Aibu to be annoyed the food shop disappears so quickly

I think it's pretty normal with large house hold, I just shop same time every week and put up with the moaning that we don't have anything to eat in between...

I don't understand what people spend so much on. We spend about £350 per month for 3 adults, £400 when the 4th is home from uni. Includes all household stuff like washing powder, loo roll. Includes a bit of booze. Includes everything including midweek milk, bread etc. Always feels like we have plenty. Maybe it's that we eat completely veggie/vegan, but does meat really make all that much difference? Genuinely asking as I'm flummoxed.

We have a back up (fully sealed) box in the garage so I unload half the snacks into that then drip them into the house

But just a smidge over one banana per person a week isn’t exactly a generous starting allowance

And best is good enough, stop beating yourself up

Ill admit Ive not RTWF , just your posts

How old are the ones who are eating you out of House and home? Because if over 6, time to get them on board to make the snacks

No cook tray bakes - 15s, rocky roads, rice crispy/ cornflake cakes - no cooking - micro wave the cheapest chocolate, stir in the rest of the ingredient - press into a tray - set - cut

If they like fruit cake or soreen, they will love bread pudding - that just so easy , filling and decidedly yummy and because you are using the ends of loaves, crusts etc - its pennies and can be cooked in an air fryer

When I was a child, around the time Jesus was born, money was extremely tight for the working classes, there was no money for snacks - unheard of, but as kids are kids we would come in from school starving and back then cakes, biscuits were homemade My mum worked as well so it was simple things made, put in the tin and we knew when they were gone, they were gone, so we did learn to eke them out . No fizz, it was half a gallon of squash bought on a Saturday - had to get three of us through the week

And I know that was then and this is now and children have high expectations of what they can eat , when they want , no idea of costs and what a struggle parents are having

Involving them in making cheap snacks will engage them and will help as well with teaching them about weights and measure, costing everything out , knowing how many each batch will make, how to make things that wee bit smaller so they "get more for their money "

Me and wee sister - by the age of 8 knew how to make toffee popcorn by ourselves with no supervision - possibly burned a few saucepans and if smoke alarms had been a thing would have set them off as well

Other home from school snacks was cheese and crackers , cheese crackers and jam if there had been any made ,

I think its already been advised - scrap the berries, they arent snacks, they are up there on the luxury end nowadays- unless they are out blackberrying ( which we did end of the summer holidays every year else no jam. Apples , pears and bananas and plums this time of year. Melon can still be got reasonably

I feel for parents now. 2 generations have worked so bloody hard, had kids late, mortgaged to the hilt, and now back where we were but with a 21st century lifestyle to fund

You as a mother are doing your best, dont ever forget that and ease off yourself a bit . Its bloody shite at the moment and I think its going to get a lot worse , so look at the wee tiny changes you can make now to get you through the harder times ahead

Grated mozzarella is a rip off, and I say that as someone who used to run their own pizza business. The 125g balls in liquid are cheaper and better, and you just have to chop them roughly, or even rip them into bits with your hands.

Couldn't agree more. We are mostly veggie too, I also filled people up on apple dahl and rice, grain stuffed peppers, eggs, and mac cheese with leeks in and tomatoes on top. There's a lemon cake to cut at, and some apples and bananas and yoghurt, packets of crumpets and nobody will be going to bed hungry.

Oh it can definitely be more expensive, especially cakes (but they taste so much better).
But it's equally possible to cook much much cheaper from scratch if you choose carefully.

We always overbuy on bananas - it's good to have a few going brown for cakes and pancakes.

