Monday 11 April 2011

Man shopping

No I haven't been internet shopping for a new husband but I wanted to tell you how funny Mr FF's idea of provision shopping is. When I was working I used to buy our food either during my lunch hour or after work so that we didn't have to spend precious weekends at the shops. In those days Mr FF's only visits to the shops were to buy wine though I did finally train him to pick up some tins of cat food when he was at the supermarket rather than come home with just a few bottles of plonk. Now that I'm retired I normally do a big shop every seven to ten days and Mr FF, who works from home, supplements this by collecting fresh items on his way back from any meetings. Even if I haven't asked him to buy anything he still tends to call in at his favourite shops if he's passing, these being Lidl, Aldi and Costco where he acts totally on his own initiative. He believes that anything from these places is a complete bargain though I did make him take back a really horrible jogging suit he once bought for Amelia. The spontaneous food purchases can be quite odd, I do the cooking so I often have to use my imagination to incorporate them into our meals. He surprised me once with 6 tubes of anchovy paste, obviously on special offer, that I was able to use in pasta sauce and the like but I did end up giving some away, rather diluting his bargain. Recently a really cheap fruit pie deeply sprinkled with sugar didn't go down too well and he can over purchase on bacon at times.
On Friday his purchases were an aubergine, some parsnips, potatoes and dried pasta, all perfectly usable though not at the same time. Nothing ever gets wasted and I don't want to discourage him, in fact I enjoy unpacking his reusable jute bag but one day he will defeat my cooking repertoire I'm sure, probably soon after he reads this post.

16 comments:

  1. When the mister here pops to the shop, he's given one instruction. Stick. To. The. List.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think our husbands must have been separated at birth, because mine shops EXACTLY the same way. Totally random purchases!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr JK doesn't often do the shopping, unless we're running short of something during the week. He occasionally brings back something extra, but that's usually a bar of chocolate for me!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shopping lists are a definite must in our house. Although I do like the lists that Mr P writes for me. Usually a mongoose or meerkat finds it's way onto it in between the eggs and yoghurt! x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mine has been trained to buy organic milk...and that's about it.....
    I think you should give Mr FF a gold star for buying such pretty veg.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh bless him! Mr Snoops does our weekly shop with a list!! His extras usually include cakes!!! Not good! Ros

    ReplyDelete
  7. Malcolm always comes home with all sorts of 'reduced' items - but as he does half the cooking, his purchases are usually sensible!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mine also has strict 'stick to the list' instructions!!
    Otherwise it would be cakes, cookies and chocolate!

    ReplyDelete
  9. At least you can construct a meal with what your hubby buys! Mine comes back with DVD's CD's etc! xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. My husband really can't be trusted without a list, and even then he usually manage to add something that wasn't on it. Jam donuts, for example!
    I'm struggling to imagine parsnips and aubergines in the same dish!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tee hee, you have made me laugh! I suspect my hubby feels the same about when I go shopping as we have a role reversal in this household - I do the shopping and he does the cooking! And it's so hard to ignore the bargains.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is funny, Jenny! My hubby will do shopping, he doesn't mind either, but usually sticks to the list I make for him. Occasionally he'll deviated from the list. And it's usually, surprisingly vegetables. Last week be came with a cauliflower--it was too big and good to pass up he said. Thankfully I had a stir fry planned and was able to use it in that. Some men bring home flower, mine brings cauliflower. ;o) Happy Day ((HUGS))

    ReplyDelete
  13. Aren't they funny - mine comes home with 'three for the price of two' when we wouldn't ever have chosen to eat even one! And really odd little things ... I remember a jar of sauerkraut once, and just thought 'what the...?'

    ReplyDelete
  14. I think its the bright lights and neon colours that distract them. My husbands pet thing is I will send him out for say 3 tins of tomatoes and I will get 2 tins and a completely random tin where his trolley has moved slightly down the aisle and instead of looking at what he is doing he is still just picking the tins of the shelf one at a time. Men, gotta love 'em!

    ReplyDelete
  15. This post made me and gave me reason to be grateful yet again for having a husband that loves to cook. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. At least the latest haul looks healthy! My husband comes back with cakes, sweets, crisps, chocolate, cream cakes and the occasional enormous loaf of bread which goes to waste as I've usually just pulled a fresh one out of the breadmaker.

    The only time he ever came back with something that was useful and a bargain was 16 oxo cubes for 32p. He said there was a big lot of them going cheap and I sort of looked expectantly at him and then at the carrier bag with just the one box of oxo cubes and he said surprised "oh...did you want more than this then?"

    Deep. Breath. Then I had to explain again how bulk buying of heavily discounted goods results in more pounds in our bank account and lower retirement age.

    It wasn't easy equating 16 oxo cubes to his retirement at 55 but I gave it a good try!!

    ReplyDelete