Aibu to be annoyed the food shop disappears so quickly

Try frozen fruit but have it after meals or part of them. Lentils and tins of different beans are cheap, filling and protein rich. Loads of great bean meals on mob .

Apologies if I'm repeating others as I'm about halfway through, but frozen fruit is a great economical way to get more variety of fruit in budget. My dc love it on it's own, with their cereal or with plain yoghurt, which is also cheap and wouldn't otherwise be eaten. Lidl, Aldi, Farm Foods and Sainsburys all have it at a similar price.

Biscuits and chocolates are a waste of money - they're not filling and just lead to wanting more and more, and obviously they're unhealthy. Get more protein-based snacks in - mine like the Quorn cocktail sausages and 'chicken' nuggets and real chicken sausages and skewer things, and scotch eggs. These aren't that cheap but go a lot further than fruit and biscuits for snacks.

Hold stuff back...have a hiding place for non perishable snacks..! Then replace at intervals.

I am amazed you are feeding everyone for just £100-130 a week. We are a family of four, no pets, no alcohol and we spend double that

Or chop up a load of raw celery, carrots, cucumbers every couple of days. They can have those and dip them into plain yoghurt or a cheese dip.

You're doing fine OP, your children arent actually hungry I would wager, its behavioural, we snack out of habit, we are animals and people forget this. Put food in front of a dog, it will eat, Ive never known a dog turn down food. Most people are like this to a lesser or greater degree

Dont forget tinned and packet things as fruit and veg, or frozen fruit. Much cheaper

Sorry for all the judgemental folk. Some of us were trying to fend them off on your behalf.
Definitely buy the cheaper fruit/offer fruit/in season fruit if you can, as that will help. Also toast/crackers/oatcakes/cheaper biccies. Maybe one treat thing - everyone gets fair share, but when it's gone then it's gone. 😁

That’s insane! We spend £100 pw for 3 adults. Shop at Lidl. We don’t snack Cook from basic ingredients. Make lunches to take to work/ use leftovers etc.

Don’t buy snacks! It makes it too easy to just grab and eat. If they have decent meals, nobody needs to snack.

I'd go the other way and stop buying 'snacks' completely. The fruit can be part of a planned meal (banana and yoghurt, or a plate of strawberries and grapes). It's better to eat sugar at the end of a meal, it doesn't spike insulin as much. Add protein to meals so people feel full for longer. If they are hungry inbetween then toast and peanut butter, or cheese on toast, or a cup-a-soup, or a boiled egg. All of these require a bit of effort/time. Are they really so hungry that they can be bothered to boil an egg? Or arethey just bored.

The problem is that your easy to access snacks require no thinking, no effort, just grab it and eat. Plus they all contain sugar, which doesn't do much to satisfy hunger in the longer term.

In general I don't get the constant need for snacks. There is no harm in feeling at little bit hingry at times, as long as your blood sugar isn't crashing.

Stop buying snacks, they aren’t necessary. Instead provide more calorie rich meals.

I wonder if anyone has ever given any thought as to why supermarkets are laid out in the way they are

You walk in and all the fruit and veg and salad is there, so you fill up on these things, then the fresh deli/dairy/ready meal section

Only then do you get to tins and packets and finally to frozen

There is a reason for this

You buy fresh, you're paying more per item for a start, you're more likely for it it go off and then need to replenish

If you fill your trolley with packets of beans, lentils, tinned veg, tinned fruit, frozen veg, frozen fruit, frozen meat etc, You pay far far less, you manage the turn over in the home better

A tin of peaches with some greek yoghurt, easy cheap snack, more protien and more filling than a handful of grapes, which then turns into a handful of strawberries and so on.

Make your own houmous or bean dips from tins of beans or chickpeas, you can freeze this in any case, have this as a snack with pita breads or crisp breads.

Well apparently we all need massive meals and at least two snacks a day.Also injecting mounjaro into our eyeballs. Fun filled days

....and, as already stated, OP cannot really afford any more.

Thats cheap for family of 5 for a week

This is a very good idea if it's a possibility time wise.

its five people op- I was thinking the same but we’re six and now I see what people buy for three and four I realise I wasn’t being fair- think of it, even with the bars you’re saying everyone takes 1 then they’re pretty much gone, same with bananas, most have five or six in a bunch and the amount of strawberries is negligible. Don’t do snack boxes, allow them to eat what they feel like, you don’t have tons of unhealthy crap, we’re just unlucky with col

I noticed food prices have really shot up about 2-3 weeks ago.
Also a lot of pre packaged items are smaller in size.
Forget about cashback OP, you need to save now not get cashback in 2 months time from the bank.
Sainsbury's is more expensive than Waitrose for a lot of items, but really good quality overall.
Morissons is more expensive than Tesco.
Try a combination of everything and give the likes of lidl/Aldi a try.
Most supermarkets give better pricing to loyalty card holders.
It's a right faff tbh.

Fruit is not even frigging essential fgs. People in this very country survived a very very long time without oranges or grapes or bananas.

Oh really. Please set out OPs menu for us as you clearly know it.

When are they eating these snacks? Is it possible that their main meals aren’t substantial enough? Basically are they snacking due to hunger, boredom, or out of habit. If they are genuinely hungry consider increasing their portion size at meal times. Looking at the snack items you list none of them have a lot of protein. Protein helps to keep you fuller for longer. A slice of wholemeal toast with peanut butter, carrots with hummus (really easy to make in a food processor or just buy it), breadsticks and cucumber with a cream cheese dip, hard boiled egg with cherry tomatoes. None are particularly expensive but would likely keep them fuller for longer.

I've recently pointed out to my foster son whose off to uni the price difference between apples and berries and suggested he gets some frozen berries whilst at uni. He's not used to budgeting on food and he has expensive taste as likes salmon and prawns but I've told him he might need to limit those until he's home on a weekend.

It’s not really a recipe as we chuck in any leftover fruit or extra things as we go some times a crumbled layer of salted honey peanuts in the middle. It’s a kilo of oats get these on the heat with a whole pack of butter.

Then seperately (kids do this) peel and slice bananas, ripe ones like you’d use for banana bread around six. A whole jar of smooth peanut butter (350g). Generous amount of honey, half a jar, about half a can of condensed milk ( this freezes well so save it for following week. Heat these ingredients together till it’s a sort of thick soup consistency (don’t allow to boil) mix well with oats these will have soaked up the butter.

Turn out into a couple of trays lined with grease proof. You can pop it in the fridge or if you lack space it’ll firm up overnight at room temp. I just chuck in oven if not using. Chocolate buttons will melt nicely on top. They are pretty calorie dense but also soft / chewy. Roughly have two kilos of flapjack.

Sorry baby T snacks weren’t available and fruit was rationed. DC were taught to ask before they even took a biscuit. May sound draconian but it was the only way to budget.

It is judgement.
OP hasn't ever said she spends a huge amount, she has said she cannot really afford more.