Au Pair asking for Salmon!

[Anonymous]

Our new AP has been here for a less than a week and is asking for salmon as part of the grocery list. She's a second year, so i'ts not like she is clueless about prices in the area (she lived elsewhere in the DMV). She also asked for cilantro lime salad dressing and vitamin C tablets. I will obviously talk to her about this to remind her how we agreed groceries work in our house (as detailed in our handbook)--but I do find this presumptuous.

[Anonymous]

Aldi's has frozen salmon that isn't crazy expensive. Vitamin's - she can buy. I don't see anything wrong with asking for a specific salad dressing if it is at the store you shop at and isn't crazy expensive.

[Anonymous]

I’m a longtime host mom and I’m appalled by your attitude. The horrors! She wants some healthy food that she likes to eat!!! How exactly do you detail how groceries work in your handbook?

[Anonymous]

How odd. We buy our AP frozen salmon at Costco v(bag of frozen fillets, sometimes salmon burgers) 1-2 month. Not understanding why this is a big deal. We don't buy a lot of processed foods, and make the AP buy her own junk food generally. Salad dressing seems like a small hill to die on, but we make our own salad dressing - try cooking with your AP and teach her how to make her own dressing. In general, we buy our AP as much healthy food as she wants - since we want her to model this behavior to kids - and we want AP to have a healthy and happy year. We do not have the budget for fresh wild salmon every day, but frozen salmon is not too pricey.

[Anonymous]

I don't get the big deal in buying those things....

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't buy the vitamins personally. what is your budget for food? If it fits within the budget, why not?

In our house, we generally expect the au pair to eat what we eat, which is why we spend a lot of time discussing during matching. We eat healthy food. The au pair sometimes misses things like beef or pork, so that is something she gets on her own (and we give a small budget towards extras).

[Anonymous]

How does your grocery list work OP? It seems very strange that you would begrudge your AP asking for fish and a salad dressing, sure Salmon isn't the cheapest but I don't think it is cheeky to ask, you could tell her you are only willing to buy salmon once a month but I don't think she is being unfair by asking.

I am an AP, I am given a budget for groceries and go out to buy my own, but yet every time my host family goes to the store they pick up things they know I might like. I LOVE cheese though French cheese is expensive so it's not part of my grocery budget, yet my host family know I love cheese so without asking they buy me a wheel of French cheese at Costco every week, and I am SO grateful.

Parts of making someone feel at home is giving them a bit of freedom in what they can eat. Give her a budget and let her decide how she spends it so she can favor salmon over something else if that's something she really wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does your grocery list work OP? It seems very strange that you would begrudge your AP asking for fish and a salad dressing, sure Salmon isn't the cheapest but I don't think it is cheeky to ask, you could tell her you are only willing to buy salmon once a month but I don't think she is being unfair by asking.

I am an AP, I am given a budget for groceries and go out to buy my own, but yet every time my host family goes to the store they pick up things they know I might like. I LOVE cheese though French cheese is expensive so it's not part of my grocery budget, yet my host family know I love cheese so without asking they buy me a wheel of French cheese at Costco every week, and I am SO grateful.

Parts of making someone feel at home is giving them a bit of freedom in what they can eat. Give her a budget and let her decide how she spends it so she can favor salmon over something else if that's something she really wants.

Try Aldi's - much cheaper for things like fancy cheeses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does your grocery list work OP? It seems very strange that you would begrudge your AP asking for fish and a salad dressing, sure Salmon isn't the cheapest but I don't think it is cheeky to ask, you could tell her you are only willing to buy salmon once a month but I don't think she is being unfair by asking.

I am an AP, I am given a budget for groceries and go out to buy my own, but yet every time my host family goes to the store they pick up things they know I might like. I LOVE cheese though French cheese is expensive so it's not part of my grocery budget, yet my host family know I love cheese so without asking they buy me a wheel of French cheese at Costco every week, and I am SO grateful.

Parts of making someone feel at home is giving them a bit of freedom in what they can eat. Give her a budget and let her decide how she spends it so she can favor salmon over something else if that's something she really wants.

Try Aldi's - much cheaper for things like fancy cheeses.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I live in Northern California and Aldi doesn't exist here (nearest one being 4 hours away!) it's a shame, I love Aldi!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does your grocery list work OP? It seems very strange that you would begrudge your AP asking for fish and a salad dressing, sure Salmon isn't the cheapest but I don't think it is cheeky to ask, you could tell her you are only willing to buy salmon once a month but I don't think she is being unfair by asking.

I am an AP, I am given a budget for groceries and go out to buy my own, but yet every time my host family goes to the store they pick up things they know I might like. I LOVE cheese though French cheese is expensive so it's not part of my grocery budget, yet my host family know I love cheese so without asking they buy me a wheel of French cheese at Costco every week, and I am SO grateful.

Parts of making someone feel at home is giving them a bit of freedom in what they can eat. Give her a budget and let her decide how she spends it so she can favor salmon over something else if that's something she really wants.

Try Aldi's - much cheaper for things like fancy cheeses.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I live in Northern California and Aldi doesn't exist here (nearest one being 4 hours away!) it's a shame, I love Aldi!

