Aibu to be annoyed the food shop disappears so quickly

I buy a certain amount and it's to last once it's gone it's gone . I do however have a 15yo that is greedy and will eat way more than his share of the treats if given the chance so we have a small fridge that locks and I keep the other kids share of yoghurts etc in there and crisps are hidden in my bedroom .
One night he came down and ate 3 tins of fruit , 6 of them rolled pancakes in packets, 3 bags of crisps and 2 yoghurts and several ice creams while we were asleep i was livid when I realised the next day, it was just pure greed and I have 4 other children to feed for the month aswell so now things get locked away .

If that was the only food available then I'm sure you'd eat it. Billions eat/ate worse in refugee/concentration camps.

What is pissing me off immensely right now is my DCs' attitude towards fruit- especially that of my teenager. We've had an incredibly tight month due to going on holiday coinciding with work drying up, but it's September- we are rolling in fruit here. Pears and figs from our trees, damsons and apples from the allotment trees, blackberries everywhere....DS1 knows we're on a very tight budget right now, but is moaning I'm not buying the regular packs of frozen berries (he'll hoover up a couple a week, often making himself a brimming bowl with muesli and yogurt that he'll leave half of on the side in the morning 😡). DS2 and I have been out blackberry picking so there's been plenty of stewed blackberry and apple that DS1 has eaten the bulk of, but he won't go out and pick any blackberries himself, or chop up and stew any of the massive pile of apples sitting on the kitchen table right now. And God forbid he actually eat an apple or pear without added sugar 🙄.

We're not eating meat. Hth.

Cheapest sources of protein (I'm vegetarian not vegan) are eggs, pulses and (I know this from back in the day when I was pescatarian) tinned fish.

We’re similar to soupy. Breakfast is always porridge oats (£2/week organic with jam £3), maybe a box of cereal with milk at the weekend (£4). One dinner will be roast chicken (£7) with rice or potatoes (£2) and veg like carrot and cucumber sticks (£2) but that will last at least one more meal as a soup (£0), DH will often manage a third meal out of it too. Then an omelette (£3 approx for eggs and cheese), jacket potatoes with toppings (maybe a fiver?), tuna mayo (£4), one oily fish meal like salmon (£8) fresh or frozen. One night of pizzas, usually homemade £3 or shop bought (£10). We’re at £45 so far. After that it might be homemade schnitzel or falafel (£5-10), and realistically we eat out once a week but if not I made cheeseburgers or wraps at home, with chips (£10) or 1kg of chicken thighs (£4). The remainder of our food spend is snacks (popping corn, bourbons, satsumas, apples, “3 for £5” strawberries from Morrisons, “2 for £4” grapes from Morrisons, bread, and the ham/pate DH likes - most places have it at 3 for £8. Block of cheddar. Misc veg like carrots, peppers, toms, cucumber, maybe corn. DH also got a cheese subscription for his birthday so there’s good cheese in the house a lot of the time. At a push £90 a week, usually less.

Family of two adults, primary DC with big appetite and two preschoolers.

We’re not trying to be careful with the food shop but it has settled down like this and feels reasonable.

People have their preferences and thats fine, but you stated that a diet for that money wouldnt be nutritious, that simply isnt true. It would be far far more nutritious than many of the diets set out here. I chose mince as an example because people seem to want to include meat, I dont personally eat mince that much

A fresh comparison then would come in slightly more expensive if you used the fresh pork and beef mince, higher fat which I would prefer, its 750g for £4.88 so for just under a tenner you get 1500g of mince, not quite as good value as the frozen, I could still get 15 main meals out of that.

The point is, there is absolutely no need to spend what some people are quoting on here for fresh healthy varied foods for a family, with lots of enjoyment and nutrition.

I would rather wither up and die than to never eat fruit again 🙈 or frozen mince actually. I’m a bad person clearly.

In fact just checking more on Asdas site, they have 20% fat mince, frozen 600g for about a fiver but you can buy 3 for just under a tenner. They have lower fat options but personally I like a lot of fat because I use it for other things and I like the flavour

that would be 1.8kg of mince. Assuming each person has 200g per serving, thats 9 meals for 10 quid for the meat element. Personally I would do around 100g per person and bulk out with lentils meaning I could get 18 main meals out of that tenner.

