How to get £20 weekly shopping delivery for elderly MIL?

[KavvLar]

MIL is elderly and taken a real dip since lockdown started, both physically and mentally. She lives alone.

DH is her only local family and although they don't get along (he has had yrs of therapy for his damaged childhood) we have been doing our best to look out for her and I'm trying to make it as easy on him as we can.

He has been doing her shopping but he doesn't drive, so it gets tricky. He wants to get her a weekly shopping delivery to her home, which he can then come and put away.

I thought this would be easier but she never wants more than £20-30 worth of goods in a week even including freezables, toiletries and cleaning etc. The weekly requirement is so that she could have fresh fruit and veg etc.

We'd be happy to pay a premium for this but I cannot find a supermarket that will accept a delivery order under £40. All I can think of is to have it fortnightly and then supplement in the middle week, but with the idea being to automate it a bit and take the pain out of it for him, I'm surprised I can't find a way to pay extra and have a smaller weekly delivery.

Am I missing a trick here, is there not a way to throw money at this? Any help gratefully received as for some reason this causes him the most stress and this way she can get exactly what she wants. Thanks in advance

My mum lives alone and uses Tesco, it used to be min order of £25 a few years ago when it went up to £40
She buys things when on offer to bulk her order so toilet rolls, Christmas drinks recently
I think Morrison’s was less but might have changed since covid
Ocado etc are 60 I think

Try Iceland, they sell most of the basics, they charge £2 for delivery, I don't think they have a minimum spend. If you spend over £35 it's free.

I think Iceland have only a £25 limit, they do fresh stuff too, not just freezer produce.

Can you add it to your delivery and drop off?

Tesco will still deliver orders under £40, you have to pay a £4 charge though.

How about a fortnightly delivery and then look into something like milk and more for a mid week top up?

If you have Amazon prime you can use the prime now app to get Morrisons food. Minimum is £15 with £3.99 delivery charge. I know they don't cover everywhere yet though.

Do a fortnightly delivery from a supermarket with weekly fruit and veg from a delivery box?

Are there any smaller local shops that might deliver? The mini mart in opposite my grandmother’s sheltered accommodation in a small town happily delivered a weekly shop.

I have a Tesco delivery saver, and that gives me the option to have baskets of less than the £40 minimum delivered at a surcharge. (Delivery should be "free" for passholders, so effectively you're paying for it twice).

If your DH is going round to put it away, could you add some items for your self and he can take them away?

The Co Op deliver in some areas a minimum of £15

Goodness. Are you sure she's eating enough properly nutritious food if she's spending so little (including non food items)?

I would suggest a supermarket delivery every other week and a weekly veg box. (Can vouch for this working tremendously well so far, touch wood, etc.) Assuming she has a decent freezer for milk and bread.

Are there no other family members or a close friend who might go into her house every week? Just to make sure she isn't existing on scraps through a locked down winter.

Tesco will charge £4 extra of you spend under £40.

I know cos I popped something in my basket then forgot to do it properly.

They delivered me a single bottle of rum, which I paid delivery and £4 for.

I looked like an alcoholic.

But yes, you can use Tesco, get delivery saver for about £6 a month and then just pay the surplus.

Slots are starting to get harder to get again though so you might need to book one a few weeks ahead and then pre-book them early.

Do you have a Co-op nearby? As far as I can see, mInimum spend there is £15 for online ordering.

Top up her order to the minimum delivery amount with non-perishable stuff that you want but she doesn’t, eg wine, cat food, dishwasher tabs etc. Collect the surplus once a month or whenever is convenient.

Some excellent suggestions here thank you - I knew that you clever lot would have sound advice. I will take a look at all of these.

I share your concerns about food but to be fair she has never been a big eater. Banana and apple each day, and over a week she will use a loaf of bread, four pints of milk, a chicken breast or salmon fillet each day, pat cakes or biscuits, coleslaw, cheese and ham, potatoes and veg. Doesn't cost much.

*oat cakes not pat cakes.

And I do also like the idea of adding our non perishables to top up.

The reason we haven't so far is because she is easily confused and won't understand why it is coming to her or who is paying for it. Also DH will be walking back to our house with a heavy bag which is part of the reason for wanting delivery in the first place.

Very grateful for the perspective though this is all gold dust - keep it coming! I bet there is a perfect solution in here somewhere once I go over it with DH.

Look at Deliveroo in her area. Mine has the Co Op and a couple of other suitable places available to order from. What's more the stuff arrives in about 30 mins (just like a takeaway) so DH could even do it while he he was there having checked in MIL 's fridge.

Coop or deliveroo i was going to say. It does depend where she lives though.

I was going to say coop too and they can deliver within a couple of hours.
Deliveroo have a smaller more expensive selection from the coop (I checked them both out), much better to get straight from coops own website.
Also with our Tesco next day delivery slots crop up occasionally through the day.

Our local market now does delivery, since Covid. The market manager brings it round and there's no minimum payment. If she's got something like that nearby it's worth asking. Ours has an online ordering thing on shopappy.com/ but I'm sure there are others. I get cheese, apples, pasties/stand pies, eggs, milk and so on.

The milkman also does bread, eggs, bacon and orange juice.

Sainsbury's has £25 minimum for a £7 (!) delivery charge, but I agree with those suggesting local grocers - she may also get a chat that way?

We found a greengrocers about 15 miles away with a surprisingly wide delivery area. Using their own Van was about £3 delivery charge, elsewhere by courier was £6.

I have an Asda delivery saver pass. For 'free' slots you must spend £40. However the minimum spend is £25 but you then have to pay the cost of the s delivery slot on top. It would work out at the cost of the slot plus about £1 on top per week

From experience don't add your stuff to the list, you will get sucked into a circle of hell repeating that, no she hasn't paid for it, yes it's on her receipt, no her shopping hasn't doubled in price, no she isn't paying for your shopping....

Agree Tesco does delivery under £40 they just charge a premium.