Aibu to be annoyed the food shop disappears so quickly

2 punnets of grapes, 2 x strawberries, 6 bananas, 2 x four milky ways, triple pack of biscuits, 2 x packs of rice cakes, 2 x packs of mini marylands, yoghurts, specific snacks for the toddler.

A punnet would last one child one evening here. Again strawberries are a one sitting kind of snack. Yoghurts can be 2 per sitting if you’re talking kiddie little ones.

If you have the space for next year though I’d definitely recommend growing some of your own. We have strawberries, blueberry’s, raspberries, kiwis and grapes to just name a few. Sure we don’t grow enough to feed the whole family and it’s only seasonal but for things you plant just once and will keep coming back year after year it helps. Also the children enjoy going and picking their own fresh. Less likely to scoff a whole
punnet when they know you can’t grow that many in a day either.

How old are the children? Sorry if I've missed it xx

No problem! 🤣

That is a very, very small amount for a family of 5. How long would you expect that to last? It would last a week here and we are 4 so with 5 I think much less. My kids can eat 2 yoghurts each a day.

I also recommend making oatcake for instance -

you need soft margarine
brown sugar
oats
flour
fillings of choice eg sultanas, chocolate chips or fruit

for a 13x9” pan you need 150g margarine and 150g sugar creamed together mix in 150g oats, then 250g flour and then any fillings, spread across a greased pan and bake for 15 minutes at 200degrees.

if you have access to blackberries try doubling the mixture cooking them with a little water and sugar (add apples if you have a community orchard or free apples). Spread half the mixture in pan, add fruit, add rest of mixture and bake for 20 minutes. Will store in container all week. Cost of ingredients yesterday- 80p flour for 1.5kg, £1 oats for 1kg, 90p margarine 500g and £1.20 for 1kg of brown sugar. So lots of batches, blackberries and apples were free as so many places to pick here (you can free the part cooked mixture for later in year too)

You need more filling snack. Get some nuts in there along with something substantially carby like crackers and cheap cheese etc.

We have a bill of £140 per week for 5 of us, OP.

It's probably not really enough - see my recent thread on the relationships board re: my DH and yogurt...

I roughly spend £120 per week 4 adults. I do not buy any ubhealthy snacks as thay added £20 extra a week , I do bake cake each week and buy fruit and vegetables. I get meat from the butcher but I do meal plan and try to make everything from scratch including mayonnaise, hummus, sauces and flatbread. I make my own jam and chutneys and have a well stocked pantry that I top up. I try to avoid buying any UPFs where ever possible.

Two of us easily spend a similar amount without buying anything particularly exorbitant. I think your budget is still in 2021, our shop has increased by roughly 35% since then 🤔

Soz wrong person quoted!

If you only have a certain budget then thats it.However We eat well ,but have an older car and dont eat out much (just birthdays ,the odd occasion really) If we visit NT for example ,we will take a packed lunch and flask and have Tea and cake in the cafe later . Shop on Ebay a lot.Food is so dear now .Not everyone can spend more .Carrots and dip are healthy or cucumber .Avoid Berries they are dear.Simple home made tea bread or a Chocolate sponge are quick and easy to do .Can be frozen( tea bread ) so make one freeze one to save time

I'd look at each member of the household individually. Someone may be eating compulsively (e.g., while watching TV, online, doing prep for school) and not even realize how much they're eating. You seem to have loads of "finger food" - not necessarily "junk food", but a punnet of seedless grapes or a couple of single-serving yoghurts are very easy to scoff.

Someone may need more food than you think. A teen could legitimately NEED to eat twice what they did a few years ago, but also overeating can start pretty abruptly. The lunches/snacks at work/school is great, but you're sill covering breakfast, dinner, weekend lunches, and ALL snacking outside of work/school hours. It's the snacking that's probably most difficult to track/control.

If you're going to buy treats, hide them and hand them out AS treats, don't just leave them for people to take. A lot depends on the age of the family members but they made need more clear direction - e.g., "one piece/serving of fruit a day" rather than "eat less!" Another option, although it may not be practical for you, is to do smaller more frequent shops - spend the same money, but over three trips instead of one.

That’s a lot of snacks to me, hiding the long life snacks is a good idea then produce appropriately throughout the week. For the fruit obviously you’d need to top anyway because of shelf life so perhaps order less for the main shop

Got a sob story and everything

I have £150 worth of Iceland crap coming soon. Any rich smuggards fancy donating?

Please don't. My DH does the big food shop every week; around 150£. I always need to add 50£ during the week because there are additional things we need/running out. We are 2 adults and 2 teens no pets. So 200£ a week.

Snacks like Milky Way etc are hidden by me and give to them with a fruit for snack simply because my 15 y old could and would eat all of it in one sitting which would be bad for him and for us:). So start hiding the treats but buy more fruit and cereal bars that they can have free disposal of.

If your family have to have fruit buy some prunes or dates or something less appetizing.

You are a thrifty shopper we are two and spend over £200 a week. No matter what you spend it's annoying for it to not last the distance tho. My OH had three Magnums last night and on Friday I ate a whole tub of haagendaz watching a movie so I am guilty too.

Right, no Sainsburys north of Inverness, and while a few places have Tesco it's not close enough to make it worth going for many. A few Lidl/Aldi dotted about, but not many.

Talk about taking a supportive comment out of context, crikey.

Well I found the price is the same at Tesco and Sainsburys, that was my point, they appear to have price matched with Aldi and Lidl. I think Waitrose came in a 9p more or something

I swear to fucking god, this thread is sending me

Wong post

I live in the UK, contrary to popular belief some places don't have access to all the cheaper supermarkets.
We don't have mains gas and have some of the highest electricity charges in the UK.

We also have gremlins the food and toilet roll actually just vanish poof gone.

Tho amazingly the crisp draw stays full I must of found some crisps they don’t like ha. But fruit goes like no tomorrow. So we do try to grow a lot of our own as well.

Crackers and cheese go fast with a side of cucumber but I feel that’s better than a share bag of monster munch and a chocolate bar.

Eggs we get though a lot. Scrambled eggs are a big go too as well as a bagel and fried egg.

Join Olio it’s a free food waste app. Where people collect food from the supermarket that is that day and give it away for free. Breads, fruit, veg, fish, meat, eggs, milk. Could be anything. We volunteer with them sometimes to give out the food.