Could your dh/dp do the weekly shop without a list?

[oliveoil]

Only instructions being "erm, fruit and veg, salady bits, erm crisps and choc, erm kitchen roll?"

apparently I am lucky he is so "good" according to people

well I say, he is 36 fgs, of course he should know a pepper from his elbow

are men supposed to be helpless at the thought of buying FOOD?????

I suppose there is a hierarchy for us:

4 Worst: Not able to do it at all
3 Next Worst: Only able to do it with a list you have made for them
2 Second Best: Able to do it on own, with self-made list
1 Superbest: Able to do it on own, without list, all stuff in head

Not much wrong with being no.3 surely?

no

No, or else he'd come back with Crest instead of cress and Jif cleaner instead of cleanser. Which happened last week, sadly.

Yes, more or less. More being cake, pie, crisps and rum and less being fruit. But we wouldn't starve and he would get things like toothpaste and washing powder.

And he can cook too. And he irons his shirts. I did live with a useless man once, for about 6 weeks. He wasn't funny. He was just crap. I sent him back to his mummy.

UnQuietDad - Following on from my previous post, the only reason the weekly shop comes to around £60 is due to tips from MN!
I was on Maternity Leave for 6 months last year, and as I am the main breadwinner, there was an over-riding need to budget. So I started to menu-plan - Miaou and MrMiaou had some excellent threads IIRC.
Menu-planning is easy once you get used to it and it has resulted in a lot less wastage as well (in our case of fruit and veg that we tended to over buy), so we have noticed a difference with the amount we put out for the dustman each week.
I cook mostly from scratch and cook two whenever e.g. make 2 shepherd's pies at a time so that there is one in the freezer for the days when I am at work. Also, at least once a week, we have an 'extreme cheap' evening meal such as beans on toast or soup (tinned or homemade if there's some in the freezer). (Check out the MN recipe threads for more innovative ideas!)
IMHO, the only 'special offers' that are worth buying are the store-cupboard (tins/jars), cleaning and washing stuff that will keep. Buying fresh stuff in bulk e.g kids yoghurts etc, can be costly as, in our house at least, it goes out of date before we get round to eating it all.
HTH