Costco has salmon, one bag with 6-7 piece for $25. We get one bag every two weeks for a family of 5. Get one bag per month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does your grocery list work OP? It seems very strange that you would begrudge your AP asking for fish and a salad dressing, sure Salmon isn't the cheapest but I don't think it is cheeky to ask, you could tell her you are only willing to buy salmon once a month but I don't think she is being unfair by asking.

I am an AP, I am given a budget for groceries and go out to buy my own, but yet every time my host family goes to the store they pick up things they know I might like. I LOVE cheese though French cheese is expensive so it's not part of my grocery budget, yet my host family know I love cheese so without asking they buy me a wheel of French cheese at Costco every week, and I am SO grateful.

Parts of making someone feel at home is giving them a bit of freedom in what they can eat. Give her a budget and let her decide how she spends it so she can favor salmon over something else if that's something she really wants.

Try Aldi's - much cheaper for things like fancy cheeses.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I live in Northern California and Aldi doesn't exist here (nearest one being 4 hours away!) it's a shame, I love Aldi!

Costco has salmon, one bag with 6-7 piece for $25. We get one bag every two weeks for a family of 5. Get one bag per month.

How big are the pieces? That seems a lot for 6-7 pieces but this poster cannot do Aldi's.

[Anonymous]

Me and my 7yo eat salmon about once a week, I buy it from Costco.

[Anonymous]

Frozen salmon, yes. Fresh salmon, no, that's a special occasion food in our house....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does your grocery list work OP? It seems very strange that you would begrudge your AP asking for fish and a salad dressing, sure Salmon isn't the cheapest but I don't think it is cheeky to ask, you could tell her you are only willing to buy salmon once a month but I don't think she is being unfair by asking.

I am an AP, I am given a budget for groceries and go out to buy my own, but yet every time my host family goes to the store they pick up things they know I might like. I LOVE cheese though French cheese is expensive so it's not part of my grocery budget, yet my host family know I love cheese so without asking they buy me a wheel of French cheese at Costco every week, and I am SO grateful.

Parts of making someone feel at home is giving them a bit of freedom in what they can eat. Give her a budget and let her decide how she spends it so she can favor salmon over something else if that's something she really wants.

Try Aldi's - much cheaper for things like fancy cheeses.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I live in Northern California and Aldi doesn't exist here (nearest one being 4 hours away!) it's a shame, I love Aldi!

Costco has salmon, one bag with 6-7 piece for $25. We get one bag every two weeks for a family of 5. Get one bag per month.

How big are the pieces? That seems a lot for 6-7 pieces but this poster cannot do Aldi's.

The costco pieces are really big and most of us do half a piece with one extra to share, but we cook it with lot of veggies and potatoes or Quinoa. So 3-4 pieces per meals. If AP has one piece per week, that is pretty good and big, because she can't do half a piece really. I have also had Aldi salmon, it is like 2 for $10 (lesser qualities) and it comes to the same price. Trader Joes also have good priced salmon, but it is a huge piece, hard to cook multiple times. Best value is Costco IMO. We eat salmon once/week and I think that is the only meal our AP makes sure she is actually available to eat lol

Btw this is a normal request, especially from 2nd year AP. They know all the good stuffs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does your grocery list work OP? It seems very strange that you would begrudge your AP asking for fish and a salad dressing, sure Salmon isn't the cheapest but I don't think it is cheeky to ask, you could tell her you are only willing to buy salmon once a month but I don't think she is being unfair by asking.

I am an AP, I am given a budget for groceries and go out to buy my own, but yet every time my host family goes to the store they pick up things they know I might like. I LOVE cheese though French cheese is expensive so it's not part of my grocery budget, yet my host family know I love cheese so without asking they buy me a wheel of French cheese at Costco every week, and I am SO grateful.

Parts of making someone feel at home is giving them a bit of freedom in what they can eat. Give her a budget and let her decide how she spends it so she can favor salmon over something else if that's something she really wants.

Try Aldi's - much cheaper for things like fancy cheeses.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I live in Northern California and Aldi doesn't exist here (nearest one being 4 hours away!) it's a shame, I love Aldi!

Costco has salmon, one bag with 6-7 piece for $25. We get one bag every two weeks for a family of 5. Get one bag per month.

How big are the pieces? That seems a lot for 6-7 pieces but this poster cannot do Aldi's.

The costco pieces are really big and most of us do half a piece with one extra to share, but we cook it with lot of veggies and potatoes or Quinoa. So 3-4 pieces per meals. If AP has one piece per week, that is pretty good and big, because she can't do half a piece really. I have also had Aldi salmon, it is like 2 for $10 (lesser qualities) and it comes to the same price. Trader Joes also have good priced salmon, but it is a huge piece, hard to cook multiple times. Best value is Costco IMO. We eat salmon once/week and I think that is the only meal our AP makes sure she is actually available to eat lol

Btw this is a normal request, especially from 2nd year AP. They know all the good stuffs

^^ I just double checked, it is more like $21.