Who does the grocery shopping in retirement? (wife, problems, call)

[Teacher Terry]

When I was married my husband did it with a list I made since I did all the cooking. For the past year I have done it. I am not a fan so go every 2-3 weeks. I pick up milk, etc as needed.

[numsgal]

We live in a semi-rural area, so no delivery is available. We go grocery shopping once a week, together. DH likes to read labels and compare items. I'm more of a "this is what I always buy so this is what I'm getting," type of person. It can be frustrating at times as I just want to get in and out of the store.

[Mikala43]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

My wife does it ..

I am not allowed to go to a supermarket without adult supervision.

All basic groceries are now bought on line and delivered …just the fact I am not roaming the aisles with my own cart while she would shop saves us plenty

This pretty much summed up our household, though we only have produce delivered. Though DH goes because it is such a long drive, I have the list. The list rules. DH picks his snacks, and that is about it. I like to see what's in the aisles that I may not have thought of, because I get new ideas for dinner.

I think this works because he likes the food I cook, and he doesn't believe in messing with what works.

[Sand&Salt]

Originally Posted by numsgal

We live in a semi-rural area, so no delivery is available. We go grocery shopping once a week, together. DH likes to read labels and compare items. I'm more of a "this is what I always buy so this is what I'm getting," type of person. It can be frustrating at times as I just want to get in and out of the store.

LOL. Our husbands should go shopping together!

Label-readers, ugh. (I know it's good to do, but I'm too impatient) Luckily, we don't buy much packaged stuff. Who wants to read ingredients in Spanish, anyway, lol.

[Sand&Salt]

Originally Posted by mrviking

I shop mostly every day. I will either walk over to the store and pick something up. Or if I out and about running errands grab something to cook for dinner. I like to cook something I have a craving for that day, then something frozen I bought days earlier.

That would make it less of a chore. Just a stroll to the little market for whatever you feel like having. Our meals are dictated by the freshness of whatever we bought. Not by "cravings"---I wish!

We had a wonderful tiny corner market in Portugal a block from our rental, and it was actually fun to stroll there every day or 2---we'd be the only ones in the store. I think we supported them through the beginning of the pandemic, as people did their major shopping a few miles away but we got everything from them. The owner loved to see us coming. They had everything in that tiny store, nothing like a 7-11.

But I sat in the nearby outdoor cafe with a Bloody Mary while DH shopped, lol.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by Threestep2

Quite a bit of Amazon here. SO stops in town on his play dates but the purpose of a list has not yet reached him. He shops for a family of six. But he always brings a treat for me It is time for a trip to Little Saigon with a pit stop at The Trading Post for some earrings - under supervision!

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

Little Saigon? Are you in OC?

The only Trading Post I know of in OC is in San Juan Capistrano, which is not that close to Little Saigon if you live in OC. Maybe that poster drives up from the San Diego area?

Not retired, but I do all the grocery shopping for the family and intend to as long as I can. DH is a "browser" and I would never send him to the store with a list unless I was desperately ill and had no other options. He'd come home with 12 things not on the list, and some of the things that had been on the list would be wrong. But he sometimes goes just to buy something he has a taste for.

[cb2008]

Originally Posted by Sand&Salt

Setting Covid aside for the moment, in your partnership, who does the grocery shopping?

Do you go together, or take turns, or does one of you do it all?

Do you wish it were different?

I went for the first time in a year yesterday because it was a major supermarket in the big city and I had a medical appointment there.

For over a year, I didn't go because of a hip operation, then that morphed into Covid avoidance (one being exposed is better than two) and this worked out well because I really hate shopping.

DH LOVES it. He goes slowly around, looking at everything, reading labels, studying stuff and generally having a good time. I am champing at the bit to get the heck out of there. Our neighbor went with us and was laughing about how slow DH is----they often shop together and have to wait like 1/2 hour for DH.

So this got me to thinking....how do you divvy up your shopping and are you good with it?

We shop as needed. Sometimes I do, sometimes DH. I like to go when we need to restock fresh produce and fruits. He goes for dairy, bread and whatever he likes to pick up. NEVER together. I like to shop at different places for dif. things like coffee, ethnic markets, Whole Foods, nice bakery. He only goes to the regular place where he knows all the prices. Often he will also fill up gas for me when he goes to the market.

[TamaraSavannah]

Originally Posted by Sand&Salt

Setting Covid aside for the moment, in your partnership, who does the grocery shopping?

Me, myself, and I

....Do you wish it were different?

Well, other than entertain the prospect of low flying C-130s doing air drops......wouldn't that be a HOOT!, it would be more notorious than the arrival of the mail at Mortica Addams place.....no, not really.

Basically, my grocery shopping is all raw goods and I entertain the notion that people say, "Look at that basket, she must me a cook!"

[Jean-Francois]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

My wife does it ..

I am not allowed to go to a supermarket without adult supervision.

All basic groceries are now bought on line and delivered …just the fact I am not roaming the aisles with my own cart while she would shop saves us plenty

Sounds like us, when I first retired, my wife at 19 years my junior was still working, so she’d write a list on her iPhone, text it to my phone and I’d go to the supermarket.
We still divided the financial outgoings exactly the same way as when she first moved in with me, I paid the mortgage, all utilities, insurances, servicing and insurance of her car, all vacations, I picked up the check whenever we went out to dinner, I paid everything and was happy to do so, but the weekly grocery shopping was down to her, so she gave me her credit card to go to the supermarket.
I’d get everything on her list, then I’d slip a bottle of vodka into the cart, maybe a loaf of sourdough or rye, when she was happy with generic sliced bread.
She’d ask for a pack of ham slices, I’d go to the deli counter and get peppered ham or Spanish dry cured Serrano, she’d ask for a regular jar of olives, I’d get feta or pepper stuffed olives from the deli.
Eventually I was fired from supermarket duties, she took her credit card back and began to order a delivery online, they’re never satisfied.

[Deoge]

70% me.
20% her.
10% together.
I enjoy going up and down every isle even with a list.
Wife enjoys just going straight to the items.
When we go together I will default to her style and just push the cart and keep my opinions to myself.