I spend about £150 a week

breakfasts - cereal (weetabix / porridge / shredded wheat) or toast and fruit
lunch - two lunch boxes, cucumber, grapes, cheese, yoghurt, sandwich, juice or smoothie. Once a week packet or crisps, once a week penguin type bar.
dinners
s- roast chicken and veg and apple crumble (apples foraged)
m - spicy chicken flatbreads with tzatziki (leftover chicken)
t - pie and chips and variety of veg
w - jacket potatoes and home made chilli (with 5 different beans)
t - pasta, jarred sauce or cheese - garlic bread - salad
f - freezer night - breaded fish / goujons / oven chips and peas and sweetcorn
s - toad in the hole (2 sausages each) mash, broccoli, carrots, green beans

snacks
6 pack of crisps
proper corn pop corn
apples
bananas
grapes
oranges
iced gems
dried fruit
nuts

I have a tiered wicker basket stand for fruit and veg, the kind you’d find in a ye olde greengrocers. You really want stuff out of plastic, my house is made of stone and the utility is always cool so stuff will keep for ages although we normally get through it pretty fast. I have four dc between 10-15 and my answer to I’m hungry is always have a banana. At the weekend DC will easily get through two bunches of bananas, bag of apples and a bag of oranges a day. I love fruit too though and if I find lots of yellow sticker berries we’d each have a punnet (or two) for pudding.

Love rice and Dahl perfectly acceptable dinner.

Also people turn up their noses at soup for a meal. Ive seen it on here tons of times.

Good question about storage, perhaps they have big kitchens or fridges, we dont

But in terms of dietary intake and what is considered a good menu these days to serve up, Im constantly annoyed at some posters on this site who will pull apart an OPs menu because 'its boring', 'my kids wouldnt eat that', 'not enough protein', etc etc

When its perfectly good food. People think that you have to include all sorts of varying non seasonale often exotic foods. You dont. It might be nice but you dont need it.

Its not really about whether fish or chicken is on the menu or not, people think that eating simple home cooked foods, unless its swathed in tons of different styles, world foods, etc then its not good enough.

Jacket potatoes with fillings, things on toast, egg and cheese based meals, legumes and lentils and bean based dishes with rice and potatoes. All wholesome and nutritious.

Dinners for this week are,

Today: Garlic Honey & Thyme chicken thighs with homemade mashed potatoes, steamed green beans Brussel sprouts, broccoli and gravy.
Monday: One pot Chicken brocoli and cheesy leek pasta with garlic bread.
Tuesday: Cottage, haricot bean & lentil pie with buttered cabbage and green beans.
Wednesaday: Homemade Steak & mushroom pie with baked parmesan mash, carrots & peas.
Thursday: Gnocci, chicken and veg creamy soup with fresh foccacia.
Friday: Chicken & stuffing lattice with roasties, veg, yorkies and gravy.

Breakfast for the kids is either toast, porridge or wheat biscuits, fruit or/and yogurt.

I tend to have a lot of Greek yogurt, nuts, fruit about twice a day max and hm soup a bit especially in winter.

There are fixed things we have to buy for DS9 who has AFRID, food therapy is a daily event as well.

DH has a manual labouring job and cycles lots, DS17 is 6ft4 and goes to the gym, they both have 2 adult portions for dinners, I don't make their breakfasts or lunches but they take a good variety and will cook for their lunch if at home, egg based quick but filling meals. I tend to make flapjacks, cake bars or tray bakes rather than buy things unless they're on offer.

I do resent the increase, in 2020 we were spending about 130-150pw, now it's about £100 more. Food isn't something I've had to worry about since I was a child and I feel anxious atm about how much worse it's going to get and I'm not in a bad position in comparison to many but that worry doesn't go.

Thank you! I mean I feel like that's a decent meal but I'm comparing it to what I imagine others must be eating to spend £2/3/400 a week on food... Steak every night? I have no idea. I was brought up on wholesome vegetarian food so that's what I feed my kids, and it doesn't feel like we're missing out at all. We eat chicken or fish probably once a week.

It's fascinating really to see what others spend. I do buy berries for example but my kids are only little so a couple of punnets lasts a few days. Those buying 40 apples and bananas a week or whatever - where on earth do you store it all?!

This

plus I love tinned peaches as don’t like the skin on normal peaches and biting into them get so messy.

Tinned and cut into slices drained - stab with a fork Yum Yum

How do you make the coconut dish that sounds yummy?