You do need the freezer space though

You dont need fruit and home made bread is cheaper

Did you bulk out any mince dishes with veg and lentils or legumes?

Did you buy chicken thigh with bone in and skin on, a kg of it and freeze what you didnt use?
A 1.1kg pack of chicken quarters in asda is £2.73

Did you save the juices and fat from cooking the chicken to make a soup later?

Use barley or other really bulky grains which are cheaper than rice?

Cheap veg like parsnip, swede, cabbages?

The list is endless of how you can manage that.

Where are you shopping that’s it’s £6 for 4 chicken thighs? Try Lidl or Aldi. I suspect a vegetarian diet is is the cheapest.

I would like these two but I suspect it’s not massively nutritious (and I don’t mean that judgementally I promise) it’s almost impossible to buy food to feed 5 people 7 main meals and 7 breakfasts for £70 - I’ve tried! I made myself stick to a budget of £80 recently and we had to eat a lot of frozen / tinned veg, barely any fruit, bread with lots of additives etc. Tonight we ate a chicken dish and it really wasn’t fancy but I found myself eating a really small portion so the OH didn’t moan that he hadn’t had enough protein - it was almost £6 just for 4 chicken thighs. £6 x 7 =£42.00. A pack of mince is at least a fiver £5 x 7 =£35.00. How are people eating fresh, nutritious meals for £70 a week? 😭

Between 5 people that’s probably only enough snacks for 2 days - sorry! My daughter eats a punnet of grapes and strawberries in 2 days and when you look at it in a bowl it’s only like 2-3 of your 5 a day. I would be stocking up on the cheaper stuff they’ll eat - bananas are really cheap so triple the amount you get. Biscuits in a triple pack is only maybe 45 biscuits so 4 biscuits a day per person is only going to last you 4 days etc and most of us can eat more than that. I’m sorry because it’s so depressing that food costs this much, get some cheaper snacks if you can and hide some of the stuff you like?

If they're all being fed at school, and you're buying food for evening meals and weekends too, then honestly don't feel bad. People don't need endless snacks.

Surely the qn tho is WHO is eating them? You mention a toddler, so assume they're not helping themselves. You're not. So how old are the other two kids and how much does DH take for work?

What ages are the people in your family and what kind of meals does this budget cater for

Must be nice!

Some people have to budget

You need to change to cheaper snacks.

Buy the packets of biscuits like custard creams, ginger biscuits and bourbon. They are free to eat, limitless. As are apples and oranges.

I used to buy one 'nice' snack per day for after school. That was usually something like a box of mini brownies, or a packet of jaffa cakes. Shared out. So you'd need 5 of those per week, at least. Those snacks were kept in a separate cupboard, and were off limits expect for 3:30 after school.
I encouraged them to eat things like apples and peanut butter, drink milk or make a sandwich, when hungry rather than berries and nice cakes which are pricey.

I spend a lot more than that each week. Ds2 eats a lot of protein for sports. I never run out of food, I just buy it again as soon as it's eaten.

I don't really buy 'snacks', we have a snack after school which is something like pitta and hummus or yoghurt and fruit. I buy apples, satsumas, bananas, kiwis, cucumber and carrots as snacks. My teen often makes himself a sandwich or bowl of cereal after school.

Can you give examples of what you buy / meals you make each week for £70 for 5 people?

Buy a waffle maker. I whip up batches of waffles and then freeze them. 2 for breakfast and then 10 or so in the freezer. SO easy to make and cheap as chips. Couple of eggs, flour, milk. I don't add sugar. The sweetness comes from whatever topping you use. Own brand golden syrup, jam etc.

£100-£130 for a family of 5 is fantastic, not sure you’ll get it below that. We spend about £200 a week for 4 of us. Not helped by autistic son’s food phases

DS1's preferences are complicated by autism affecting his preferences and inclination to get and eat food. He snacks on own brand "oatie" hobnob style biscuits which are fairly cheap and have a relatively decent amount of substance to them.

DS2 is more proactive and will do things like scrambled egg on toast or banana pancakes. Cheap, easy, nutritious and substantial.

Bananas are fine, but fruit isn't a cost effective way to fill a hole. It's better after dinner.

No such thing in our area, but might help some folk.

I'm aware that a peace sign isn't a full stop, not sure why you're linking the two. ✌️