Ryan just got back from Winco.  He was grocery shopping.  For me.  My entire weekly list of items.

For over a year, Ryan has asked me if he could do the grocery shopping.  He knows it’s way down on my list below scrub the toilet and clean the hair out of the sink.  But for some reason, I thought it would be more of a hassle having him do it than me just going and getting it over with.

I was wrong.

After an hour and a half, Ryan returned with every item on my list.  And then some.  But we’ll get to that.

“How’d it go?” I asked him.

“Not so bad,” he replied.  “The only hard part was figuring out how to fit everything into the cart.”

Now, Ryan did not do this simply to help me out, although that certainly helped his argument for convincing me.  No, he did it because he was looking for ways to earn extra money.  He figured that he could cash in on my dislike of shopping by offering to “help” me out.

And now I’m thinking what took me so long to agree to it?!  Ryan left with list in hand and I got to stay home and work, uninterrupted.  Although I did bring the house phone into my office expecting him to call.  He never did.  I think he really liked the freedom of being in charge.

I was curious about a couple of things as he left to shop.  What items would end up in the cart that were not on the list?  After all, he’s a 16-year old boy in a grocery store.  And would he realize just how horrible shopping is and never want to do it again?  Or is that just me?

So here’s what happened.  I gave him my debit card and PIN number…because I trust him.  He spent $127.10.  That’s about $37  more than what I typically spend.  Before you think I’m not feeding my kids enough, once a month I take a trip to Costco instead of doing my Winco run.  I spend about $300/month at Costco, $400 if I need printer ink.  So average that into my regular grocery shopping and we’re now looking at $140/week in groceries.  I have two teenage boys and a husband.

So what did Ryan add to the cart?  One pineapple, one mango, one large bag of fish sticks, two bags of Totinos pizza snacks, an extra bag of Kettle chips (okay, I love those), Corn Pops cereal, and an extra tub of yogurt.  Then there were the strawberries and blueberries, but I’m going to ignore those because I may have done that, too.

So the question is…is it costing me more to have Ryan do the shopping?  …because I have to pay him, too.  How much?  That’s what I asked him.

“15% of the total,” was his answer.  I had already told myself that it was worth between $15 and $20 to me to pass that chore on to someone else.  15% of $127 was around $19…not bad.  But I was worried about even more items ending up in the cart under this agreement.

“Would you be tempted to add more to the cart to increase the bottom line?  I usually spend under $100 on groceries.  Would you still do this for $15?”

“Yup.”  We had ourselves a deal.  Ryan was officially hired as my grocery boy.  Sometimes paying someone to do something for you is so worth it.

But next week, I’m sending him shopping AFTER lunch.