Aibu to be annoyed the food shop disappears so quickly

In your shoes I would buy the same amount of 'crap' snacks like crisps, but buy more fruit or yoghurts or whatever.

I spend way more, with only three, and always need a top up, and there is never anything left by day 5. Basically we eat nothing on day 5 and 6 with a weekly shop 😅

Maybe try a fruit delivery box delivered a few days after your big shop? We use Oddbox and get our fruit that way. You can switch the contents around and get things like mini cucumbers and cherry tomatoes too. My DDs like snacking on that stuff.

I think I’d buy more of less interesting snacks - apples, bananas, toast with jam/butter, basic bourbon biscuits and so on. And do one simple baking activity with the kids a week so you have vanilla muffins or whatever.

Have a look at the rest of your budget to see if one or two of the meals can be swapped for something cheaper.

Depends. What happens when the locusts have eaten all the snacks in a couple of days? You go out and get more or they wait patiently for the next lot?

If it's the latter then I don't see any issue.

It’s hard. But that’s actually really not a lot of snacks.

Would they eat veggie sticks instead of fruit? It’s cheaper to have carrot sticks and cucumber sticks rather than a punnet of berries. You can also very cheaply and quickly make things like crispy cakes/marshamllow crispy treats snd flapjacks etc. They really don’t take long and will keep for a week in a sealed jar. I also have a freezer drawer filled with various burritos; you can batch make two dozen and it’s a great snack after school for growing teens. Works out cheaper than chocolate bars etc.

1000% this.

Snack boxes & “when it’s gone it’s gone” are good for if you have issues with greed & overeating.

That isn’t what is happening here- OP just isn’t actually buying enough food to feed the amount of people in the house. There’s not even enough fruit for every person to hit 2 a day nevermind 5 a day.

So stop buying expensive fruit and snacks and buy the cheaper stuff?

Poor choice of words, I don’t think there is much gobbling up with such a limited amount,

this is for five people.

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

sp over the course of 7 days they have a third of a punnet of grapes, a third of a punnet of strawberries. That’s it, the total fruit they can have,

fir snacks they get 1 and a half milky ways every seven days, 2 rice cakes each per week, , a few mini marylands, and some yoghurt. It’s a very small amount of food, and that’s why it’s running out, they are on rations. I mean a third of a punnet of grapes a week, what’s that 5 grapes a day?

I spend more than that a week for myself, a teen and a tween. They sometimes take a packed lunch to school, sometimes they buy lunch at school so add an extra £10 a week each for their school lunches as well.

And I also cook from scratch and batch cook. We have much cheaper weeks if everything is vegetarian.

I’ve had the same conversation with DH this morning when we were popping into a supermarket for the bloody 5th time this week.

DS is back here after finishing uni, no complaints generally as he’s very domesticated and pulls his weight but crikey the lad can eat. A block of cheese that used to be in the fridge all week or more now lasts 3 days. Boxes of eggs evaporate into thin air. I cook chicken for sandwiches because it’s cheaper than buying slices, a tub of that goes overnight 🤷🏼‍♀️ Every pop in supermarket visit costs £20 now, not a fiver.

It depends how old the kids are, I have 3 including 2 teenage boys and those snacks would be polished off in a day or two. I spend about £800 a month (3 kids, 2 cats). If your kids are a lot younger then that is different.

Divide into snack boxes for each family member and remind them it won't be replenished until next week's shop. If they gobble up their share in 2 days then no more snacks.

If you have older kids maybe give them a snack allowance in cash so they can choose and buy their own but not touch the other boxes.

I don't think fruit should be rationed though.

As other posters have suggested, consider if you're actually buying enough. But also how many snacks you think is healthy. One of my kids would live on snacks if she could so we do have a fairly limited amount, otherwise she'd be constantly digging in the cupboard and not touching her balanced meals.

We are a family of 5 (secondary school
aged DC) and we are spending double what you are on food (deliveries twice a week has helped). They buy lunch at school.

There's only me and one other I buy 2 punnet of grapes 2 strawberries bananas, cherries blueberries and melon and still buy more, as for the biscuits etc ration them, so have a couple of empty cereal boxes in the back of the cupboards, put out enough snacks for one day, and then replenish from the secret stash, get cheaper fruit than the good stuff, so apples and pears when the strawberries etc. are gone.

This drives me bonker too. One thing I do do is make massive flapjacks over the weekend. Lots of peanut butter and banana, kilo of oats! Slice wrap and freeze. Then they get one plus fruit for school snack. I find the freezing puts off theft as you’d lose a tooth. I take out of freezer before bed.

Plan for fruit bowl top ups I have to buy 50 bananas, 5 packs of apples, 5 packs of oranges for a week. Which sounds like loads but it’s two - three bits per person per day.

Also hsve snacks available thst are boring so toast, crumpets, oatcakes so they can fill up but not individually wrapped deliciousness which is terribly moreish.

Lock / hide the ambient goods and space them out. Is it just the kids eating them all or your partner too? He needs to be spacing them out too.

Things like fruit, especially. strawberries disappear quickly. I buy them on the home way from work to space it out.

£130 a week for 5? I can’t get mine under £250 (3 teenagers). I’m not sure £130 is a week’s worth of food even for toddlers to be honest so I’m not surprised it disappears quickly.

My kids used to come home from school ravenous after a school lunch. The portions are small and they serve the same sizes to reception and year 6.

I think that you’ve bought too little to last a whole week. Are any of them hiding snacks from the rest of the family? My kids preferred snacking to actual meals and could get through loads.

I’d buy more oranges, bananas and apples and cheap fruit and less of the expensive grapes and berries.

similarly more cheap biscuits - the multipacks with bourbons and custard creams for eg

A month's worth of meals for 5 people is 450 meals (assuming 30 days in a month and 3 meals a day).
of that you eat 5 meals a week at work/school = 100 meals a month (5 meals x 5 people, x 4 weeks)

450-100 still equals 350 meals a month in the house, plus all snacks (which seem to be most of the issue disappearing). £400 a month equals barely a pound per meal.

Don't buy berries, I never had them as a child when we had a very limited budget, apples and bananas

I’d buy two - three times more bananas and apples, they last quite well. Dump the chocolate and biscuits, they are too attractive. Rice cakes, dried fruit, graze and cereal bars seem to be liked well enough but last around here. If hungry then peanut butter and sliced apple, toast or fruit get eaten. Also always have lots of Greek yoghurt to have as a snack with some granola and frozen fruit.

I think others are right, it’s not necessarily enough and they need to ask instead of having free rein.

You aren’t buying enough food to do snack boxes to fix this really.