Aibu to be annoyed the food shop disappears so quickly

I hide it! I’ve been known to put it in a locking box before. Sometimes it will live in my car boot. Sometimes under the bed.

OP, I’d up the fruit with cheaper ones like you’ve said and then you can keep the other snacky things the same or reduce and get a few more loaves of bread or more yoghurt and they can have toast for snacks. Or leftovers if you have any. I will buy some crisps or digestives or a bar of chocolate (or this week dh bought a cherry pie). We expect those to be treats to last a day maybe 2 and then back on fruit and toast.

Have a designated cupboard for snacks. Fill it with with bead,cheap marg,ditto jam, peanut butter plain biscuits, own brand cuppa soup,beans,tinned spaghetti, that sort of thing.
Tell them everything in else is off limits ,but can have as much toast or whatever from snack cupboard.
Where zi live we have a warehouse that sell food thet I'd nearing or past sell by date,crisps and other snacks like dried fruit, vegetable puffs and energy bars are pennies

Its definitely possible. We are 5 (3 massive sporty teens, Dh and me). We spend around £130-50. We do meal plan, cook from scratch, eat a lot things in season, batch cook, buy yellow label stickers stuff anf make soups and dstrws, eat lots of filling stuff like porridge, lentils, pulses. Have meat but not loads a md almost no UPF apart from some biscuits.

Yes same here, we just didnt have them. We didnt do pudding either unless it was special or perhaps on a sunday we had a tin of pineapple and 'dream topping'. Fancy

For the poster who talked about sweets, yes of course there were sweets but we didnt just sit and munch through them the way these punnets of fruit seem to be eaten on this thread. Its the mindlessness of it.

Perhaps you're reading it as 'snippy'?
I was answering your question but also clarifying that it's a general point. 🙃

Why do they have to have a banana every day? Whats that about?

Brilliant idea. And if they've scoffed all of theirs, no more (other than cheap sliced bread for toast, jam etc) until the next shop.

Perhaps you dont mean to but you're being very snippy

I didnt say or imply or even think that you need help budgeting, I was just interested in what you said and was chatting about it.

I agree with this. I know I sound like an old gimmer, but I very much didn't grow up snacking and we don't massively snack as a family even now (kids are teen / preteen). There's (cheaper) fruit, toast, cereal, cheapo yoghurts and tomatoes & cucumber available, but that's mostly it and they don't snack much actually.

Should of said
All adults in 20s and 50s
So not like I'm feeding children portions
And no eating out ,all meals at home

Family of 5 here , paying double that amount a week .
Not running out of things
The current cost of food and household products is astronomical
I can't do it on less than £250 a week
Food is our biggest expense

I don't need help budgeting however my point is that huge swathes or rural/island/remote communities have much more limited access to supermarkets.
Some just have Coops, some just have Coop or Tesco, a few have Coop, Tesco and Lidl. A lucky few who live a bit nearer bigger settlements will more access to cheaper shops (eg B and M), but for many rural/island dwellers that's once ot twice a year, if at all (if going away by car), because it's simply not worth the travelling cost. This is also in areas where fuel (petrol/diesel) and electricity costs are significantly higher. Not getting at you, just making the general point that it's not always as simple as using cheaper supermarkets.

To me per person in a week that's not much food. Especially for teens or people who do manual jobs/plenty exercise.

Half a punnet of grapes
Half pack of strawbs
2 milky ways
Half a pack of biscuits
Half a pack rice cakes
2 Maryland packs
And idk how many yog you bought?

It's not that much. I could eat that in two or three days and I don't eat a lot.

Because not everyone is obsessed with the UPF mantra

Nothing wrong with slices of bread and in any case lots of people eat wholemeal bread, so it may not be white flour in it.

You can freeze yoghurt so you could get the 1kg tubs and put individual serving sizes in the freezer and get it out per day

Snacks I have bought this week = zero! We just don't do snacks at all and never have done. Much cheaper!

I'd make the snacks cheaper and less attractive. When I was a kid it was an apple, an orange or if you were desperate a piece of toast with butter and marmite or peanut butter. We had three good meals a day. How much more do they genuinely need?

What do you buy as snacks? I don't buy snacky bits like crisps, biscuits, chocolate because they go so quickly and therefore aren't good value. Snacks in our house are fruit, yoghurt, toast, boiled eggs cheese, crackers, veggie sticks. Very dull but must save us about £20 p/w.

For a family that size, you're spending very little. Perhaps you need to up what you buy.

Well I thought of you earlier because I was in Home Bargains, which is meant to be cheap, and Ive been caught out before in terms of prices there, checked the flour to see what it was, its £1 for 1.5kg!!!!

Thats like nearly 50% more than Aldi/Lidl/Tesco/Sainsburys etc

I mean its still cheap when you cvonsider what you can make with it compared to shop bought cakes, pastries and pies but thats a massive difference.

What supermarkets do you have your way then?

And yes id have a rule that once the cookies are gone, they are gone. But fruit and veg are available.

But as an example - 6 bananas a week isn’t enough, I have to buy 12 per week for 2 kids. My boys get through one a day. And they’re not expensive. Make up some boxes of carrot sticks (60p a kilo for carrots) Same with apples, etc. doesn’t have to be the expensive snacks you buy more of.

Those little gu pudding jars that breed in the cupboard are perfect for this.

I’m sorry your feeling judged. I think when you are on a limited budget it’s really important that you shop to get the most value for money. I think little bento style snack boxes are good for this so you don’t buy the little wrapped bags of cookies buy a pack own brand and put in a cookie and some orange segments. Carrot sticks and houmous, apple slices and peanut butter type stuff and you’ll find your money goes further.