Do you prefer to shop alone?

Agreed- lol ;)

I do prefer it but since OH has gone on part-time before he retires next year he's come with me.. but its fine at least he picks out what he wants to eat which saves me thinking of meals for him (he's fussy), a bit of drawback is he encourages me to buy cakes,desserts and I don't need encouraging in that department.
Sorry you find it stressful kassi but just think how you'll feel when he wants to come every week. Could you not give him his own list so he can wander at his leisure and you get on with the real work and meet up in the coffee shop?

Take two trolleys and split the list in half. On his list have all the things that you will be happy with his choice, and all the heavy things from the top shelf. Your list can have the things you would rather choose yourself.

When DH retired he decided he would come shopping with me. It took twice as long as he just kept wandering off, bit like shopping with an inquisitive toddler. When we got to the end I loaded the shopping on to the belt and he just stood there! Everything piled up, still he stood, no packing action, in the end I had to tell him to put the shopping in the bags!! Only took him once, couldn't stand the trauma!

Heaven forbid tanith DH should ever come shopping! Even once a year is too much - he's got out of it this year because a friend and I scarpered off the Waitrose early this morning (he was meant to be taking me on Monday)
Also gives me a chance to sneak off for a quiet coffee too with no incessant questions about contents of trolley and ending up with extraneous extras like ultra posh instant coffee and slabs of stinky cheese!

Even worse is when he insists on pushing the trolley and then vanishes leaving me with an armful of shopping ! Takes me so long to calm down it's never worth it!

Mine's favourite is - 'why don't you buy this instead, it's much cheaper?' I only take him when it's for important stuff like buying wine etc at Christmas!

I don't mind DH coming to Aldi with me because he can wander off down the middle bit and buy yet more screws, torch batteries, fingerless gloves, fishing tackle, bird seed and yesterday, a plastic belt

He knows he has to catch me up before I go through the checkout so I can shop in peace.

Anywhere else he's a nightmare.

Oh how I agree! I get 'do we really need that? Do you realise that is cheaper in so-and-so? We've already got one of those. Why don't you get a bigger one, it's more economical. Have you checked the sell by date'. Aaaargh. I worked in the city centre for over 30 years, he hardly ever ventured there. Then, when he retired a couple of years ago, he got a part time job in the city. Now he knows every nook and cranny of it, orders me about, telling me the 'best way' to go. He also knows the full timetables and routes of the buses that I had been travelling on all those years while he swanned off to work in his car. He's lovely really though

hi hi hi - that seems to have struck a chord with many of us ;)

When DH retired I made it clear I prefer to shop alone - and I do.

We do shop together (as distinct from 'coming shopping with me') for the immediate pre-Christmas shop. At Waitrose we have two trolleys. He does drink and nibbles. I do the rest. We go through the till together as I have the Waitrose card and JLP credit card.

After that we go to the farm to collect the (pre-ordered) turkey and the Farm Shop for the (pre-ordered) gammon, sausage meat etc. The occasional extra finds its way into the trolley, but not often.

We actually have an enjoyable and festive morning and we are back home for breakfast, coffee and the papers by 9.30.

I usually shop on-line but on the rare occasions when I shop in real shops I try to persuade OH to spend time in the nearest coffee shop. He just keeps filling the trolley with anything he sees, especially things with a short shelf life, and then cannot understand why everything cost so much.

Just a thought...is this a deliberate ploy by the male species to ensure that they rarely get a chance to repeat the exercise!? (Lightslowlydawning...)

Just to add that when they put their 'weird' stinky stuff in the trolley, they NEVER look at the 'sell by dates' .......arghhh!

I'm on my own then in enjoying DH's company when food shopping
Maybe it's because he behaves himself. He is happy to just follow me with the trolley. He never questions what I'm buying and never puts items in that he's chosen, It's all left to me. I find it handy to be able to ask 'Do you fancy X or Y this week '

Reading all these replies, I don't feel so guilty now. Husband comes with me occasionally and we always end up spending at least twice as much as when I shop on my own. So I tend to nag him, no, we don't want that, too much sweet stuff, waste of money etc. And I end up all tensed up inside.

If DH comes with me he never puts anything in the trolley save batteries and show polish but the infuriating part is at the cash desk. He wants to do an entre trolley through the self service one which is impossible and whatever queue I join the pulls the trolley over to another one. He then throws everything in the bags at random so all the those things which should not be squashed are. in the main I have it delivered but occasionally have a leisure shop but its better on my own. In M & S all I can hear from him is 'HOW MUCH'!!

How Much indeed Teetime you OH must be related to my OH thats his favourite saying when he comes shopping which by the way I try to keep to a minimum The best one is "there are only two of us" well yes and there has been for a long time now so where do you think the housekeeping budget goes ? I have suggested he buys himself 7 x frozen ready meals for a £1.00 at Iceland if he does not stop moaning,off to collect xmas order with just future DIL on xmas eve he will be no where in sight I can assure you.

I never food shop. OH does all the cooking and he loves food shopping.
I go on my own to get the nice things: Magnums, ice cream, cake, biscuits etc.

petra!

My DH never came shopping with me, which was how I liked it.

When visiting my brother and his wife he has to come as she doesn't drive - he is a nightmare! He makes a list before they go, then strides up and down the aisles collecting things, SiL is very short and finds she has to run after him, if she stops to look at something she loses him!!

Yes, yes, yes.

On the one occasion DH came with my he wandered off with the trolley. I didn't realise this and as there was a man (same size, similar build as DH) with a trolley near me, I continued putting my shopping into his trolley with little comments such as 'that'll do for tea tonight' and 'remind me to get dog food'.

It wasn't until he pointed out he didn't have a dog, that I took a good look and found I had commandeered a total stranger and his trolley .

Luckily he was amused!

One thing that annoys me intensely is when my husband seems to have the capacity to vanish into thin air, as if he has been abducted by aliens! One second he is there, and I am talking to him (admittedly not face to face, as it were), the next, he is gone. Then I have to trawl the aisles looking for him, which wastes no end of time. If I just walked off and hoped he'd catch up we could be there all day. When he does turn up, he is usually clutching half a dozen things we absolutely don't need ("but they're on offer!") or already have a cupboard full of (from previous ill-fated expeditions!). We can't seem to walk out of any supermarket without at least one carton of custard (if there is ever a custard famine, ladies, you know where to come!).