My husband hates the shops and I mean really won’t go near them! It’s become quite a fun joke in our house. He’s always been like it. Occasionally he’ll come with me when I get groceries because he does like to cook, but rarely will he venture anywhere on his own. If he does, he will always drag a kid with him. He freaks out if he has to use his card and there is no cash in the house. He’s so old school and an eftpos card is out of his comfort zone big time.
A few months ago he actually went to the supermarket on his own (with a kid in tow of course). I can’t remember where I was, but obviously he had to get food for some reason. He rang me afterwards so happy with himself because he even had to self scan (of course with the help of a child who goes me with all the time!). I laughed until I couldn’t breathe. He said the fear rose up in his neck when he’d managed to get through the shopping part only to realise NO ONE WAS ON THE CHECKOUTS and self scan was the only option. ?
The thing is too he’s forgotten the PIN on his card. He can’t remember it. And as if he’d go to the bank to change it (and I can’t do it for him!). So he can only use it in small increments. Last year I told him he can now just use paypass, and wave it at the machine. I should never have used the word wave. He was with the kids getting drive-through food and they said he waved that card all over the machine like he was waiting for a genie to pop out. The kids’ words “so embarrassing”. Tears of laughter.
This past week he’s outdone himself and gone to the shops TWICE on his own…
And he even decided to LAYBY something. He knew Anaconda was having a sale on some particular sleeping bags. I was sick this week so if he was going to catch this sale, he had to pull his big boy socks up and do this himself. He rang me and proudly announced he was going to leave work (and he never does this even though he owns his own business!) and layby these sleeping bags. I said WHAT THE? What a big boy, I laughed! Of course he has to plan these things though. He doesn’t just randomly walk in to the shop and announce to the cashier he’s layby-ing something. Nooooo…. he mulled over this for hours. He rehearsed how he’d do this in his mind. He even had my eldest son look up on the Anaconda website if they even do a layby. Then he calculated what the deposit would be and asked me if they’d take his (waving) card as the deposit? I love him, and he cracks me up. I’d forgotten about it until he rang me again later that day announcing that he’s officially independent and can proudly say he’s now placed a layby. All on his own.
Now the second visit to the shops was yesterday after work. He wanted to put something in the slow cooker this morning because we all head off for sport. I hate him doing any groceries though because he’s a massive sucker for the 3-for-1 deals. He’ll buy 3 hot sauces even though those jars last about a year anyway. I told him a while back he’s banned on the deals. Just get in and out. Oh, and never ever go to the shops and not buy milk. ALWAYS come home with milk no matter what. But he lands at the supermarket and calls me, of course. He says where’s this, where’s that? And I am directing him through the aisles. He says he is not self-scanning and will line up no matter what to wait for someone to do it. Ha! But he bought 6 packets of Hot Pot casserole stuff because he couldn’t decide and said he wouldn’t be going back soon so he’s prepared for next time now. Haha.
If we ever get down to the main shops in Wagga I can guarantee he’ll say to me “I feel like I’m on holidays” because everything looks so foreign. He’ll ask how long a certain shop has been there and I’ll say 3 years…. ?
I love his guts. We’ve been married for 17 years and I don’t ever want him to change. He’s old school and hates technology. But fix a thing? Oh yes, he can fix anything. He can fix a 5 colour printing press better than an engineer can. He can build stuff. He can cook the best food, he can clean, he’s calming, he’s level headed, he’s hilarious and so much fun. He just cannot shop.
Is your partner like this??
♥ KC.
