[DanaC]

Bit of both - I have also been shopping for mum because she also couldn't get a food delivery and is staying completely out of shops.

I don't drive, so whatever I buy has to be carried home - its not a long walk, but there's still a limit to what i can carry - if I am buying milk for both of us, for 3 days, that's about 10 liters of milk. Also, despite the guideline dates, after about 4 days the milk starts to go on the turn, so just based on milk alone, it's 2 trips a week.

I have also been buying tins of other dog food to help eke out the Chappie that they are used to because there were some delays on stock for home delivery - so that's 6-8 tins of dog food in a typical trip. Add in a couple of tins of beans each, a loaf of bread each, a few bananas each and some yoghurts for Ma, 4 rolls of toilet paper each and say, a jar of coffee or a box of tea and it's mounted up already to a sizeable load to carry and only accounts for some of the stuff we need.

It's also only a village store, so it's quite small, and one section of it is the post office. there are only 5 people allowed in at once, it's difficult to go back around to get something you've forgotten as you went past and its difficult to manoeuvre with two shopping baskets (no carts, shop is too cramped). Add in that sometimes you go and they don't have some of the things you need, or they only have a very limited stock of it, so you can't really buy a bunch to stock up - don't get me wrong they do brilliantly, and thanks to them I have managed without a supermarket shop for about 6 weeks and didn't have much in my cupboards at the start of that period. But it' a bit more complicated than doing one big supermarket trip where you can buy everything in one go.

It just ends up with shop visits about every 2nd or 3rd day. They're not all full trips, laden down with bags some of them are top up trips.

I don't like being in there for long - because it is so enclosed. I'm not sure going in only 1-2 times a week would be a safer option if it doubles the length of time i am in there.