In your household do you share the shopping duties? My wife is an amazing home cook, so she is very picky about ingredients, and as a consequence in no way trusts me to do the grocery shopping. I actually like grocery shopping, and wish she would let me do it more often -- the markets here in Austin are very cool. Both our local HEB and the Whole Foods downtown are enjoyable places to visit for a food and wine freak like me.

I am allowed to handle the big box shopping, where I guess I am less likely to screw up by getting the wrong thing. I'm a Costco guy, and shop there for the family about every other week.

So I am nowhere near 50/50 on the shopping side of things. How does it work in your house? Is this a source of friction?

I'm a 50/50 guy, mostly because we do shopping as a family activity. As you mentioned Daddy Clay the groceries in Austin are neat places so it's almost like taking a fun trip for the kids. I also do lot's of the "Honey pick up X Y Z on your way home from work" which bumps up my percentage. No friction in this house.

Food Shopping: 50/50 except I go and buy three carts for two weeks of food and she buys one cart for one week of food.

My son is almost 2 and I usually take him with me. My wife isn't as 'financially conscious' as I am. Luckily he usually behaves well and his babbling makes people smile. It's great bonding time for us and I look forward to it. It's not a cause of friction for my wife and I whatsoever.

I'm a SAHD and 100% of the shopping falls on my lap as I am the one with the time to do it and cook it. We regularly discuss the produce I buy, as a result of which I sometimes try to buy new things to give the kids more variety to their diet.

Occasionally my wife will accompany me to the store at weekends, but for some reason the food bill sometimes doubles as a result!?!?!?

Mostly I shop at Wall Mart, and although the characters that both work and shop there can be a little too interesting/strange, and they seem to lack continuity as regards stocking the right things, I generally find most of the things I need. This is supplemented right now by visits to a local farmers market where the produce is straight from the farmers fields and sometimes even organically grown (I lived in Europe for many years in the south of Spain and this guys garlic far outdoes anything I purchased there).

My wife's line of expertize is on the clothing side of things, where I then fall into my support role of nodding at the appropriate times and willingly carrying all the shopping bags.

Really interesting the number of dads who are taking the lead in grocery shopping. Marketers take heed.

Others?

I also do almost all the grocery shopping. I take my 4 year old son and 1 year old daughter. It is a good time for the three of us to spend some time together.

I used to resent that I had to do all the shopping, but I have grown to not mind it so much. The only problem now is sometimes I don't get all the things my wife wants. But usally it works out ok.

We share it for sure. It's generally her 'responsibility' as she is 'the cook.' But we don't have a set regimented schedule like, every Tuesday we go to the store(though my neurosis would really prefer this). If I know we're out of a bunch of different things, and she's not going to have time SOON, I'll suck it up and go. I don't mind the shopping at all. It's the public. People suck. They park in handicap spaces, or right in front of the door. They don't know what the cart corral is for. They don't watch where they're going. No one knows the phrase "Excuse me." They generally just irritate the piss outta me. If I go alone, I crank up the itty bitty iPod and it's much much easier.

One of us will usually do a 'big trip' and try to get everything we need for a couple of weeks, about once a month this happens. The rest of the trips are 'stop by and get this and that' kind of things. Usually no more than 5 or 6 things... (no more than I can remember without a list). Also, beer comes home when I go, so that's an extra incentive for me.

Never been a friction maker for us. We also split the "put 'em away" duties. If she goes to the store, I put 'em away... if I go, she does. It generally depends on how helpful or hindering TheBoy is feeling at that moment and who he allows to corral him.

We share shopping, and it is mostly dependent on who needs home-time with Abby. We shop based mostly on coupons and meal plans, so we both know now exactly what should be on the list for the next two weeks. It takes a lot of the stress of of each of us to share the load.

We have 2 types of shopping. The Big Shop, which occurs on weekends is a family outing... The 2 year old goes in his wagon, the dog comes along and we walk to the supermarket. Mom pays for that one. Dad pays for the incidentals (coffee, snacks)

Then there's the 'last minute' shop. I call every day on my way home from work and see if there are any extras that we need/ forgot. Some days there's nothing.. but our boy drinks a LOT of milk...

Of course, what we spend is relative to our respective salaries, so it works out.

What Groovedaddy said - and I am not allowed to make decisions during the Big Shop, just to push the cart

Roger in PDX