If kids want 'snacks' let them buy them with their pocket money.

It would be interesting to hear what people are cooking to reach their total food bills for the week. So for us, weekday breakfasts are toast or cereal and fruit. Lunch 2 days a week (we're out the other days) for the toddler and me would be scrambled eggs on toast and chicken noodles or chicken with rice. Dinners would be something like:

• Monday - fish, rice and veg.
• Tuesday - pizza with veg/salad (swimming night).
• Wednesday - pork chops, potatoes, veg.
• Thursday - fish fingers, fries, veg.
• Friday - jacket potatoes with various fillings or toad-in-the-hole.

Then at the weekend, kids would have their usual toast for breakfast, we might have pancakes and bacon for brunch and dinner would be a roast. Sunday is usually pasta - spag bol, carbonara or pasta bake.

I don't find this plus basic snacks undoable on £140-150 per week. Admittedly, that's for 2 kids 8 and under, not teenagers, and I am an uninspired and unadventurous cook so not constantly trying new, exciting things.

I wish people wouldnt put dishes down as 'not super fancy food', this is partly what has caused a really negative food environment in this country and also what means people arent able to afford what they think they should be affording

A bowl of dhal, with rice and naan, followed by fruit and yoghurt is a substantial, healthy, tasty, wholesome balanced meal. Its superfoods and nothing to talk down. Be proud of what you provide for your kids and that they're eating fantastic food.

Admittedly, when we make homemade pizza, the kids like pepperoni and I'll push the boat out and go for goats cheese and red onion or prosciutto and rocket... which clearly pushes the cost up 😂. We do generally spend at least a couple of quid on grated mozzarella though and I end up buying yeast a lot as I can't find ours in the cupboard (ADHD and kitchen cupboards are currently a disaster zone!).

We're only one adult, one primary school child (but he eats like a teenager) and one toddler. All of us eat lunch at school/nursery. I generally spend about £50/week for home food, snack boxes, etc.
However, we don't tend to have many snacks at home. (We still have sweets left over from Halloween...) I rarely buy fruits out of season and usually shop at Aldi.

Agree

I find threads like this a bit mad. I'm a single parent and I spend about £60-£80 a week on groceries for myself and 3 kids at either Aldi or Asda. Granted we eat mainly vegetarian meals, but I feel like we eat really well and snacks are readily available. I always assume that the posters spending £££ on their supermarket shop every week must be buying loads of red meat and alcohol, or perhaps buying loads of brand named items or something.

OP - my tips for keeping the costs down are similar to others, buy more apples/pears/oranges/bananas and batch cook big pans of healthy, vegetarian based meals. Me and the kids just had big plates of coconut dhal with rice & naan breads, followed by tinned peaches and greek yoghurt for dessert. It might not be super fancy food, but everyone is full and it's relatively healthy!

Breakfast croissants with fruit and lunch was scrambled eggs, avocado, fried vine tomatoes and beans with toast. Snacks throughout the day have been apples, oranges, yoghurts, raisins and we shared some popcorn while we watched a movie. I think you're getting a really hard time on here and it's more than possible to feed your family well & healthily on a budget.

None of those snacks are very filling so they’re going to eat more. They’re all fairly high on the glycemic index so you’re hungry again really quickly. Try nuts, seeds, cottage cheese, cheese cubes etc with apple slices, grapes etc.

Ha ha. Yes carrots

my phone often does that

yes 6 lots and be one left over each packet

Passata is 60p a carton at Lidl, and mozzarella is 69p per 100g. I make sourdough pizza from scratch, and it costs a total of £3.00 for me, a 10 year old and a teenager (and we're greedy- that's a lot of pizza!) They won't countenance many toppings though- maybe £1 s worth of peppers roasted off in the oven, and I'll usually have half an aubergine and some capers if there are any.

Agree that it's often meat pushing prices up though- I'm vegetarian and we comfortably spend £90 a week on food, including 1/2 bottles of wine for me and cat food.

But people are very wedded to their meat....🤷‍♀️