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AIBU?

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Original poster

Aibu to be annoyed the food shop disappears so quickly

510 replies

toadstool32 · 07/09/2025 12:09

It drives me insane. Food shop arrives and within a day most cupboard snacks / fruit has been eaten. I’ve spoken to everyone on numerous occasions about making things last. Family of 5 plus a dog, spending anywhere between £100-£130 a week. How do you make things last?! (Obviously not fresh stuff with dates but the constant snacking).

edited to add: school lunches and snacks are all provided by school. I get lunch at work too. So this is just home food.

OP posts:
Original poster
toadstool32 · 07/09/2025 12:23

I shop at Morrisons, Tesco, Asda or Sainsbury’s - whichever has the biggest cash back incentive at the time through my banking app

OP posts:
Soontobe60 · 07/09/2025 12:23

toadstool32 · 07/09/2025 12:19

But £600 a month effectively when lunches are covered for 4/5 of us is loads in my opinion.

I spend around £500 a month for all our food - there’s 2 of us.
When we had the DDs at home, I would buy snacks but the DDs knew once they were gone that was it for the week. So if they ate all the biscuits by Monday there would be no more til Saturday.

Mrsttcno1 · 07/09/2025 12:22

toadstool32 · 07/09/2025 12:19

But £600 a month effectively when lunches are covered for 4/5 of us is loads in my opinion.

Honestly I wouldn’t say it is. Are you actually buying enough snacks to last a week? What are you actually buying snack wise?

Because if you’re buying enough e.g. 20 pack crisps, biscuits, a few punnets of fruit etc and the issue is overeating then you could start doing snack boxes to limit.

If the issue is that actually you’re not buying anywhere near enough then the answer is to buy more.

InvisibleSockLady · 07/09/2025 12:21

toadstool32 · 07/09/2025 12:19

But £600 a month effectively when lunches are covered for 4/5 of us is loads in my opinion.

Not anymore, not with price rises. I spend more than that for a family of four and then add on all the top up shops in between - food is more expensive than if used to be and it's going up all the time.

Dogosaurus · 07/09/2025 12:20

How old are the children?

AintNoPunshineWhenShesGone · 07/09/2025 12:20

Gosh, our shopping bill is around the same and yet there's only me, DH and our adult son and two dogs.

None of us are particularly big snackers really.

Original poster
toadstool32 · 07/09/2025 12:19

But £600 a month effectively when lunches are covered for 4/5 of us is loads in my opinion.

OP posts:
Brightlittlecanary · 07/09/2025 12:17

That’s a very very efficient budget for so many, I would assume that’s part of the problem, there just isn’t much.

Dillydollydingdong · 07/09/2025 12:16

£100-130 PW? I used to spend that for just me, a cat and a dog and and dp! I'd expect to spend a lot more for a family of five! You could shop at Lidl or Aldi, which might help a bit. And home cook, batch cook, no ready-made shop prepared meals?

Mrsttcno1 · 07/09/2025 12:14

£100-130 sounds pretty good for a family of 5 to be honest!

Snack wise is the issue that people are over-eating, or that you’re not buying enough? Just thinking with a family of 5 if all you bought was for example a 6 pack of crisps or pack of Twirls then actually they probably will be gone after 1 day even if everyone only has 1.