarket is more like an express shop. We do have a couple of bargain shops and I've started with them and got my supermarket shop (posh shop) down to just a basket of things. Since I've done this my shop cost has reduced by about 25%. In future I am just going to allocate one morning in the week to do a massive shop and stay away from them the rest of the week. I've found that 3 2L bottles of milk can last see a week. Sounds a lot but I have milk guzzling teenagers.

[Strugglingtodomybest]

1 big shop a week, with maybe 1 trip to the corner shop or egg lady a week.

[HelenaJustina]

Family of 6 and we manage with one grocery shop a week. We already meal planned so it hasn’t been too hard to not ‘top up’ as we know what we need for the week.

[TheGreatWave]

It has been interesting to see that many who are not doing extra shops are having, often expensive, alternatives. Milk deliveries, fruit / veg / meat boxes etc. So it seems very few are shopping once a week / fortnight and that is it.